PARA-JUMBLES TRICKS

Parajumble tricks

Para-jumbles are one of the important topics for CLAT, Bank, SSC and other competitive exams. Para-jumbles are significant because they have been regularly appearing in exams. And Para-jumbles test your understanding skills (Comprehension).

Para-jumbles are sets of associated statements in some random order, which when arranged appropriately, form a meaningful paragraph

Tricks to solve PJ questions:

1.    Detect the theme- Read sentences to detect the core idea (theme) of the given paragraph or passage.

2.    Look for the Introductory or opening sentence - Try to locate sentence that introduces a subject or person or idea. This will be the opening sentence.

3.    Move general to specific- This means “to move from introductory sentence to the sentence that provides facts or details related to the given subject or idea”.

For instance, Full names of people in the sentence will be followed by the last names of the people in the succeeding sentences

4.    Look for words that express continuity- Words like similarly, furthermore, additionally, also, and, indeed, besides, as well, too, likewise, moreover, in addition to ....... etc express continuity of idea.

5.    Look for mandatory pairs- Mandatory pairs are obvious pairs. They are the sentences which will essentially come together.

For instance, A pronoun will follow a sentence with its antecedent noun, as pronouns are used to replace nouns. This is however not always true because sometimes examiners introduce the Para-jumbles with a pronoun.

Important mandatory pairs

1.    One-another

2.    Firstly- secondly

3.   Before-after

4.    Now- later

 Note-    The key to solving Para-jumble questions is detection of these linked pairs (mandatory     pairs) of statements.

6.    Look for Chronological order (time references) - Time reference refers to the action that takes place in past, present, or future. And ‘time reference’ will help you in organizing sentences accordingly.

7.    Look for obvious closing- Look for the words that suggest you the result. The words that may come at the end are –

1.    Therefore

2.    As a result

3.    Thus

4.    So

5.    Finally

6.    In brief

7.    In other words

8.    Hence

9.    Consequently

10.  In short........ etc

EXAMPLE-  

(    (A)  A puzzled Raj looked at his grandma and said he didn’t deserve a pencil after his performance in the test.

     (B)  Raj was upset because he had done poorly in his English test. 

     (C) However, it will help you be a better student. 

      (D) His grandma explained, ‘You can learn a great many things from this pencil because it is just like you.

     (E)  His grandmother sat with him and gave him a pencil.

     (F)  It experiences a painful sharpening, just the way you have experienced the pain of not doing well on your test.

For the given passage, you need to follow FOLLOWING steps as per the above mentioned instructions-

Step 1- read to detect theme- here the theme is Raj’s disappointment for not doing well in English test

Step 2- look for obvious opening- after reading, it is easy to detect the person’s name (Raj), the proper noun.

Step 3- look for the pronoun and its antecedent noun (obvious pair) – ‘Raj’ (noun) and ‘his’ (pronoun)- (mandatory Pair)

Step 4- sentences (D) and (E) express continuity of ideas and

Step 5- The word ‘However’ expresses the obvious closing.

Hence, the correct sequence is "BEADFC"

HOPE THIS WOULD HELP YOU UNDERSTAND AND SOLVE "PJ" QUESTIONS