Some Handy Strategies for SAT Sentence Completion

The sentence completion component in SAT will offer you a sentence that has either one or two blanks and that/those have to be filled. The word(s) that best complete(s) the sentence must be correct. Some handy strategies

1. Plug in every choice and try Plug in all the answer choices in the blank(s) and see which one sounds the best. The test makers are clever enough to accommodate some choices that are very close, but you need to have an adept ear to pick out the one answer choice that sounds the best.
2. Read with extreme care Do not be in haste. Read the sentence with extra caution and pay special attention to every word. A prepositional phrase or a tiny fiendish word can entirely alter the meaning of the sentence. This becomes paramount in case of transitional words. Sometimes an innocuous looking word like not has the potency to twist the possible answer choice to its diametrically opposite one.
3. Two-Blank questions Instead of being petrified by two-blank questions, you should be excited, as they give you more triggers which can be used as navigation tools to reach the correct answer choice. In some cases, the second blank helps a lot. Suppose you are not able to zero-in on any particular answer choice for the first blank, then you can use the additional triggers to finalize an answer for the second blank. Thus, by able to find the best choice for the second blank, you are able to find the correct answer for the first blank also.
4. Focus on what you know Do not panic when you encounter an unfamiliar word. The key is to use what you know. Does the word have any prefix or suffix that you know? Do you know any familiar words that have the same root word? You will be surprised what you can determine about a word when you dissect it appropriately. If you can’t find success even after dissecting the word, don’t worry. You still have lots of other words in the answer choices that you do know and can work with. Since there are only five answer choices and you are able to eliminate four of them, Bingo! You have done pretty well. Also if you are confident that a particular answer choice is correct, even if you do not know a particular word in one of the answer choices, don’t get bogged down. Mark your answer and move on.

Apart from the above mentioned strategies, a good reading habit will definitely be useful. Work on enhancing your vocabulary. Practise a lot of questions before taking the official SAT. Keep visiting TCYonline.com for more tips and tricks on SAT. Remember, we here at TCY are committed to your success.