Idioms--are they worth your time?

[mahmood]

I dont know why people spend so much time on the idioms. they try to memorize loads and loads of them until they see the paper and realize that none of them had been asked in the paper. I know a person who had literally memorized the idioms contained in that exploring book, along with all the sentences. much to his dismay none of those appeared in the paper that he attempted that year.
I have taken the exam three times. I qualified it twice, including this year. the only time i failed(last year) was because of the essay paper. both the times before this year i scored more than fifty percent in the composition paper, which i think is a good score in that paper. I know people have scored higher on that paper but I wanted to mention it since a whole bunch of people here just want to pass that paper. I also wanted to mention that because I have never prepared i.e. memorized the idioms for that paper.
I have a simple reason for that. there are too many idioms. you will never be able to memorize all of them. even if you do it is doubtful if they will be asked at the examination. even more doubtful is the fact that you will remember them by the paper day. and the weightage in points ( i.e. 5 marks) is too small to allocate such a huge amount of time for them.
so instead of wasting that time on idioms, why not use it for some other stuff. you could use that to polish your essay writing skills, or precis writing skills, or comprehension skills, or other grammar skills. that way you could gain an edge in those sections of the paper and could possibly secure more than five marks than you would otherwise. your not giving much time to idioms will be nullified by that. you could possibly score higher that way than by rote learning the idioms.
i have tried it and i have been successful three times. maybe you will too if you follow my tip.

[jbkhan]

i need some guidance regarding the 'pair of words'.
considering the 2007 paper ,i dont think that 'exploring' is enough.
which book u think will b sufficient for this question?
and plz also give some tips regarding 'precis' and 'short essay'.


thanks in advance...

[mahmood]

I dont really know what you should do for that. but i think one of the best thing to prepare your "pair of words" from is from the old papers. those do not necessarily have to be CSS papers. they could be any papers, say, PMS or other competitive exams. also you find most of them being repeated. once you get through many of the papers i am sure you will be ready when the day for the final exam comes.