What are “Word Rearrangement” questions and how to identify them

There are two common types of word rearrangement questions. They are:

• Formation with letters (add/subtract/anagrams)
• Sentence formation

Let’s go through each to see how you can identify them in an exam and then, apply a custom strategy to answer questions for each type.

Formation with letters (add/subtract/anagrams)

Identify these questions

“Formation with letters” questions look like this:

Add three letters to the word TOP to make a new word meaning 'to exile'. The three added letters are:

(A) RED (B) ISH (C) ISP (D) SED

These questions ask you to add or take away letters to form a word. Other variations of these questions may ask you to unscramble words and find anagrams.

The strategy to answer these questions

To answer these questions:

1. Find out possible words to meet the new meaning and cross check them against with the answer options to see if there is a fit.
2. Do any of the removed/added letters meet the solution easily?
3. If the above two is too difficult, look at the solution options if they can assist and work backwards.

TIP: The easiest way to do these questions is to have an extended vocabulary so that you can find the word for a given meaning. While in preparation, extend your vocabulary through reading and actively writing a list of words you don’t know the meaning of. Here is a list of vocabulary that you can use to start building your knowledge base.

VR-CP3-vocabulary-list.pdf

Example Question/s

Add three letters to the word TOP to make a new word meaning 'to exile'. The three added letters are:

(A) RED (B) ISH (C) ISP (D) SED

Correct answer is (a) RED

Why?

• Looked at the word and found words that could meet that meaning – I would need to have good vocabulary and know meanings of words in order to do this.
• The word is DEPORT. There are a number of other words meaning 'to exile' however, none of these words contained T, O and P.
• Therefore, added letters over TOP is DER = RED
• Therefore, the correct answer is (a).

Watch video for explanation of the following question/s:

Add three letters to the word IRON. Rearrange the letters to make a word meaning persistent and incessant usually referring to illness. The added letters are:

A: CCH

B: DEF

C: ICY

D: ICT

E: EDY

Take three letters away from the word LAWYER to make a new word that means wonder. The removed letters are

A: YER

B: RYL

C: LER

D: WER

E: None of these

Key Rules to remember

• Find words for meaning first and then cross check
• Remember there is always elimination available to you so look at the available options if you’re struggling

Rearrangement of Words

Identify these questions

These types of questions look like this:

If you rearrange the words to form the best sentence possible, which word would be second from the last?

documents exactly were time delivered on the luckily

(A) ON (B) THE (C) DOCUMENTS (D) TIME

A key giveaway in identifying these types of questions is the request for a sentence and a series of words.

The strategy to answer these questions

To answer these questions:

1. Look at the words and match up parts of words together that must go together e.g. might match up an adverb with a verb, a noun with an adjective.
2. Then try and put together your matches to form a meaningful sentence for the remainder.
3. Look at your sentence, could it be expressed differently or in a way that is better?
4. Check that your last words are common last words such as nouns, adverbs or a subject to which an action is done e.g. They played it! As last words are hardly ever adjectives or linking words such as 'for', 'to' etc…. Sentences usually start with 'he', 'she', 'it' or 'I'.
5. If so, change it. If not, leave as is.

Make sure that you know your sentence structure and order of words e.g. adjectives before nouns, prepositions, starting words, what nouns contain other nouns e.g. a house would contain a room – and make sure what you organise makes sense!

Example Question/s

If you rearrange the words to form the best sentence possible, which word would be second from the last?

documents exactly were time delivered on the luckily

(A) ON (B) THE (C) DOCUMENTS (D) TIME

Correct answer is (a) ON

Why?

• Need to know sentence structure and matched, 'the documents' and 'were delivered', 'on time'. Then put the words together in a sentence
• Best sentence: Luckily, the documents were delivered exactly on time.
• Second last word is ON.
• Therefore, the correct answer is (a).

Watch video for explanation of the following question/s:

Rearrange the words to make the best possible sentence. What is the third word from the beginning?

tea childcare just Emma morning at time for in arrives

A: childcare

B: at

C: just

D: time

E: None of these

Rearrange the following words to form the best sentence possible. What is the second last word of this sentence?

admired the creation chef his back and stood newest

A: admired

B: stood

C: newest

D: creation

E: None of these

Key Rules to remember

• Match up words that ‘must’ be together
• Remember parts of speech in your sentence formulation
• Know the position of words

Practice time!

Now, it's your turn to practice.

Click on the button below and start your practice questions. We recommend doing untimed mode first, and then, when you're ready, do timed mode.

Every question has two solutions videos after you complete the question. The first is a quick 60 second video that shows you how our expert answers the question quickly. The second video is a more in-depth 5-steps or less explainer video that shows you the steps to take to answer the question. It's really important that you review the second video because that's where you'll learn additional tips and tricks.

Once you're done with the practice questions, move on to the next checkpoint.

Now, let's get started on your practice questions.

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