On occasion you will encounter a two-blank Sentence Completion question on the SAT in which the two blanks are interdependent, meaning you cannot predict what one is without making an assumption about the other.

Try this question:

Less ___________ than her predecessor, Queen Elizabeth’s ______________ made her remarkably more popular.

Hmmm, we could substitute many different word pairs for this:
close-minded: tolerance
miserly: generosity
boorish: charm

However many pairs we come up with, they will always be opposites, won’t they?  Queen Elizabeth has become popular by doing something different from her predecessor.  So when you take a look at the answer choices, without even plugging them into the sentence, you can quickly eliminate at least two or three choices by crossing out those that are not opposite pairs.

QUICK TIP: Remember to look for the relationship between double-blanks.  Should they be the same or opposites?  Then eliminate answer pairs that don’t fit the proper relationship before you start plugging words into the sentence.  This will save you a lot of time!

This quick tip for Sentence Completions will go a long way toward raising your Critical Reading score.  The tip is: don’t look at the answers.

What?, you may ask.  I obviously have to choose the correct solution from amongst the answer choices; how could I not look at them?

The key here is looking at the answer choices at the correct time—that is, after you’ve read the sentence, after you’ve looked for keywords and clues, and after you’ve formulated in your head some approximation of what the answer should be.  Not until you’ve completed all those steps should you look at the answers.

In fact, make your first step covering the choices with your hand.  Four of those choices on Sentence Completion questions are only there to distract and tempt you.  Don’t give in to that temptation!

Let’s simulate covering the answer choices with our hand by leaving them out here.

“Even though she was ___________, Cindy was unable to score points at the basketball game.”

We see the key phrase, “even though” indicating a directional shift from Cindy’s ability to score points.  This leads us to conclude that Cindy should have been able to make a few baskets.  Why?  She is probably either good at basketball, or possesses other helpful characteristics, like being tall or fast.  Now that we have an idea of what to look for (a synonym for talented or tall or fast), let’s look at the answer choices.

(A) debonair
(B) lanky
(C) capricious
(D) magnanimous
(E) fastidious

Compare your word or phrase to the answer choices.  Those that are not synonyms or near-synonyms should be eliminated.  Be ruthless.  Only one answer choice is correct, so all of its competitors must be eliminated.

If we quickly skim our options, we see that only (B) lanky is related to our predictions, making it the correct answer choice.  (Lanky means tall and skinny.)  If we had not predicted, we would perhaps have been tempted by (E) fastidious, meaning to have high standards.  Surely if someone has high standards, they would be expected to win a game?  But Cindy having high standards does not necessarily give her the tools to achieve her goal, the same way that height or skill would.

QUICK TIP:  Cover Sentence Completion question choices with your hand, and don’t look at them until you’ve made a prediction to fill in the blank yourself.