Your ear is right about almost everything
You have spoken English for years and you do not consciously apply rules — you hear that something is wrong. That instinct is right the overwhelming majority of the time, which is good news. The bad news is that questions are not set where the ear works. They are set at the handful of places where it reliably fails, and that handful is short enough to learn.
Where the ear fails
Distance between subject and verb. The set of drawings is on the table — not are. The verb agrees with set, not with drawings, but drawings is sitting right next to the verb and your ear grabs the nearest noun. Anything of the form the [singular] of [plurals] is a trap.
Neither / nor and either / or. The verb agrees with the nearer subject. Neither the drawings nor the model was finished. Nobody hears this correctly; everybody must know the rule.
Each, every, none. Singular, all of them, however plural the surroundings feel.
Dangling modifiers. Walking into the studio, the light was extraordinary. Grammatically, the light walked in. Your ear lets this pass because you know what was meant — which is exactly why it is examinable.
Between / among, fewer / less, who / whom. Small, memorisable, routinely wrong.
That is close to the whole list. It is short because it must be: only rules the ear gets wrong are worth setting a question on.
Read the option aloud, in your head, slowly
The technique that beats knowing rules, and it is nearly free.
When the ear fails, it usually fails because of speed and distance — the wrong noun was closest, the modifier was far from what it modified. So slow down and strip the sentence to its bones: find the actual subject, find the actual verb, and put them next to each other.
The set of drawings submitted by the students in the studio is complete. Strip it: the set is complete. Obvious now. Every intervening word was there to drag your ear toward students or drawings.
That single operation — delete the middle, hear what is left — resolves most agreement questions in about five seconds, without knowing any rule by name. It is the grammatical version of squinting: throw away the detail and look at the structure.
And it is worth practising precisely because it does not require you to remember anything under pressure. Recall is fragile at 108 seconds; a procedure is not.
Meaning is a grammar test too
One habit that catches a specific and nasty distractor: check that the option still means the same thing.
Neither the drawings nor the model has finished on time. Grammatically that is arguable. Semantically it is nonsense — the model did not finish anything; it was finished. The option corrected the grammar and broke the meaning.
This is common enough to be worth a deliberate check. An option can be grammatically defensible and still wrong because it says something the original did not, or something absurd. Since the question is usually which sentence is correct? rather than which grammar rule is satisfied?, meaning counts.
So the sequence, and it fits inside 108 seconds: strip to subject and verb; check agreement; then reread the winning option and ask whether it still says what it meant to say. That last step takes three seconds and catches the distractor built for people who stopped at the grammar.
The rules behind this
Sourced to the official brochure rather than restated here, so there is one place to correct when the Council revises it.
Part B examines six named areas: Visual Reasoning, Logical Derivation, General Knowledge/Architecture and Design, Language Interpretation, Design Sensitivity and Thinking, and Numerical Ability.
Visual Reasoning — understanding and reconstructing 2D and 3D composition. Logical Derivation — decoding a situation or context and drawing conclusions. General Knowledge, Architecture and Design — current issues, important buildings, historical progression, innovation in materials and construction. Language Interpretation — meaning of words and sentences, English grammar. Design Sensitivity and Thinking — observing and analysing people, space, product, environment; semantics, metaphor, problem identification. Numerical Ability — basic mathematics and its association with creative thinking; unfolding space using geometry.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
Part B allows 108 seconds per question, presented one after another, on an adaptive engine.
90 minutes across 50 questions. The adaptive structure dates to NATA 2025 per the President's foreword in V2.0, which states that NATA 2026 continues it.
Source · verified 2026-07-16
What almost everyone believes
“Grammar questions need me to relearn English grammar properly.”
Your ear is right about almost everything. Questions are only set where the ear reliably fails, and that is a short list you can learn in an afternoon.
Setting a question where the ear already works would examine nothing, so the whole area concentrates on about six places — subject-verb distance, neither/nor, each/every/none, dangling modifiers, and a few pairs. Treating this as a call to relearn grammar wholesale spends weeks buying almost nothing, while the actual list goes unlearned. And the stripping technique beats rule-recall anyway, because a procedure survives 108 seconds of pressure and recall does not.
Depending on how long you have
Foundation
Understand the skill. Months out, or starting from zero.
Learn the short list properly, once — subject-verb distance, neither/nor, each/every/none, dangling modifiers, between/among, fewer/less, who/whom. It is an afternoon's work and it covers most of what can be asked, because only rules the ear gets wrong are worth examining.
Drill
The practice protocol. What to repeat, how often, how to score it.
Practise stripping rather than remembering: delete everything between subject and verb, then listen. It resolves most agreement questions in five seconds and needs no recall, which matters because recall is what fails under a clock. Then reread the winner and check the meaning survived.
Exam-Day
What to actually do under the constraint — 108 seconds, no instruments, one pass.
Trust your ear everywhere except the short list — that is where the questions live. Strip the sentence to subject and verb. And before committing, reread the option and ask whether it still says what it meant: the nastiest distractor fixes the grammar and breaks the sense.
Try it
Ten minutes. Strip each one before deciding.
- 01The set of drawings submitted by the students (is/are) complete.
- 02Neither the models nor the drawing (was/were) finished.
- 03Each of the twelve studios (has/have) its own window.
- 04Walking into the studio, the light was extraordinary. — what is wrong, and who is walking?
- 05For each: delete everything between subject and verb, then listen. Then reread your answer and check it still means what it meant.
The short version
Your ear is right nearly always, so questions are only set where it fails — a short list: subject-verb distance, neither/nor taking the nearer subject, each/every/none singular, dangling modifiers, and a few pairs. Learn it once. Then use a procedure rather than recall: strip the sentence to subject and verb, delete the middle, and listen to what is left. Finally reread the winner and check the meaning survived, because the nastiest distractor fixes the grammar and breaks the sense.
Next: reading fast enough for 108 seconds without losing what the passage actually said.
Questions people actually ask
- What grammar is actually tested in NATA?
- The bulletin says only 'meaning of words/sentences, English grammar'. In practice, questions can only be set where the ear reliably fails: subject-verb agreement across distance, neither/nor and either/or taking the nearer subject, each/every/none being singular, dangling modifiers, and pairs like between/among, fewer/less, who/whom.
- Is it 'neither the drawings nor the model was finished' or 'were finished'?
- Was. With neither/nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject, and 'the model' is singular. Nobody hears this correctly, which is exactly why it is examinable — the rule has to be known rather than felt.
- How do I check subject-verb agreement quickly?
- Strip the sentence: delete everything between the subject and the verb, then listen. 'The set of drawings submitted by the students in the studio is complete' becomes 'the set is complete' — obvious. Every intervening word was there to drag your ear toward the nearest noun. The procedure takes five seconds and needs no recall.