CEM 11 Plus verbal reasoning exam question type 6- jumbled or shuffled sentences.

These tests are quite common and are used to test how well children can put a sentence into the correct word order.

Children are given a sentence which has been completely jumbled up. In one variant of this test they need to simply unravel things and out the words in the correct order. In the second variant one additional word has been added to the sentence which does not fit. Children need to identify which is the additional word by unravelling the sentence, they will simply be asked to identify the word which does not fit.

The key issue for children with these tests is to work quickly through them, the mistake many children make is that when the answer does not immediately come to them they just freeze and stare at the page. What they need to do is to employ some ACTIVE thinking. One way to do this effectively is to start by thinking about what the subject of the sentence might be ( there may be options) , if that doesn’t help then they can start pairing verbs and adverbs and nouns and adjectives. By working actively to separate the sentence into groups children will help themselves to think actively.

Additional word sentences might include two confusing items… for instance one sentence might have both the words MORNING and AFTERNOON, one of which is the additional word. Normally children using their logic skills can work out which one would fit and which is the additional word.

A very simple example of this, to make the point, might be as follows: