The process for answering one-blank and two-blank sentence completions is quite similar, but there are some important differences. We will therefore treat the two types separately.

There is a definite process you should follow when answering one-blank sentence completions.

In this initial reading, you should try to get a sense of the sentence. Look for hinge words and identify the sentence’s flow. You might want to circle or otherwise mark the hinge words. Locate where the blanks fit into the sentence’s flow. Does the blank fit into the single flow of the sentence? Is the blank set against the flow of the rest of the sentence by a hinge word? Let’s look at the example about Bel Biv Devoe:

In this sentence, there are no obvious hinge words. Still, the second half of the sentence seems to flow directly from the first. The first half of the sentence says Bel Biv Devoe was “terrible” and the second half says that its music was “dull.” The two halves of the sentence agree. The blank fits into a flowing sentence.

Next, figure out what the blank is referring to or describing within the sentence, and then how the sentence refers to or describes that thing. In the sentence about Bel Biv Devoe, the blank refers to Bel Biv Devoe’s lyrics. The sentence also gives you the information that Bel Biv Devoe was a bad group with bad music. Since the sentence contained no change-of-direction hinge word, it seems safe to assume that BBD’s lyrics will also be described negatively.

Once you’ve decoded the sentence, read through it again and try to come up with your own answer to fill in the blanks. This answer can be either a single word or a description of the meaning of the word that should fill the blank. By anticipating what type of word will fill the blank before looking at any of the answers, you are making sure that you don’t fall for any of ETS’s tricky wrong answers.

In reading this sentence through the second time, after decoding it and realizing that the two halves of the sentence agree, you could come up with the following:

By inserting “bad” into the blank, you certainly haven’t generated the word that is the correct answer (bad isn’t even one of the answer choices), but you have come up with a word that defines, explains, or provides a synonym for the right answer.

If the sentence is difficult and you can’t come up with a distinct word or phrase, at least try to determine whether each blank is positive or negative. Often, even that much information can show you the correct answer or help you to eliminate wrong answers.

Now that you have a good sense of what kind of word should fill the blank, go through the answers. Find the answer that fits with the word or idea you’ve decided should fill the blank.

Obviously, the only answer with a meaning similar to “bad” is (C) poor.

Once you’ve chosen a word, plug it into the sentence and try it out. If it works, you’re set. If it doesn’t, go back to the sentence and check to see that you decoded it correctly.

If you cannot come to a decisive correct answer, you can still guess, which you should do if you can eliminate at least one answer choice. When you’ve gotten to this point in the process, you should at least have a sense of whether the word that fills a blank should have a positive or negative connotation. Use this information to eliminate answer choices.

Though the method described above seems extensive, once you’re comfortable with the process, you should be able to fly through each step in a few seconds.

Two-word sentence completions are probably somewhat more intimidating to you than the one-word variety, since you have two blanks to fill. However, the process you follow to solve them should not be all that different.

Just as with one-blank sentence completions, read through the sentence, identify the hinge word if there is one, and determine how the blanks fit in the sentence and what each refers to.

Again, just as with one-blank sentences, try to anticipate the connotation of the words that will fit in the blanks.

This step might actually be easier in two-blank sentences than one-blank sentences because you can eliminate an answer choice if just one of the words in the pair doesn’t fit. In other words, two-blank questions offer you twice as many opportunities to eliminate an answer choice.

Same as with one-word sentence completions.

Same as with one-word sentence completions.

When dealing with two blanks, you are more likely to be tempted to choose words based on what they mean in a vacuum rather than on their function within the sentence. In other words, you should not focus on the relationship between the two words in the answer pairs. You should focus on how each word needs to function in the sentence. If you come to the conclusion that a sentence contrasts, you might be tempted to choose words that are antonyms, or one word that has a positive connotation and one that has a negative connotation. But that could lead you to the wrong answer. Instead of choosing two words that contrast each other, you should choose words that make the entire sentence change direction.

After reading this sentence carefully, you should realize a few things:

The first half and the second half of the sentence are directly related: the hope of something in the first half of the sentence is exactly what pushed the two sides to try to create a settlement that will end something. There is no hinge word or situation that might make the two sides of the sentence contrast.

Once you realize that the sentence is direct, you can infer the following:

With this information, you should have a good sense of how to answer the question:

Plug these words into the sentence:

As you scan the answers and try to match them with the words or phrases that you think define the right answers, you can quickly throw out (A) because a battle isn’t peaceful; (B) because a chamber makes no sense in this sentence; (C) because the two sides would not have had years of friendship if they were at war; and (E) because tryst and romance are words to describe a love affair, not the hope of ending a war. That leaves choice (D), and if you plug in the answers, you’ll see that it is an effective practice. Notice, however, that to create this direct sentence, we used two words that are themselves opposite: truce and hatred. It’s not the relation between the words themselves that matters, but how those words function in the sentence. In this example, we needed to find the two words that would fit the direct flow of the sentence in which the hope of peace led to the end of anger and violence. Remember, sentence completions are about vocabulary in context. Your job is to find the words that make the sentence work.