How To Do Cloze Tests

A Cloze reading test is an exercise where you are provided with a passage which has certain words missing from it. You must have a strong command over English language, along with a flair for grammar and a good vocabulary to solve questions based on cloze test.
More importantly, it is important to understand the flow and context of the passage.

How to solve cloze tests

Read Thoroughly
Read the passage provided very thoroughly to form an idea about the topic. Read slowly and gain an understanding of the text. Once the theme of the text is somewhat clear, your job becomes easier. You can then go on to think of the appropriate words that suit the situation being described and proceed to filling in the blanks.

Link the Sentences Together
Remember that it is a passage with sentences that are connected to each other. Do not make the mistake of treating each sentence like an individual one and filling in the blanks accordingly. Try to come up with logical connections that link up the sentences together and your job will automatically become easier.

The Type of Word to Fill in
Now look at the blanks carefully and assess the kind of words you have to fill in. Which part of speech would it be?

Would it be a noun, a pronoun, a verb, a preposition, a conjunction or an article? For example-
A noun - I forgot to carry my ____ to school. I therefore had to share with my friend.
The logical answer here would be a book or tiffin.
An article - He ate ____ papaya and threw ___ seeds away.

Articles are usually the easiest to answer. Fill in ‘a’ and ‘an’ where talking about general facts and ‘the’ when using it before something specific. Here, the answer is ‘the’ or ‘his’ in the first case and ‘the’ or ‘its’ in the second.

A verb: _____ for half an hour left me breathless. The idea of being breathless connotes something strenuous like ‘exercising’ or ‘running’.In this way, think of the appropriate word to fill in.

Eliminate Options
We can easily identify most unfit/illogical words in answer options. We should quickly eliminate these words. Only after that we should try to most fit word. Elimination will enhance accuracy and hence score.

Go with Frequently Used Words
Sometimes, you may not be able to decide between two words. In this case, if you see a word in the options that is frequently used with the words around the blank, then pick that option.

For example: Can I have a ____ word with you?
A. swift
B. quick
C. prompt

You can see that the three options nearly mean the same thing. How do you decide which one fits the blank?

Sometimes in English, some words are used more frequently with some others.

For example: ‘bad habit’, ‘hardly ever’, ‘happy ending’, ‘take a seat’, ‘make room’ etc. In the same way, the words ‘quick’ and ‘word’ are used together frequently. So ‘quick’ should be your answer in this case.

Check Tone OF passage
The passage is usually written in a certain tone; sometimes narrative, sometimes critical, sometimes humorous. Pick words that fit in with the tone of the passage.

For example:

Joel ____ down the stairs, bumping along like a quarter in a tumbling dryer.
A. tumbled
B. fell
C. dropped

Clearly, you can use either ‘tumbled’ or ‘fell’ in this blank.
But the rest of the sentence is written in a humorous vein.

So we try to maintain the tone of the sentence. This is best accomplished by the use of the word ‘tumbled’ as it brings to mind images of people falling funnily.

Practice More
In the end, there is no substitute for hard work and practice. Try to complete three to four passages each day while preparing and get an insight into your problem areas. Work on them and go deliver your best

-  if you are unable to find the fit word go for elimination. Eliminate most unfit/illogical words from the answer options. Once you eliminated 2-3 words it will be easy to target answer from remaining words. Elimination will enhance accuracy and hence your score.

- Observe the Sentences before/after  - In a passage mostly all the sentences are logically related to each other try to form linkage with preceding sentences

-  Apply grammar rules (grammar rules  - prepositions, noun, pronoun, adj, verb etc)

Preposition following a noun, adjective or verb. 
-  a prepositional phrase. (Example: in spite of ) 
-  an adverb. ( Example: they vacated the house two years ago) 
-  a connector. (Example: it is raining, therefore ground is wet.) 
-  a conjunction. (Example: Although he is seven, he can speak eight languages) 
-  an auxiliary verb , an article , a pronoun , either subject or object. (Example : it is easier to know) 
-  a comparative or superlative involved? (Example: she’s taller than me)

Go with Frequently Used Words - Sometimes, you may not be able to decide between two words. In this case, if you see a word in the options that is frequently used with the words around the blank, then pick that option.