Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Oliveboard
4 years ago
In our previous articles, we covered Reading Comprehension, Fill in the Blanks and Cloze Test.
This week’s topic is: Parajumbles.
Parajumbles, like Reading Comprehension and Cloze Test, appear in the English Language section
of most competitive bank and government exams. The following article provides a step-by-step
approach to Parajumbles:
Topics Covered
Types of Parajumbles
Tips
Types of Parajumbles
1. In some Parajumbles, the candidates are given the introductory or opening sentence of the
Parajumble and they’re required to unjumble the remaining sentences.
2. In some, the closing sentence is provided and the candidates are required to use this to rearrange
the remaining sentences.
3. In some both the opening and closing(concluding) sentences are given. These are the easiest
Parajumbles to solve.
4. In most cases, neither the opening nor the closing sentences are given. The candidate has to
figure that out on his/her own. These are the most challenging Parajumbles to solve.
Give the Parajumble a quick scan to get a ‘feel’ of what the passage is about. Find out
the central theme of the Parajumble. Understanding the central theme/dialogue helps determine
the flow of the story which goes a long way in helping you piece the paragraph together in the
right order.
jjjkk
It’s a good idea to find both opening and closing sentences. Once these two are determined,
finding the other sentences becomes easy.
Example:
In the above example, clearly, the second option (b) is the introductory/opening sentence. The
passage talks about train, railway station, vacation etc. The first sentence must essentially
introduce the person who’s catching the train to go on a vacation. Sentences ‘a’ and ‘c’
refer to the person as ‘she’, which is an indication that these aren’t the opening sentences.
Therefore, option ‘b’ is the opening sentence; it introduces the person ‘Geeta’ and the place
‘Railway station’.
Once you’re done finding the opening (introductory) and closing (concluding)sentences, start
weaving the other sentences together based on factors likeactivities/time/chronology/any other
sequence.
Activities: Some Parajumbles talk aboutactivities. Determining the order of the activities will help
you solve the question. Start by finding out the initial activity. This will enable you to unfold a
sequence that follows the flow of the story, thereby helping you put the sentences in the right
sequence.
Example:
a. She sells cupcakes throughout the day and returns home at 6 in the evening.
Activity tracking:
Sentence ‘c’ is clearly the opening sentence, since it introduces the person ‘Maria’ and her
‘Cupcake business’.
The Parajumble talks about her routine, i.e. from morning to evening. Therefore, sentence ‘d’
comes second as it talks about her morning activity (‘in the morning’ is an indicator).
This is followed by sentence ‘a’, which talks about her activity throughout the day.
The concluding sentence is sentence ‘b’. It talks about Marias activities after coming back
home (‘dinner’ and ‘goes to sleep at 11’ are indicators of a conclusion).
Abbreviations and full-forms: Some Parajumbles contain a sentence with a full-form and other
sentence(s) with itsabbreviations. Here the sentence with the full-form comes first, followed by
the sentence with the abbreviations. Abbreviations are always introduced with its full-form in
preceding sentences.
Example:
a. The CPU carries out the instructions given by the computer program.
In the above example, sentence ‘a’ and ‘c’ contain the abbreviations ‘CPU’ and sentence
‘b’ contains the full-form of CPU. Therefore, sentence ‘b’ comes before sentence ‘a’ and
‘c’. Right order: b, a, c.
Ideas and examples: Ideas always precede the examples. Some Parajumbles contain ideas, and
examples of those ideas. The examples always follow the ideas.
Example:
a. Like, the continental shelf, continental slope, abyssal plain and oceanic trenches.
In the above example, sentence ‘a’ contains examples and sentence ‘b’ introduces an idea.
Hence sentence ‘b’ comes before sentence ‘a’.
Connectives and Transition words:Connectives and transition words are logical connectors of
different sentences. Connectives are words that connect two sentences together. Some examples of
connectives are: After, When, Because, Alternatively, Although, Though, Yet, Until, Since, Etc.
Transition words, are words used by the author to shift one idea in a sentence to another (ushering
a change). Some examples of transition words are: However, Besides, Nevertheless, etc.
Sentences that start with a connective or a transition word are almost never introductory sentences.
They always refer to activities/events/people mentioned/introduced in the preceding sentences.
Articles: The articles ‘The’, ‘A’ and ‘An’ too help in finding out the order of the
sentences. ‘The’ is a definite article which is used before something/someone specific or when
something/someone has already been introduced in the previous sentences.
Whereas, ‘A’ and ‘An’ articles are used when something is being introduced for the first
time and are also used when stating general facts. A sentence containing ‘A’ and ‘An’ could
be an introductory sentence.
Example:
c. And the tower was the tallest in town and hidden behind a dense foliage.
In the above example, article ‘A’ is used to introduce the girl and the tower and article
‘The’ is used while mentioning the girl and the tower in options ‘a’ and ‘c’ respectively.
Hence, option ‘b’ comes before opening ‘a’ and option ‘c’. Option ‘c’ contains the
connective ‘And’ which is used to connect two sentences, hence ‘c’ comes after ‘a’.
Right order: b, a, c.
Pronouns: Pronouns (He, she, it, him, her, their, etc.) are used in place of a person/place/thing that
has already been introduced in one of the preceding sentences. So, if you find a pronoun in a
sentence, it probably isn’t an opening sentence.
Example:
In the above example, option ‘b’ contains the pronoun ‘he’. Whoever ‘he’ is, should
essentially be introduced in one of the preceding sentences. Option ‘a’ introduces a person
‘Ajay’, hence, ‘he’ mentioned in option ‘b’ refers to ‘Ajay’. Option ‘a’ comes
before option ‘b’.
Adjectives: Sometimes, adjectives can help solve Parajumbles too, especially comparative
adjectives like better, worse, taller, shorter, etc.
Example:
In the above example, the adjectives ‘good’ and ‘better’ are used. ‘Better’ always comes
after good (Good -> Better -> Best), hence, the option containing ‘good’ comes before the
option containing ‘better. Right order: b, a, c.
Time sequence approach: Sometimes Parajumbles contain a time sequence, i.e., words indicating a
time sequence, such as,dates, years, or words like, before, later, after, when, etc. Notice these
words and be aware of them, as they can help rearrange the sentences according to the right time
sequence.
Example:
In the above example, the words ‘after’ and ‘post’ denote time sequence. Hence, options
‘c’ and ‘b’ come after option ‘a’. Right order:a, c, b.
Elimination technique: If you’re running out of time, you can use the elimination technique to
arrive at the right option quickly. After finding the opening and closing sentences, you can
eliminate options which contain the wrong order of the opening and closing sentences.
Example:
In the above examples, option ‘b’ is the opening sentence and option ‘c’ is the closing
sentence. Therefore, any option that doesn’t contain option ‘b’ in the beginning and option
‘c’ in the end can be eliminated.
Conclusions: Conclusions generally start with words like, thus, therefore, hence, in
conclusion, etc. and are usuallyadvises/summaries/recommendations/suggestions. Finding the
opening and closing sentences makes it easier to connect them with the other options.
Once you have weaved the sentences in the right order, re-read the passage to make sure that it
makes sense grammatically and logically. The right order should have acontinuity in the flow of
the sentences, and should also make the sentence meaningful.
Tips
If the given sentences are too lengthy, and you’re running out of time, be vigilant and pay
attention to keywords like transition words, pronouns, adjectives and articles to solve it quickly.
Notice sentences in paragraphs of novels and newspapers, notice how they are weaved together
and how the words used to connect the sentences and conclude the paragraphs.
Improve your vocabulary. Learn new words every day and use them in your conversations. Being
thorough in grammar and vocabulary will go a long way in helping you solve Parajumbles.
Here’s a sample Parajumble. Try and solve it! (Solutions given at the end)
In the following question, the 1st and last part of the sentence/passage are numbered 1 and 6. Rest
of the passage/sentence is split into four parts and named P, Q, R and S. These four parts are not
given in the proper order. Read the sentence and find out which of the four combinations is
correct.
1. Nalanda became India’s famous centre of education.
Options:
Solution:
In the above passage the first and last sentences are given. The last sentence has a ‘he’
referring to a certain person who was introduced in one of the preceding sentences. The only
sentence with a person being introduced is option ‘S’. Therefore, ‘S’ is the second last
sentence.
The only option with option ‘S’ as second last sentence is option ‘C’. You can arrange the
given sentences in the order given in option ‘C’ and read it to ensure it sound logically and
grammatically correct. Also arrange them in order of other options too and see if any other
sentence makes more sense than option ‘C’. The option that makes the paragraph make most
sense grammatically and logically, is the right option.
We hope the above helps you briefly understand what Parajumbles are.
Oliveboard Live Courses & Mock Test Series
Guarantee your success in 2020 with SBI PO Titan Course on EDGE + 30 Full-length SBI PO
mock tests
SBI PO Mock Recruitment drive – Thrill of full Recruitment process – Register Now
Crack All IBPS Exams – Join Mega Banking Online Course Now
Categories: Articles, Bank Exams, Featured, Government Exams, Other Bank Exams, Other Gov.
Exams, Tips & Tricks
Tags: Bank Exam English Language, Bank Exam Parajumbles, English Parajumbles, Government
Exam English Language, Government Exams Parajumbles, Jumbled Paragraphs, Jumbled
Sentences, Paragraph Jumbles, Parajumbles, Parajumbles Approach, Parajumbles English
Language, Parajumbles Preparation, Parajumbles Solving, Parajumbles Strategy, Parajumbles
Tips, Parajumbles Tricks
Leave a Comment
Oliveboard
Back to top
11) Look for short forms and abbreviations in the sentences. This trick is very
useful in paragraphs in which both short form or abbreviations and full name are
given.
The sentences containing full for will obviously come before the sentences
containing the abbreviation.
12). If a sentence starts with the words Hence, Finally or Therefore then that
sentence comes last in the arrangement.
13) Last but not least, sometimes the events mentioned in the paragraph can be
arranged in the chronological order making it easy for you to identify the sequence
and arranged them.