Most Important Questions Based on Fillers with Answer Key for IBPS Clerk Exam 2019: Download Free PDF

How to attempt questions based on fillers

Fillers are vocabulary-based questions. They test your knowledge and command over language’s vocabulary. Take a look at how you can solve questions based on fillers to excel in Banking exams. Every sentence contains hints that will help you select the correct answer. Each of the following strategies will help you decipher those hints, but remember that any given question might require you to use more than one approach.

Here are some important tips and tricks to solve fillers

1. Vocabulary & Idioms/Phrases
In certain questions, your knowledge and understanding of vocabulary and common idioms-phrases of the English Language may be tested. Hence, be sure to have a sound knowledge of English vocabulary and idioms/phrases.

 2. Predict the answer
 a. Get a rough idea of the theme and tone of the sentence, understand the context of the sentence and try to fill the missing word without looking at the options.
 b. Now go to options and choose the word from the options that best replaces the word that you had thought of initially. Ensure that the meaning of the sentence is intact.

3. Elimination method
Alternatives that have a meaning opposite to the word that you would like to insert in the blank, eliminate those answer choices. 50% of the options can be eliminated from here. And with this, you will end up having less choices.

4. Use grammar clues:
You should keep a close watch at grammar clues, for an instance, if the article, “an” comes before the blank, then it implies that the answer must begin with a vowel sound. Such grammatical clues can be of great help in deciding the answers.

5. Use Connotation:
Each word expresses two things: a definition and a connotation. A connotation is a positive, negative, or neutral feeling that is implied by or associated with a word. Although the context is the part of a sentence that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning, connotation refers to the emotion that is suggested by the word itself. For example, the adjective “thrifty” implies a positive connotation, whereas the adjective “parsimonious” implies a negative connotation. Both words have similar definitions, but very different connotations.
Using connotations can help you determine the correct answer or at least eliminate a few wrong answers.

6. Identify the Indicators
Indicators indicate that the question setter is now moving to draw a contrast with something stated previously, or support something stated previously.

(a) Contrast Indicators
Why do we contrast two things? We contrast two things to point out how they differ. In this type of question, we look for a word that has the opposite meaning of keyword or phrase in the sentence. The following are some of the most common contrast indicators. Some contrast indicators are – Although, However, In spite of, Despite, etc.

(b) Support Indicators
Supporting words support or further explain what has already been said. These words often introduce synonyms for words elsewhere in the sentence. Some contrast indicators are – Moreover, And, Similarly, Likewise. etc.

(c) Cause and Effect Indicators
These words indicate that one thing causes another to occur. Some of the most common cause and effect indicators are – Because, Therefore, Consequently. etc.

7. Confirmation of your answer
You must confirm your answer only after considering all the given alternatives, even if your predicted answer is among the choices. The difference between the best answer and the second-best answer is sometimes very subtle. When you feel that you have selected the correct answer, read the entire sentence to yourself, using your choice(s).

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