GRE Sentence Completion - Two Blanks

A few of the sentence completion question will contain two blanks, and so your job will be to determine which of the provided answer choices best fit into the two blanks. The fact that there are two blanks can make a dual blank question more difficult than a sentence completion question with just one blank, but likewise having two blanks to consider can make the problem quite difficult. You'll want to consider the following:

• At first, don't look at the answer choices. As in the single blank sentence completion questions, mentally try to come up with word choices for both blanks that would make the sentence correct. However, use the mental completion tactic on dual blank questions only to get you thinking about the sentence; in most cases you won't be able to eliminate answer choices quite yet.
• Look at the individual words in each of the answer choices and spot those words that would definitely not fit into the sentence. After you've done that, you should be able to eliminate several answer choices. Most importantly, eliminate an answer choice even if only one of the two words for that choice does not fit into the sentence. Remember that both words have to fit into the sentence, and so don't get fooled into selecting an answer only because one of the answer choices fits.
• Lastly, after you've weeded out some of the answer choices, probably you'll have a few answer choices remaining. Select that answer choice whose words best fit into the sentence and whose words are most grammatically and stylistically correct.
• Lastly, employ those tactics that you use on single blank sentence completion questions. Look for key words to help you point out any change or continuation of mood, style, evidence, etc., and make sure that the overall meaning of the sentence, when supplied with the answer choice that you select, is correct.