ISEE Sentence Completion: Predict the Word with Connectors

A three-step method

This section explains the routine that works for most sentence completion questions. The question gives a sentence with one word missing, and the task is to choose the option that makes the sentence logical. The routine has three steps, and the order matters.

Step 1: Read the whole sentence and find the connector. The connector is the word or phrase that shows how the blank relates to the rest of the sentence. It is often at the start, as in “Although…” or “Because…”, but it can also sit in the middle, as in “…however, the results were…”. Students should underline it, mentally if the test is on screen.

Step 2: Predict the meaning in your own words. Before reading any option, the student decides what kind of word the blank needs. The prediction does not have to be a single exact word. “Something short and clear” or “a negative word” is enough. A prediction protects the student from choosing a word only because it looks familiar or sounds impressive.

Step 3: Match the prediction to the options. The student then reads all four options and removes any that contradict the connector or the prediction. If more than one option remains, the student reads the sentence again with each option in place and chooses the one that fits both the meaning and the tone.

What the connector tells you

This section lists the relationships most connectors signal. Learning these three groups covers a large share of sentence completion questions.

Relationship	Example connectors	What the blank usually does
Contrast	although, but, however, despite, yet, while	Reverses an idea stated elsewhere in the sentence
Cause and effect	because, since, so, therefore, as a result	Follows logically from a stated reason or result
Continuation	and, also, similarly, in addition, moreover	Repeats or extends the same idea

A connector is a direction sign. Contrast connectors turn the sentence around, cause connectors point back to a reason, and continuation connectors keep going the same way. A blank that contradicts its connector cannot be correct, regardless of how good the word is in isolation.

Try the example

Work through the question below using the three steps. Read the sentence, find the connector, say the missing word aloud or in your head, and only then choose an option. The explanation appears after an answer is selected.

Why each answer works or does not

This section walks through the example after it has been answered. The connector is “although”, a contrast word. The first part of the sentence says the draft was long and repetitive, so the second part must say the revision was different in a positive way. The prediction is “short and clear”, and the correct option, concise, matches it directly.

Each wrong option fails for a distinct reason, and naming that reason is the habit to build.

• elaborate continues the problem instead of reversing it. It would suit a sentence joined by “and”, not “although”.
• outdated is a real word that sounds negative, but nothing in the sentence connects to age or timeliness.
• anonymous is also a real word, but it belongs to a different topic, the identity of the writer.

Students who review all four options after every practice question, not only the one they chose, learn how test writers build distractors. Wrong options usually fall into three types: the same direction as the clue when the connector requires the opposite, a word on a different topic, and a word that sounds suitable but has no support in the sentence.

Common traps

This section describes two mistakes that cost students points even when their vocabulary is strong.

Being frightened by an unfamiliar word. Many students see a difficult option and conclude the question cannot be solved. The better response is to ignore the unfamiliar word, test the other three against the prediction, and choose the unfamiliar word if the rest fail. A word’s tone also helps: if the sentence needs a positive word and the unknown option sounds harsh, it is probably wrong.

Reading the options before the sentence. A student who sees four options first tends to pick the word that is most familiar and then force the sentence to agree. This reverses the logic of the question. Reading the sentence first, predicting, and then looking at the options keeps the meaning of the sentence in control.

A third habit that helps is to reread the finished sentence with the chosen word in place. A choice that reads awkwardly or changes the meaning of the first half of the sentence is usually wrong.

Your next step

This section suggests how to continue after this lesson. Practice the three steps on a handful of sentences each day, and write down the connector and the prediction for each one before checking the options. Vocabulary study is covered in the synonyms lesson, and the Verbal Reasoning overview explains how both question types fit together. Families who want a mixed set of practice questions with explanations can start with the free trial.

Original practice item written by the ISEEPrep teaching team; not a question from the actual ISEE.