The best way to get the five-step SC process down cold is to practice. To that end, we give you examples of every type of SC under the sun: one-blankers, two-blankers, one-way, two-way, every single possible combination.

There are four different types of SCs.

Through the rest of this chapter we give you examples of each type, sometimes more than one. We then work out each example according to our five-step process.

About a third of the SAT SCs are one-blank/one-way. That’s good news. They’re the simplest type. Because the flow is one way, the blank will agree with the rest of the sentence. One-blank/one-way SCs almost never contain switch words.

There are two basic one-blank/one-way varieties:

Want some examples of what these actually look like? You got ’em.

This sentence contains no switch and isn’t about a change over time, so it must be one-way.

Since the sentence is one-way, the blank must agree with the rest of the sentence. Well, what’s the blank about? It refers to the size of the waves. Meanwhile, the rest of the sentence refers to the fact that the waves terrified the surfers.

You know that the waves have to be the kind of waves that could terrify the surfers. What kind of waves could do that? How about really big waves.

Now go to the answer choices and find the one that matches up with the answer you created just from looking at the sentence.

The answer that seems to match really big best is C, tremendous.

The last step. Plug the choice you think is the answer back into the sentence.

Works perfectly. You’re done.

This sentence contains no switch and isn’t about a change over time, so it must be one-way.

Since the sentence is one way, the blank must agree with the rest of the sentence. What’s the blank about? It describes the CEO’s speeches. The rest of the sentence also describes the speeches by saying that the CEO “seemed unable to put together a coherent sentence.”

Since the sentence is one way, you know that the blank describing the CEO’s speeches must support the idea that she can’t put together a coherent sentence. In other words, the CEO’s speeches must be bad.

Now go to the answer choices and find the one that matches up with the answer you created just from looking at the sentence.

So, the CEO’s speeches are bad. Which words in the answer choices fit the idea of a bad speech? A and E don’t. They’re positive words. Voluminous means big (based on the root “volume”). Cut voluminous. That leaves timid and inarticulate. Both of those words are negative, but inarticulate is specifically used for describing a bad speaker. So, inarticulate seems like the best answer.

Even if you didn’t know the vocab, you still should have been able to use Word Charge to eliminate one, two, or even three of the answer choices.

The last step. Plug the choice you think is the answer back into the sentence.

This sentence contains no switch and isn’t about a change over time, so it must be one-way.

Since the sentence is one-way, the blank must agree with the rest of the sentence. What’s the blank about? How the team is perceived. The rest of the sentence also describes how the team is perceived—as “unmatched in skill or determination.”

Since the sentence is one-way, you know that the blank describing the team must fit with the fact that many people believe that the team is “unmatched in skill or determination.” In other words, Hector must be extremely good.

Now go to the answer choices and find the one that matches up with the answer you created just from looking at the sentence.

You’re looking for an answer choice that fits with the phrase extremely good, a very positive word. You should be able to eliminate middling, since it contains the root middle, which is the embodiment of average. You should also be able to eliminate destructive, since it’s a negative term. That leaves artistic, quiescent, and invincible. Artistic is a positive term but has little to do with team sports, the subject of the sentence. Quiescent means “quiet and calm,” which also does not fit with the sports theme of the sentence. That leaves invincible, which means “cannot be defeated,” a perfect fit for the idea of an extremely good team.

Once again, even if you didn’t know all the vocab words, you could have cut several answers using Word Charge, putting you in a stronger position to guess.

Plug the choice you think is the answer back into the sentence.

This five-step method is quickly making you invincible.

On these SCs, the blank contrasts with the main idea of another clause in the sentence. Most one-blank/two-way sentences contain a switch that signals the contrast in the sentence. A few examples that convey a change over time will not contain a switch. We provide examples of both.

This sentence contains the two-way switch but. That means it must be two-way.

Since the sentence is two-way, the blank must contrast with the main ideas expressed in the rest of the sentence. The rest of the sentence describes how other people found Christina’s pranks “annoying and juvenile.” That means Christina’s view of her pranks must contrast or oppose that perspective.

Since the sentence is two-way, you know that the blank describing Christina’s view of her pranks must contrast with the common view of her actions, which is that they were “annoying and juvenile.” So, to contrast “annoying and juvenile,” maybe Christina thinks that her pranks are funny and playful.

Now go to the answer choices and find which one of them matches up with the answer you created just from looking at the sentence.

You’re looking for an answer choice that fits with the phrase funny and playful, which is positive. You should be able to eliminate angry and trite (“corny”), since those are both negative. That leaves hilarious, colossal, and new. Hilarious is positive and means “extremely funny,” so it’s a very strong choice. Colossal has the same root as colossus and means “very big.” It doesn’t make much sense in a sentence that’s about pranks or as a contrast to “annoying and juvenile.” New is a positive word, but it also doesn’t make sense as a contrast to “annoying and juvenile.” Hilarious is the best choice.

Even if you didn’t know all the vocab words, you should at least have been able to eliminate angry through Word Charge and new through the context of the sentence.

Plug the choice you think is the answer back into the sentence.

This sentence contains no switch. However, the sentence does describe a change over time. Remember: Change-over-time sentences flow two ways even though they contain no switch.

Since the sentence is two-way, the blank must contrast with the ideas expressed in the rest of the sentence. The rest of the sentence describes how the idea of the earth revolving around the sun is accepted now “by virtually everyone.” That means the blank must contrast with, or oppose, the idea that the earth revolving around the sun is widely accepted.

Since the sentence is two-way, you know that the blank describing the old view of the theory must contrast with the current widespread acceptance of it. Previously, the theory must have been not believed.

Now go to the answer choices and find the one that matches up with the answer you created just from looking at the sentence.

You’re looking for an answer choice that fits with the phrase not believed, which is negative. Go down the list. Terrific is positive. So is pleasant, esteemed, and beloved. So controversial must be the answer. And it is.

You should note, though, that not believed and controversial really don’t mean the same thing. Something that is controversial is believed by some people and not by others. That’s the definition of a controversy: It’s an argument between two passionate sides. Here’s the lesson to learn from this example: When you make up your own answer, you should be flexible with it. If you find an answer choice that matches it exactly, awesome. If you don’t, look for an answer choice that matches your answer’s Word Charge and fits the context of the sentence.

Plug the choice you think is the answer back into the sentence.

Two-blank/one-way sentences sometimes contain switches like and, because, since, so, and therefore. Many two-blank/one-way sentences don’t contain any switch at all.

Two-blank/one-way sentences come in two basic forms: blanks close together and blanks far apart. With blanks close together, you need to look at the half of the sentence that does not contain the blanks; with blanks far apart, you need to use clues from both halves of the sentence. That’s the key difference between the two kinds of two-blank/one-way SCs.

Also note that with two-blank sentences, you have to take into account how both blanks function in the sentence when you’re working on step 2.

This sentence contains no switch word and doesn’t describe a change over time. That means it’s one-way.

Since the sentence is one-way, both blanks must support the ideas expressed in the rest of the sentence. The rest of the sentence describes the explorer as intrepid and then says that even the explorer never again ventured into the tundra. That means the first blank must describe conditions that would convince even a bold explorer never to venture out again.

The second blank describes what the conditions did to the explorer to convince him never to venture out into the tundra again.

Since the sentence is two-way, you know that the blanks describing the conditions and what happened to the intrepid explorer must agree with the fact that he never again went out into the tundra. Would the explorer have refused to go back into the tundra if the conditions were nice? That wouldn’t make sense. The conditions must have been terrible. And what would terrible conditions have done to the explorer? Scared him, or perhaps even injured him.

Now go to the answer choices and find the one that matches up with the answer you created just from looking at the sentence.

You’re looking for two answer choices that fit with the words terrible and scared, both of which are negative. By Word Charge, you should be able to eliminate B, D, and E, since each of those pairs of words contains at least one word that’s positive. Between A, destructive..angered, and C, harsh..terrified, answer C seems much stronger, since terrified is such a close fit with scared.

Plug the choice you think is the answer back into the sentence.

This sentence contains the one-way switch and. It must be one-way.

Since the sentence is one-way, both blanks must agree with the rest of the sentence. The rest of the sentence describes what sort of musician Eichen became. The first blank is about Eichen being a musician at a very young age.

The second blank describes what sort of performer Eichen became as an adult. The rest of the sentence describes what sort of musician he was as a child.

The interesting thing about this sentence is that the two blanks refer to each other. That may make the sentence seem difficult to solve, since each blank stops you from guessing whether the other should be positive or negative. But since the sentence is one-way, you already do know something about the two blanks. Either they’re both positive, or they’re both negative. Either he was great as a boy and great as a man, or he was bad as a boy and bad as a man.

or

Now go to the answer choices and find the one that matches up with the answer you created just from looking at the sentence.

None of the answer choices have two negatively charged pairs, so you don’t have to worry about that. What you’re looking for then, is a match for great..wonderful. You can eliminate A, C, and E, since tremulous, rigid, and grave all have negative charge. Now, does it make logical sense to call someone a calm musician? In most situations, it doesn’t. So the best match for great..wonderful is famous..accomplished.

Plug the choice you think is the answer back into the sentence.

In two-blank/two-way SCs, one-half of the sentence flows against the other half. This two-way contrast is usually, but not always, marked by the presence of a two-way switch. Below are examples of two-blank/two-way SCs, with and without switches.

This sentence contains the two-way switch however. That means it’s two-way.

The sentence is two-way, and the blanks each appear in different halves of the sentence. Since it’s a two-way sentence, the two blanks (and the parts of the sentence before and after the semicolon) must contrast each other.

The first blank relates to the source of Faulkner’s “unique style” that is “now admired.” The second blank describes the reaction of early critics of Faulkner who considered his style “needlessly ornate.”

The second blank describes how the critics reacted to Faulkner’s style. This is in contrast to modern critics who “admire” it.

Since the sentence is two-way, you know that the two blanks must contrast, or oppose, each other. The first half of the sentence tells us that critics now admire Faulkner’s style, which means the word you need to fill the blank will likely have a positive Word Charge. If the critics admired Faulkner’s style, what might they have identified as its source? His literary what? How about talent?

The second half of the sentence tells us that critics at first considered his literary style “needlessly ornate.” This indicates that the blank should be filled with a word that has negative Word Charge. How about criticized?

Now go to the answer choices and find the one that matches up with the answer you created just from looking at the sentence.

You’re looking for one answer choice that fits with the words talent and criticized. The first word is positive, the second negative. You should be able to eliminate B, C, and E, because praised, examined, and enlightened are all relatively common vocab words that are positive, and you want the second word to be negative.

That leaves A and D. Deciding between these two is hard, particularly because three of the four words are very difficult vocab words. At worst, you should plug both choices back into the sentence and then guess which one sounds best. At best, you’d sense either that genius is more positive than proclivities or that extolled has a positive charge, either of which would mark D as the correct answer.

Plug the choice you think is the answer back into the sentence.

Two-way sentences that do not contain a switch word will compare a change over time.

This sentence contains no switch, but it does compare a change over time. That means it’s two-way.

The sentence is two-way, and the blanks are each in different halves of the sentence. That means that the two blanks must contrast with each other.

What’s the first blank about? It states that people once considered bathing harmful. This contrasts with the second half of the sentence, which says that bathing is now thought to “prevent plagues and epidemics.”

The second blank describes the “conditions” that “prevent plagues and epidemics.” It contrasts with the first half of the sentence, which says that people once thought that bathing was “bad for your ----.”

Since the sentence is two-way, you know that the two blanks must contrast each other. The blank in the first half of the sentence explains in what way people thought bathing could harm them. This blank is contrasted with the modern thought that bathing “prevents plagues and epidemics.” In other words, modern people think bathing “protects health,” while in earlier times, people thought bathing was bad for your health.

As for the second blank, it describes the conditions that “prevent plagues and epidemics” and contrasts with the idea that bathing harms health. How about bathing creates healthy conditions?

Now go to the answer choices and find the one that matches up with the answer you created just from looking at the sentence.

You’re looking for two answer choices that fit with the words health and healthy. A quick look through the answer choices shows one answer that stands out from the rest: E. Well-being and sanitary both fit with the idea of health and the need for positive words.

Plug the choice you think is the answer back into the sentence.

And that’s it! You’re now ready for any Sentence Completion that the new SAT might send your way .