An approach to Para Jumbles and Para Completion

Different types of Para Jumble questions

• four sentences [ABCD]
• five sentences [ABCDE]
• six sentences [ABCDEF] : CET pattern where options for the sequence are not mentioned;students have to answer questions following the same
• the 1st and the 6th sentence are given and one has to rearrange the middle ones
• the 1st is given and rearrange the remaining four [has been the CAT pattern for the last 2 years]
• the last sentence is given and the one has to arrange the remaining ones

The following steps can be followed to attain a 80% accuracy in PJ

Identify the introductory sentence : the following pointers need to be kept in mind while identifying the introductory sentence.

• the introductory sentence should give an idea about the paragraph
• go the option route : please remember PJ and any reasoning question should always be solved the elimination way.
• only when options are not mentioned or when every option begins with a different letter read the paragraph to identify the introductory statement

Links : the second step is to identify links between two sentences.There are two types of links possible between sentences :
Structure (grammar links)
Content

Structure links are as follows

Noun - Pronoun agreement : the noun and the pronoun should agree with each other in terms of number and gender
eg. B Indeed, just as with crime, an enormous academic literature exists on the validity of the pure economic approach to the evolution of family structures
C. And, as with crime, it is equally inconclusive. [BC]

Conjunctions : two sentences are joined using a conjunction : and - will join to similair ideas,but - will join two contradictory sentences.
eg. Some work supports the Becker thesis, and some appears to contradict it.
But regardless of the conclusion of any particular piece of work, it is hard to establish convincing connections between family changes and economic factors using conventional approaches.

Content links

Idea elaboration link
eg. I had six thousand acres of land, and had thus got much spare land besides the coffee plantation. Part of the farm was native forest, and about one thousand acres were squatters’ land, what [the KikuyuJ called their shambas
The squatters are Natives, who with their families (hold a few acres on a white man’s farm, and in return have to work for him a certain number of days in the year. My squatters, I think, saw the relationship in a different light, for many of them were born on the farm, and their fathers before them, and they very likely regarded me as a sort of superior squatter on their estates.
 
 Idea example link
Chronology : choose a link which goes from past to present
Common word approach

eg. The squatters’ land was more intensely alive than, the rest of the farm, and was changing with the seasons the year round. The maize grew up higher than your head as you walked on the narrow hard-trampled footpaths in between the tall green rustling regiments.
The beans ripened in the fields, were gathered and thrashed by the women, and the maize stalks and coffee pods were collected and burned, so that in certain seasons thin blue columns of smoke rose here and there all over the farm.
 
Any queries on the same can be posted in the comments section of this post.