SAT Sentence Completion Tutorial – Part 2

OK. Now that we’ve seen how the Critical Reading Sentence Completions work when there’s only 1 blank, let’s look at sentences with 2 blanks.

The most important thing to know is that the sentences with 2 blanks aren’t that different than those with only 1.

One of the blanks is usually easier. Start with that one, and do the same steps we used for the sentences with 1 blank.

If you haven’t read that post recently, here are the steps.

• Read the sentence. Don’t look at the answers yet.
• Choose a word or phrase on your own that more or less fits in the blank. There’s often a word or a phrase in the sentence that does the trick.
• If you can’t think of a word or phrase, decide whether it’s positive or negative, good or bad.
• Now look at the answers. Use the process of elimination. Cross off any answer choices that don’t work. If you don’t know the word, leave it in.
• At this point you may know the answer. If you don’t, and you crossed out at least 2 choices, ask yourself if you have an educated guess.

You can usually rule out several answer choices this way, by ruling out one word or the other.

Then you repeat the process with the second blank.

Occasionally in a 2 blank sentence, they can’t be figured out on their own.

When that happens, it’s almost always the case that one of the blanks will have a positive word, and the other will have a negative word.

Decide which is which, and use the process of elimination.

If that’s a little confusing, don’t worry. It will make a lot more sense when we look at the examples.

Here’s an easy sentence with 2 blanks. On a difficulty scale of 1 – 5, where 1 is easiest and 5 is hardest, this is a level 1.

Scientific discoveries are often thought of as the result
of ——- effort, but many discoveries have, in fact,
arisen from ——- or a mistake.

Which blank is easier for you? For me they’re about equal, so I’ll start with the first one.

Can you think of a word or phrase that might go in the first blank?

It’s a positive word, and we know from the sentence that it means something like “strong” or “consistent”.

Let’s look at the answer choices.

(A) conscientious . . a method
(B) incidental . . a mishap
(C) collaborative . . a design
(D) persistent . . an extension
(E) systematic . . an accident

All the words in the first column are positive, except for B, incidental. We cross out that answer choice. Now we have this.

(A) conscientious . . a method
(B) incidental . . a mishap
(C) collaborative . . a design
(D) persistent . . an extension
(E) systematic . . an accident

Now looking at the second blank, we can tell that it means something like “mistake”.

It’s an easy question, so you probably know it already.

You can see that while “mishap” means something like “mistake”, we’ve already crossed it out, so B can’t be our answer.

The only remaining word in the second column that means something close to “mistake” is “accident”.

The answer is E, systematic… an accident.

Here’s an moderately difficult sentence with 2 blanks. On a scale of 1 – 5, this is a level 3, right in the middle.

Much of this band’s current CD, unfortunately, is ——-,
with ——- song often immediately following a sublime one.

Why is this question moderately difficult? Because of the word “sublime”.

Let’s assume you don’t know it, or aren’t sure what it means.

You’d have to start with the first blank. We can tell from the word “unfortunately” that the word in the first blank has to be negative.

Now we’ll look at the answer choices.

(A) mystical . . a superior
(B) uneven . . a mediocre
(C) predictable . . an eloquent
(D) enthralling . . a vapid
(E) flippant . . an intelligible

We’ll cross out the choices where the words in the first column aren’t negative. Since we’re talking about music, I hope you’d think predictable is negative.

So now we have this.

(A) mystical . . a superior
(B) uneven . . a mediocre
(C) predictable . . an eloquent
(D) enthralling . . a vapid
(E) flippant . . an intelligible

Now, if you know that “sublime” means “really, really good”, or even if you have a gut feeling that it’s a positive word, it’s easy at this point.

The word in the second blank has to mean something that’s not good, and the only word that works is “mediocre”.

If you don’t have at least a good guess at “sublime”, you might choose to skip this question.

The answer is B, uneven… a mediocre.

Finally, let’s look at a hard 2 blank sentence that’s a level 5.

Despite their patent ——-, some beliefs have become
so ——- that no amount of rational argument
will suffice to eradicate them.

Now, I’ll admit that this sentence looks hard at first glance.

Remember the sentence in the previous post where we ignored the word “arboreal” and made the sentence a lot easier?

We’re going to do the same thing here, and make this sentence a lot easier than it seems.

If we just read the first part, “Despite their patent _____,” anything could go in that blank.

That tells us that we have to focus on the second blank. In fact, for now, we’ll ignore the first part of the sentence completely. Lightly cross it out with your pencil.

We’re left with this.

Despite their patent ——-, some beliefs have become
so ——- that no amount of rational argument
will suffice to eradicate them.

We can even think of the sentence this way.

Some beliefs have become so ——- that no amount of rational argument will suffice to eradicate them.

Still hard? We can ignore “suffice”. Cross that out and we have this.

Some beliefs have become so ——- that no amount of rational argument will suffice to eradicate them.

Now let’s look at the answer choices.

(A) validity . . inconsequential
(B) implausibility . . entrenched
(C) credibility . . prevalent
(D) absurdity . . outmoded
(E) novelty . . infrequent

You still have to know, or have a good guess, what “eradicate” means.

But if you know that it means something like “put an end to” or “wipe out”, you can eliminate words from the second column.

If you can’t wipe out a belief, it has to be strongly believed in by a lot of people.

Using the process of elimination, we’re left with this.

(A) validity . . inconsequential
(B) implausibility . . entrenched
(C) credibility . . prevalent
(D) absurdity . . outmoded
(E) novelty . . infrequent

Going back to the original sentence, we can leave “patent” crossed out if we don’t know it, and we now have this.

Despite their patent ——-, some beliefs have become
so ——- that no amount of rational argument
will suffice to eradicate them.

(A) validity . . inconsequential
(B) implausibility . . entrenched
(C) credibility . . prevalent
(D) absurdity . . outmoded
(E) novelty . . infrequent

If you’ve gotten this far, you probably know that the answer is B, implausibility… entrenched.

OK. That’s how to do Sentence Completion questions.

You might have to practice it a few times, but this stuff really works.

I’m sure you can see that while vocabulary does matter, you can really maximize the vocabulary you know by practicing a few simple methods.

Your next step is to download this year’s Free Official SAT Practice Test from the College Board and put what you’ve learned to work.

I’ll be back soon with an explanation of all the Sentence Completion questions on that test so you can see how well you’re doing.