Strategies from Kaplan's book.

1. Sentence Completion Strategies
VEA Online
Briana Songer
2014

2. 1. Memorize and apply this strategy for answering
sentence completion questions:
 Step 1: Read the sentence for clue words
 Step 2: Predict the answer
 Step 3: Choose the best match
 Step 4: Put the answer choice back into the sentence and
read aloud
2. How to avoid tricky wrong answers, figure out tough
vocabulary, and guess intelligently.

3.  A. ONE-BLANK SENTENCE COMPLETIONS
The word you are looking for to fill the blank will have
three potential relationships as a whole:
1. Definition (similar meaning to key word in sentence)
2. Contrast (a contrasting word to a key word in
sentence)
3. Cause and Effect (makes sense in the context of
sentence)

4. B. TWO-BLANK SENTENCE COMPLETIONS
In two-blank sentence completions, the relationships
between the words will relate to each other in three
ways:
1. Definition
2. Contrast
3. Cause and Effect (both make sense in the context of
the sentence)
*Note: Both words must fit in the sentence. If one word
fits and the other doesn’t, the answer is incorrect

5. Step 1: Read the sentence for CLUE WORDS:
 BUT, ALTHOUGH, EXCEPT, EVEN THOUGH, DESPITE,
HOWEVER etc (expect a contrast in the next part of the
sentence)
 AND, MOREOVER, ADDITIONALLY, FURTHERMORE,
SUCH AS (expect a continuation of the same idea)
Example: The king’s __________________decisions as a
diplomat and administrator led to his legendary reputation as
a just and _________ruler. (continuation)
Example: The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s
quickly _____________the popular imagination, but the
precise significance of the scrolls is still ___________by
scholars. (contrast)

6. Step 2: Predict the answer
Memorizing vocabulary by categorizations of simple words will
help you with the strategy. Try to guess the general idea of what
word makes sense in the sentence BEFORE looking at the answers.
Think about whether you need a pair of synonyms or antonyms if
there are two blanks.
Example:
The king’s __________________good/smart
decisions as a diplomat and
administrator led to his legendary reputation as a just and
_________fair
ruler. (continuation)
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s quickly
_____________interested
the popular imagination, but the precise
significance of the scrolls is still ___________unknown
by scholars. (contrast)

7. STEP 3: CHOOSE THE BEST OPTION
Compare your prediction to each answer. Read every choice
before deciding.
Example 1:
The king’s __________________decisions as a diplomat and
administrator led to his legendary reputation as a just and
_________ruler. (continuation)
A. quick…capricious
B. equitable…wise
C. immoral…perceptive
D. generous…witty
E. clever…uneducated

8. You should be looking for two words with similar meaning, both
positive.
 In A. quick and capricious are not necessarily positive, and they
are not similar in meaning (capricious means erratic)
 In B. equitable means fair. Equitable and wise are similar, and
they’re both positive, so B. seems like the right answer, but make
sure to check out the other answers first.
 In C. immoral and perceptive are not similar at all; moreover,
perceptive is positive, but immoral is not.
 In D. generous and witty are both positive, but they are not very
similar, and they don’t make sense in the sentence.
 In E., clever and uneducated aren’t similar, and clever is positive,
but uneducated isn’t.
 Thus, B is the best match.

9. Example 2:
 The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s
quickly _____________the popular imagination, but
the precise significance of the scrolls is still
___________by scholars. (contrast)
A. impressed…understood
B. alarmed…obscured
C. troubled…perceived
D. sparked…disputed
E. eluded…debated

10.  The word but indicates contrast, and the first is positive
and the second is negative (in that exact order).
 In A. impressed could be the answer, but understood is not
a contrast.
 In B. both alarmed and obscured are negative
 In C. troubled is negative, so that’s out.
 In D. makes the most sense with the word interested and
imagination. The contrast of disputed (they haven’t come to
an agreement), indicates that this is the perfect answer. So
this is the best choice. But still read answer E.
 In E. eluded and debated are not opposite in meaning.

11.  PUT THE ANSWER CHOICE BACK INTO THE
SENTENCE.
 Read the sentence aloud to yourself with your answer
choice. If you’ve gone through the four steps and more
than one choice still looks possible, eliminate the
choices that you can, guess from the remaining choices
and move on.
 If all the choices look great or terrible, circle question
and come back to it later or leave it blank entirely.
Remember that you will be penalized ¼ of a point for
answering incorrectly, so guess intelligently! If you can
narrow it down to two answers, then go ahead and
guess.

12.  Sentence Completions go from easiest to hardest,
though some sections will start with medium-difficulty
questions.
 The higher the question number, the harder the
question.
IF YOU GET STUCK….
 Avoid tricky wrong answers.
 Take apart tough sentences.
 Work around tough vocabulary.
 If all else fails, guess intelligently.

13. Toward the end of the set, watch out for tricky answer
choices. Avoid the following:
 Opposites of the correct answer
 Words that sound right just because they’re hard
 Two-blankers in which one word fits but the other
doesn’t
Go the example on the next slide.

14. Granted, Janyce is extremely ___________; still, it is difficult
to imagine her as a professional comedian.
A. dull
B. garrulous
C. effusive
D. conservative
E. witty
Read the sentence carefully or you might get tricked. If you
read too quickly, you might think “If Janyce is hard to
imagines as a comedian, she’s probably extremely dully or
conservative”. But the sentence is saying something else.

15.  Remember to focus on the clues:
Granted, Janyce is extremely ___________; still, it is difficult to imagine
her as a professional comedian.
-granted (can admit something, in this case substitute even though)
-still (although, but)
 So, it’s like saying “Sure Janyce is very funny, but I still can’t imagine her
being a comedian”. Therefore the word int eh blank must resemble
funny. So, witty is the correct answer.
 Don’t pick garrulous or effusive just because it sound impressive.
Garrulous means talkative and effusive means expressive.

16. Some sentences are difficult because they seem to lack sufficient context to find
the correct answer.
Example:
Although this small and selective publishing house is famous for its ______
standards, several of its recent novels have appealed to the general public.
A. proletarian
B. naturalistic
C. discriminating
D. imitative
E. precarious
This sentence is vague and the choices are advanced adjectives. What sort of
publishing house is it? It’s not clear immediately.
Sometimes the only thing to do is plug in all the words and make the best guess.
Here we are looking for a word that describes standards that would keep the
publisher from publishing books that the public likes.

17.  A. Proletarian standards? Hmmm..this means
characteristic of the working class, so in fact, it’s the
opposite of what we need.
 B. Naturalistic standards? Not great. It doesn’t seem to
contrast popular.
 C. Discriminating standards? Seems to fit. If the publisher
is discriminating, it is very selective and would probably
not publish books that are popular with the public.
 Imitative standards? Sounds weird and doesn’t make sense.
 Precarious standards? Nope. This means uncertain or
unclear, so it doesn’t make sense.

18.  Try to break down this example. Choice the easier blank
first if one of the blanks is vague:
These latest employment statistics from the present
administration are so loosely documented, carelessly
explained, and potentially misleading that even the most
loyal senators will __________the __________of the
presidential appointees who produced them.
A. perceive…intelligence
B. understand…tenacity
C. recognize…incompetence
D. praise…rigor
E. denounce…loyalty

19.  Fortunately you can use the context of the sentence to guess,
even if you don’t know some words. Look at this example:
 Despite her _____of public speaking experience, the student
council member was surprisingly cognant and expressed the
concerns of her classmates persuasively.
A. hope
B. depth
C. method
D. lack
E. union
Clue words: despite, and, surprisingly.=looking for contrast. If you
don’t know the word cognate, work around it. She expresses the
needs and is persuasive, so we need an opposite/negative=D-lack.

20.  You will have 30 minutes to answer 24 sentence
completion questions.
 Teacher distribute practice questions and keep track of
time.
(Kaplan, pg 207-210).