What the question looks like
Five or six jumbled sentences (labelled A-F or P-T) must be arranged into a logical paragraph. SBI usually asks a set of 5 questions on one jumble: "Which is the FIRST / THIRD / LAST sentence after rearrangement?" Some papers give a fixed sentence or ask for the full order directly.
Step-by-step approach
- Find the opening sentence. It introduces the topic and makes sense on its own. It usually has no pronoun pointing backwards (this, these, it, they, such) and no linking word (however, therefore, also).
- Find mandatory pairs. Look for links that force one sentence to follow another:
- Pronouns and demonstratives: this arrangement, these items, such loans, they.
- Contrast and result words: however, yet, but (a turn after an idea); therefore, as a result, this is why (a consequence).
- Time sequence: long before, over time, eventually, today.
- Repeated nouns: a term defined in one sentence and used with the in another.
- Find the closing sentence. It usually concludes, sums up or looks ahead (if the scheme succeeds..., today..., in this way...).
- Build blocks and join them. Two or three fixed pairs usually leave only one possible order.
- Verify: read the full order once quickly before answering the set.
Worked example
Sentences: (A) Over time, metals replaced these items because they were durable. (B) Long before coins existed, people traded through barter. (C) Today, the same idea of trust underlies digital money. (D) To overcome this difficulty, societies began to use shells and salt. (E) Eventually, rulers stamped metal pieces to create coins. (F) This arrangement worked only when each party wanted what the other had.
B opens (no backward reference). This arrangement in F refers to barter, so B-F. This difficulty in D refers to F's problem, so F-D. These items in A are D's shells and salt, so D-A. Eventually in E follows A, and Today in C closes. Order: B F D A E C.
Common traps
- Starting with a sentence that contains this/these/however. Such a sentence is almost never first.
- Answering the set before fixing the whole order. One wrong pair spoils all five answers, so confirm first.
- Choosing an opener that is a general truth when another sentence clearly introduces the specific subject being discussed.
- Ignoring chronology: words like first, then, later, eventually, today are strong anchors.