Parajumble questions consist of a group of statements that are arranged in no particular order. When arranged properly, these sentences make up a meaningful paragraph. In the exam, you will be provided with the sentences. It is your job to arrange them in the desired meaningful order. Successful execution of the same will then fetch you the respective marks.

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What are Parajumble questions :

Para-jumbles are one of the most frequently asked questions in MBA entrance tests. They come under the class of questions in which you can easily increase your accuracy. Also, once you know how to solve Para-jumbles, it won’t take a lot of time to solve them in the exams. The only important thing is that you should know how to do it.

What are the guidelines parajumbles:

The following guidelines will help you to increase your accuracy in parajumbles:

1)      Options:

This is probably the first technique that you will use, when you come across such questions. You will look at the options, check each one of them and try to gauge the correct option. A lot of students believe that this is the only way to solve these questions. However, they are wrong and you can find different tricks and techniques to solve these questions. Some of them are elaborated in the following points.

2)      Scan & Introspect:

If you have a high reading speed, you can read all the sentences quickly and get a feel of what the passage is all about. This will then help you to arrange the sentences. However, if you have a slow reading speed, you can skip this step.

Sometimes, in the exam, after scanning the paragraph in the above-mentioned manner, you might feel that it would take too much time to solve. Or you might feel that you won’t be able to accurately find the exact arrangement. In such cases you can skip the question (as long as you have questions in which you have better chances of scoring).

3)      Introduction & Conclusion:

Start by finding an introductory sentence. This will be an opening sentence that will begin the idea/concept/topic.

You can also search for a suitable conclusion.  Conclusions will be in the form of closing sentences that will bring an end to the idea/point/concept conveyed for the respective topic.

4)      Pairing:

While reading the sentences, start locating sentences that are directly connected to each other. These sentences are usually in the form of pairs of two or three sentences. Once you locate these sentences, it becomes easier to arrange the paragraphs. So, if you are able to locate the opening sentence, closing sentence and these pairs as well, you will almost be done with the arrangement.

Sometimes, the connecting pairs may include the opening/concluding sentence as well.

Also read: How to solve parajumbles for CAT

Tips to find pairs of connecting sentences:

• Nouns-Pronouns: The first sentence from the pair will contain the subject in the form of a noun. The second sentence of the pair will contain the subject in the form of a pronoun. Ex: The apple is red. It is shiny too.

• Transition Words: Sentences that contain transition words at their beginning/end are usually connected to another sentence. Locate such words to find the pairs.

        Examples: As also, Furthermore, Moreover, Hence, Aside from, Instead, On the other hand, Then, After all, etc.

• • Subject: In a paragraph, if a subject is mentioned in just 2-3 sentences, the sentences are likely to be connected to each other. So, sentences mentioning the same subject in a paragraph, are usually connected
  • Chronology: If the paragraph contains events that are going in a timely sequence of events, then it will be easy to find pairs. You just have to connect things from past to present to future or vice-versa.

5)       Idea/Concept: The above-mentioned tips will help you in numerous ways. However, the most important thing is the idea/feel of the topic. Once you have an idea about the topic, it gets much easier to arrange the sentences.

6)      Options can be optional: Recently, CAT had para-jumble questions without options. So, while practicing, try to solve the questions without the help of options, using the above mentioned tips. Once you become good at solving para-jumbles without options, you can then be sure of cracking these questions in the exam.

Let options be your last strategy while solving para jumbles. Hope this article showed you the way to cracking para jumble questions.

Time to start practicing!

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