Key Takeaways — Sentence Completion Strategy
If English is your second (third or fourth! or even if it is your first) language as Indians, you might find sentence completion questions frustrating and difficult to solve. However, you can still improve your performance in sentence completion, and you needn’t have a gargantuan vocabulary to do it!
Here are a few strategies you can use in order to gain confidence and strengthen your score in sentence completion.
Understand the Big Picture
The first thing you have to do is read the sentence carefully looking for clues. There are always clues in the sentence that will point you to the right answer. Break down the complex sentences in your mind and arrange them in your own words. Paraphrasing will help you grasp quickly, what the sentence is talking about.
Identify Key Words/Phrase
In sentence completion, the missing words will usually be similar or opposite to key words in the sentence. Identify the conjunctions that indicate the relationship between clauses. These conjunctions may be straight-forward or in contrast, which specify the sentence’s direction.
Straight-forward conjunctions (and, since, additionally, because, moreover, similarly, thus, etc.) are used when one part of the sentence supports or elaborates on the other part. They continue in the same direction. The positive or negative connotation of what follows is not changed by these conjunctions.
Contrast conjunctions (but, yet, however, unfortunately, although, unless, despite, etc.) change the direction of the sentence. They indicate that the one part of the sentence contradicts the other part. The positive or negative connotation of the sentence is changed by these conjunctions. Knowing and using these conjunctions will help you determine which way the sentence completion question is going.
Key words and key phrases are the descriptors that lead to the meaning of the missing words.
Insert your own word
After spotting the key words and conjunctions relevant to the blank, use them to predict an answer. The prediction doesn’t have to be complex. Use a simple word that fits the sentence logically. The advantage of predicting is that you avoid the temptation of trying every option on its own which can take up valuable time in aptitude tests.
Attack the options
Now you are ready to quickly go through the options. Select the option that is closest to your prediction of correct answer. Eliminate those options that do not match your prediction. Suppose, if none of the options match your prediction, then go back and read the sentence and try to grasp the the meaning of the sentence.
Check your answer
This is the most important step in answering sentence completion questions correctly. Double-check your answer. This will give you confidence.
Ask yourself: Does the complete sentence make sense in context with how I earlier paraphrased it?
If you feel yourself saying yes, then mark the answer and move on. If you feel the answer is not making sense, then go back and reread the sentence and give it another shot.
Here’s how we used the above strategy in Q 1. IBM Part Test #1.
Sentence completion questions will be easy to conquer if you follow the above strategies. Look for what is directly implied in the sentence and not an ambiguous interpretation. The correct answer is the one most directly implied by the words in the sentence. Read the sentence literally and don’t be too creative. Paraphrasing long or complex sentences helps a lot in understanding the meaning of the sentence.
Last but not the least, it is always helpful to build your vocabulary by learning word roots.
Sentence completion is one of the most common and frequently asked questions in the verbal ability. These questions can be scoring if we take the necessary steps as mentioned above. This will help improve your overall performance which is necessary to crack aptitude tests and competitive examinations!
Click here to find more about our key takeaways which will help you solve aptitude questions in no time!
Please click that green heart below if you think others will find this helpful — thanks!
Follow our publication, by clicking on ‘follow’ button below, to get more updates!
