Sentence Completion

🟢 Lite — Quick Review (1h–1d)

Rapid summary for last-minute revision before your exam.

Sentence Completion tests whether Nigerian primary school students can fill in missing words to make sentences grammatically correct and meaningful. In the NCEE, these questions assess vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension.

What NCEE Sentence Completion Looks Like:

A typical NCEE question presents a sentence with a blank: “The teacher told us to ___ our books before the test.”

Students must choose from options like:

• A) read
• B) open
• C) close
• D) put

The correct answer is B) open — “open our books” is the natural expression.

Key Skills Tested:

1. Vocabulary Knowledge — Does the student know word meanings?
2. Grammar Agreement — Does the word fit grammatically?
3. Context Clues — Can the student use surrounding words to infer the missing word?
4. Collocation Awareness — Does the student know which words naturally go together?

⚡ NCEE Exam Tips:

• Read the full sentence before looking at the options
• Try each option in the blank and see which sounds most natural
• Watch for subject-verb agreement clues
• Look at the tense of other verbs in the sentence

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🟡 Standard — Regular Study (2d–2mo)

Standard content for students building sentence completion skills.

Types of NCEE Sentence Completion Questions

Type 1: Vocabulary-Based Completion

Tests knowledge of word meanings in context. “After the heavy rain, the road became very ___.”

• A) clean
• B) dry
• C) slippery
• D) easy

Answer: C) slippery — heavy rain makes roads wet and slippery.

Type 2: Grammar-Based Completion

Tests understanding of grammatical structures.

Prepositions: “My sister is good ___ mathematics.”

• A) in
• B) at
• C) on
• D) with

Answer: B) at — “good at” is the correct collocation.

Verb Tenses: “Yesterday, we ___ to the stadium to watch a football match.”

• A) go
• B) going
• C) gone
• D) went

Answer: D) went — “yesterday” signals past tense.

Type 3: Collocation-Based Completion

Tests knowledge of which words go together naturally.

“Emeka passed the exam ___ good marks.”

• A) with
• B) by
• C) for
• D) in

Answer: A) with — “pass with good marks” is the natural phrase.

Common Collocations to Memorise:

Collocation	Meaning
Take a bath	Perform the action of bathing
Make a mistake	Commit an error
Do homework	Complete school assignments
Have breakfast	Eat the morning meal
Go to school	Attend educational institution
Catch a cold	Become ill with a cold
Tell a lie	Speak untruthfully
Keep a promise	Honour one’s word

⚡ NCEE Strategy:

1. Read sentence without the blank — what makes sense?
2. Look at options — eliminate obviously wrong ones
3. Try each option in context
4. Choose the option that sounds most natural (when in doubt, trust your ear)

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🔴 Extended — Deep Study (3mo+)

Comprehensive coverage for thorough preparation.

Advanced Sentence Completion Mastery for NCEE

Understanding Context Clues in Depth

Strong readers use multiple types of context clues to determine meaning:

1. Definition Clues The meaning is directly stated in the sentence. “Chidi is an orphan — a child whose parents are dead.” The phrase “a child whose parents are dead” defines “orphan.”

2. Example Clues The sentence gives examples that illustrate the unknown word. “Fruits such as mango, pawpaw, and orange grow in Nigeria.” ” mango, pawpaw, and orange” are examples of “fruits.”

3. Contrast/Antonym Clues The sentence contains a word opposite in meaning. “Unlike his brother who is very talkative, Chidinma is extremely ___.” “Talkative” suggests the opposite is “quiet” or “reserved.”

4. Cause and Effect Clues One part of the sentence causes another. “The baby was crying ___ she was hungry.” A baby cries because she is hungry — “because” or “since.”

Grammar Structures Frequently Tested in NCEE:

Subject-Verb Agreement:

Rule	Example
Singular subject + singular verb	”The boy plays football.”
Plural subject + plural verb	”The boys play football."
"There is” + singular	”There is one book."
"There are” + plural	”There are many books.”

Tense Consistency: “Last week, my father ___ to Lagos.” (go/went/going/gone) → Answer: went

Articles Usage:

• “a” before consonant sounds: a book, a university (but u is a consonant sound here)
• “an” before vowel sounds: an apple, an egg
• “the” for specific items: the teacher, the books

Preposition Patterns:

Preposition	Used with
in	country names (in Nigeria), cities (in Lagos), rooms (in the classroom)
on	surfaces (on the table), days (on Monday)
at	specific times (at 9 o’clock), places (at the market)
to	directions (to school), destinations (to Abuja)
from	origins (from Ghana), sources (from the teacher)

Conjunction Usage:

Conjunction	Joins
and	words/ideas of same type
but	contrasting ideas
or	alternatives
because	reasons
so	results
if	conditions

⚡ NCEE Marking Patterns: Questions often include 1-2 options that are grammatically possible but contextually wrong. The correct answer must satisfy BOTH grammar and meaning.

Example Analysis: “The man was ___ to hear that his son had passed the examination.”

• A) happy ✓ (makes sense)
• B) sadly ✗ (grammatically wrong — needs adjective, not adverb)
• C) glad ✓ (makes sense)
• D) pleased ✓ (makes sense)

If all B, C, D are possible, look for the most natural collocation: “was happy to hear” is more common than “was glad to hear.”

Practice Exercise: For each sentence, identify what type of clue helps you:

1. “The doctor asked the patient to ___ his mouth.” (Takes/implements/what?)
2. “We must ___ our environment clean.” (Keep/make/do?)
3. “My grandmother told us a story ___ dinner.” (after/at/before?)
4. “The weather is ___ today than yesterday.” (good/better/best?)
5. “She speaks English ___ than her sister.” (well/better/best?)