How to Answer Paragraph Organization

Tests Part 1
by Civil Service Reviewer · May 3, 2014

Paragraph Organization or arranging separate sentences into a coherent paragraph composition is

probably one of the most difficult types of test in the Civil Service Examination. In this series, I
am going to show that it is actually not that hard.

In this post, I am going to show you how to analyze in details a Paragraph Organization sample
question. The task is to arrange the five sentences below in correct order. Please read the
sentences thoroughly before you continue.

L
ocating the First Sentence

Knowing the first sentence is very crucial in Paragraph Organizaiton questions.  Always
remember that the first sentence is a topic introduction. From the sentences above, B, C, and E
cannot be topic introductions because they begin with “in fact,” “indeed” and “not only that.”
These are clauses that refer to ‘something’ that has already been introduced.  Therefore, we are
only left with A and C as possible topic introduction.

It looks like A and C are both good candidates for introduction, but notice that all of the
sentences talk about action figures which is obviously the topic.  In A, the subject of the sentence
is “small children, adult, and adults” which is not the topic. In C on the other hand, the sentence
talks about collecting action figures. Therefore, the first sentence is C.

Locating the Second Sentence

The second sentence usually elaborates the first sentence. Looking from the paragraph, A and B
are the only candidates (Why?). However, notice that in the first sentence, we are talking about
many Filipinos. Now, who is ‘closer’ to “many Filipinos”? The author’s father, or the children,
teenagers, and adults? In addition, observe below that it is a bit “strange” if we place B as the
second sentence. Further, if we place B as the second sentence, we would not find any place for
A later. Therefore, the correct answer is A.

Correct

Collecting action figures has become a popular hobby for many Filipinos nowadays. Small
children, teenagers, and even adults would spend money just to get ahold of their favorite action
heroes.

Incorrect

Collecting action figures has become a popular hobby for many Filipinos nowadays. In fact,
even my father who is already 40 years old has a big Transformer robot.
Third Sentence

In the third sentence, the author may talk about his father (B) or his neighbor (E). This is logical
because we talked about many Filipinos, then children, teenager adults. Notice that we are
talking about a topic from general to specific.

Now, B and E may be interchangeable, but looking at the beginning of the sentences, the word
“in fact” is more appropriate as the third sentence. The phrase “not only that” if put on the third
sentence would reinforce the idea of “small children, teenagers, and adults” which is not
connected to “neighbor.” Read the paragraphs below and you will see that putting E on the third
sentence makes the flow of the paragraph disconnected. Therefore, the correct answer is B.

Correct

Collecting action figures has become a popular hobby for many Filipinos nowadays. Small
children, teenagers, and even adults would spend money just to get ahold of their favorite action
heroes.  In fact, even my father who is already 40 years old has a big Transformer robot.

Incorrect

Collecting action figures has become a popular hobby for many Filipinos nowadays. Small
children, teenagers, and even adults would spend money just to get ahold of their favorite action
heroes.  Not only that, our rich neighbor who is already in his late 50’s just came back from
Japan, bought a life-size statue of Vegeta.

Fourth and Fifth Sentences

It is clear after we have chosen the third sentence that D is the conclusion of the paragraph. You
will also see that the phrase “not only that” in E reinforces the idea of old people (ages 40 and
50’s) collecting action figures.

Collecting action figures has become a popular hobby for many Filipinos nowadays. Small
children, teenagers, and even adults would spend money just to get ahold of their favorite action
heroes.  In fact, even my father who is already 40 years old has a big Transformer robot.  Not
only that, our rich neighbor who is already in his late 50’s just came back from Japan, bought a
life-size statue of Vegeta.

Therefore, the correct order of the above question is C-A-B-E-D.

This is probably what you are thinking now:

What the heck, you said it is not that hard. This is so freaking hard!

How to Answer Paragraph Organization

Tests Part 2

 
If the person who constructed the test used Sample Choices 1, then it is very easy to answer
because once you know that C is the first sentence, then you don’t have to read the whole
paragraph. There is only one choice which has C as the first sentence; that is, b.

Now, suppose the person who constructed the example used Sample Choices 2. In the choices,
there are only two sample choices which begins with C (b and d), so still, you eliminate the
three wrong answers.

Sample Choices 3 is well-thought because each choice might be equally likely to be chosen. A

and C are good candidates as the first sentene and D is a very good candidate for a conclusion.
Still, even though Sample Choices 3 is better made (on the perspective of the examinee),
knowing the first sentence will still eliminate three choices.

That is the reason why I was saying that Paragraph Organization is not that hard. This is because
in Paragraph Organization questions, once you know the first sentence (or sometimes the last), it
is possible for you to eliminate the other wrong answers. The more wrong answers you
eliminate, the higher is the chance of getting the correct answer.

Let’s Do the Math!

If you know the first sentence in a Paragraph Organization question, then

 you have a 100% chance of getting the correct answer in Sample Choices 1
 you have a 50% chance of getting the correct answer in Sample Choices 2
 you have a 33.33% chance of getting the correct answer in Sample Choices 3.

In other types of exams with 5 choices where you don’t know the answer and you just guess, you
only get 1/5 chance of getting the correct answer or 20%.  Since it is likely that you will know
the introduction sentence in a Paragraph Organization test based on the tips that I have given
you, I think it is quite reasonable to use the calculation above.

That is why Paragraph Organization is easier than many multiple-choice type exams.

How to Answer Paragraph Organization

Tests Part 3
In this post, I will share with you a personal strategy, the things I usually do when I answer
Paragraph Organization questions. Note, however,  that different strategies work for different
persons, so be careful. You should try out the strategy first before using it in actual exams.

Let us use the question below for discussion.

 C
hoices a. A-C-B-E-D b. C-A-B-E-D c. C-E-B-A-D d. D-B-A-E-C e. E-D-B-A-C

This is what I do when I answer Paragraph Organization questions:

1. I read the question thoroughly by reading all the sentences.

2. I look for the sentence that might be a candidate as a first sentence in the paragraph. This
is usually easy to see since it introduces the topic.
3. I look at the choices and see which of them has my choice as first sentence. For example,
in the paragraph above, if I know that the first sentence is C, then I only have to consider
b and c. This narrows the choices to 2 instead of 5.
4. Once I already narrowed the choices, I look for the sentence that might be a conclusion.
In the case above it’s D. Note that both b and c has D as the last sentence, so I have now
to choose between b and c.
5. I read the paragraph in the order of b and c and see check which is more coherent.

Note that the strategy above happens very fast because of time constraint. You have to read as
fast as you can.

Tips in getting the right answer in Analogy and Logic:

1. Determine the thought and relationship between the first set of words
2. Apply the same thought and relationship among the choices for the next set of words

According to some English Test Reviewers, Analogy questions usually have the following
relationship and thoughts:

 Synonym – pretty: beautiful: big: huge

 Antonym – big: small: fast: slow

 Group – wolf: pack: tree: forest

 Cause and effect – rain: flood: quake: sink-hole

 Sequence – study: graduate: plant: harvest

 Classification – blue: color: pants: clothing

 Degree – warm: hot: cold: freezing

 Effort and result – paint: painting: write: letter

 Problem and Solution – tired: sleep: itch: scratch

 Function – keyboard: to type: phone: to call