The SAT Sentence Completions: Basic Principles
As a first stepbefore you read the sentence as a wholesee how far you can get by using the words immediately before and after the blank, especially any phrases that include the blank.
Let's consider the following sentence to see how this chunk-eliminate-chunk-eliminate process works.
- Though he invariably took his time to consider carefully any new potential venture, once he made up his mind to invest the successful businessman moved quickly and ------- to exploit the opportunity.
Just that little bit of information allows us to eliminate choices A, C, and E. Now all we have to do is search for another clue to decide between the remaining choices B and D. The first few words of the sentence tell us that the businessman took his time and was careful, so we eliminate B and select the answer, choice D.
With shorter, easier sentences, you may not need to chop the sentence down like that. Read the longer sentences whole, however, only as a last resort.
The Two Types of Sentence Completion Clues: Direction Clues and Concept Clues
To find the main idea of a sentence, the two types of clues you can use are direction clues and concept clues. Direction clues are grammatical and relatively easy to spot and apply. If a sentence offers a direction cluenot all sentences dothis clue is often sufficient to select the answer.
A concept clue, as the name suggests, involves two or more related or contrasting concepts within a sentence. Concept clues are harder to spot than direction clues, but often come in handy on the more difficult questions.
A sentence will offer either a direction clue or a concept clue or both, so use whichever one presents itself. Let's take a closer look at each type.
Looking for Direction Clues
If we view the main idea of a sentence as having a flow or a direction, that direction can do one of three things:
- go to extremes
On the medium to difficult questions, direction reversals become more common. On the most difficult questions, you'll occasionally encounter a sentence whose direction goes to extremes, but the last variation is far less common than the other variations.
Here's an example of each possible direction a sentence can take. We'll look at the same basic sentence with different direction clues.
The direction continues:
- Faced with a seasoned champion as an opponent, the inexperienced fencer was frightened as well as ------- before his upcoming match.
The direction reverses:
- Faced with a seasoned champion as an opponent, the inexperienced fencer was frightened yet ------- before his upcoming match.
The direction goes to extremes:
- Faced with a seasoned champion as an opponent, the inexperienced fencer was frightened if not ------- before his upcoming match.
Before giving you a list of the different types of expressions that offer direction clues, the following brief drill will give you practice.
More on: SATs and Other Tests
From The RocketReview Revolution: The Ultimate Guide to the New SAT and the PSAT by Adam Robinson. Copyright © 2005. Used by arrangement with Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
If you'd like to buy this book, click here.