Matching, completion, and the last five minutes
Matching headings — match the function, not the word
- You are given more headings than paragraphs and asked which heading fits each paragraph.
- ⚠ The trap is matching a word. A heading containing pollution and a paragraph containing pollution is the pairing the test expects you to make wrongly.
- Ask instead: what is this paragraph doing? Introducing a problem, giving its history, presenting evidence against, drawing a conclusion, naming an exception.
- The first and last sentences carry the paragraph's function far more often than the middle does.
- Do the ones you are sure of first and cross those headings off. Eliminating is faster than matching, and two headings will always be near-synonyms — decide between those two last.
A heading and a paragraph share the word 'pollution'. What does that tell you?
The shared word is usually the trap. Ask what the paragraph is DOING — introducing, arguing against, concluding — and the first and last sentences usually say.
Matching information — the one that does not follow order
- Which paragraph contains… is the only common task type where the answers are not in passage order, and a paragraph can be used more than once.
- Leave it until last. By the time you have done the other tasks you know where things are, and this one is then quick.
- Look for the specific thing named — an example, a comparison, a date, a reason, a definition — not the topic. Every paragraph is about the topic.
- ⚠ Do not read the whole passage again. Read your own annotations.
Which task type's answers are NOT in passage order?
Matching information is the exception, and a paragraph can be used more than once. Leave it until last, when you already know where things are.
Matching features and sentence endings
- Matching features pairs statements with people, places or studies. Underline every name in the passage first: names are the fastest thing on a page to find, and once they are marked the task is mechanical.
- A name can be used more than once, or not at all, and the instruction says which.
- Matching sentence endings is a grammar task as much as a meaning one. Only some endings fit each beginning grammatically, and ruling those out cuts the list before you think about content at all.
- Read the beginning, decide what kind of word or clause must follow, then look only at the endings that could.
Completion — read the grammar of the gap
- Sentence, summary, note, table, flow-chart and diagram completion all work the same way.
- Before you look for the answer, decide what kind of word the gap needs. After a, a singular countable noun. After have been, a past participle. After the, a noun. This alone eliminates most wrong candidates.
- Words come from the passage, unchanged. Do not substitute a synonym of your own; most completion tasks mark that wrong.
- Obey the word limit. Three words where two are allowed is wrong even when the idea is right.
- If a box of options is given, the answer is in the box — and the box will hold words that fit the grammar but not the meaning.
'The samples were ______ in a sealed container.' What form must the answer take?
'Were' forces a past participle — stored, kept, placed. Deciding this before you search eliminates most wrong candidates.
In summary completion it is safer to use your own synonym than the passage's word.
The opposite. Most completion tasks require the word from the passage, unchanged, and a substituted synonym is marked wrong.
Choosing where to spend the last five minutes
- Go back to the questions you marked, in this order: completion first (they have one findable answer), then multiple choice, then TFNG.
- TFNG last, because re-reading changes your mind more often than it corrects you, and the third option means a guess already pays.
- Fill every blank. No penalty, and a blank is a mark you chose to give away.
- Then check the numbering on the answer sheet. A one-line slip costs every answer after it, and it is the only error in this exam that can cost you ten marks at once.
In the last five minutes, which order should you revisit marked questions in?
TFNG last, because re-reading changes your mind more often than it corrects you. The numbering check is last of all: a one-line slip costs every answer after it.