English Tips: Sentence Ordering

CLAT English: How to Go About Solving Sentence Ordering Questions

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CLAT English: How to Go About Solving Sentence Ordering Questions

By Garima Pal

Questions based on jumbled sentences or sentence ordering help the examiner in judging the examinee’s vocabulary as well as his ability to interpret a given piece of information in a logical manner.

As any successful lawyer would tell you, cases are won on facts and not law. Law is coded for everyone to refer to, but your ability to twist and interpret the facts of a case in your favour will be your USP. Facts are nothing but a sequence of incidents that lead up to an act.

Your task in these type of questions will be to figure out the correct sequence of facts and arrange them accordingly, taking the least possible amount of time.

Most questions will have a fixed sentence at the beginning and the end. There will be four sentences in between that link the fixed ones in the correct order. For example:

1. The train was scheduled to leave at 8:00 AM.

R. The ola cab did not arrive till about 7:00 AM.

P. Fawad was all packed and ready to leave the house by 6:20 AM.

Q. The internet connectivity was slow but he still managed to book an Ola cab for 6:30.

S. Fawad’s friend Karan was unable to give him a ride at 6:25 AM as he overslept.

Fawad met Mahira at 7:45 AM at the station and they both boarded the train together.

In the above example, the sentences given in bold are fixed. Your job is to tweak the remaining four into a sequence that binds all six sentences together. The correct answer to the above example is PSQR. The above example follows a chronological sequence and is fairly easy to solve. However, the CLAT examiner will not make it that simple for you.

We need to keep in mind the following pointers while solving such questions:

Understanding the theme that is being talked about in the sentences.
Understanding the relationship between the sentences vis. Whether it is a cause and effect relationship or a problem-solution one.
Understanding the type of sequence that is being reflected in the sentences. For example: chronological, generic to specific etc.

All said and done, it is time bound practice that will help you get familiar with the kind of questions you may expect in your CLAT exam.