Complete the word questions appear in almost every GL Assessment-style verbal-reasoning paper, and they reward a calm, repeatable routine far more than raw vocabulary. In this type your child is shown a sentence with one word broken open — a few letters are missing from the middle — and they must supply the letters that make the sentence read correctly. Like every VR type, it stops being hard the moment your child has a fixed method. Here is that method, a worked example, the classic traps, and how to drill it using Quest Arena's free resources.
What the question actually looks like
You will see a sentence with gaps standing in for missing letters, such as "The chef sh_rp_ned his knife before dinner." The surrounding words are complete; only one target word is broken. In GL papers this is a multiple-choice format — the missing letters are chosen from options on a separate answer sheet — so your child is really deciding which set of letters rebuilds a real, sensible word. Papers typically carry three to five of these, each worth the same single mark as any other question, which is exactly why fast technique pays off. On a roughly 50-minute paper with 80 or so questions, that is about 35-40 seconds per question, so there is no time to stare.
The fixed five-step method
Teach your child to run the same steps every time so the process becomes automatic under exam pressure:
- Read the whole sentence first. Context narrows the word before a single letter is examined — "chef" and "knife" already point towards sharpened.
- Say the visible letters aloud in your head. "sh _ rp _ ned" — the shape of the word is already familiar.
- Predict the whole word from meaning and letter pattern before looking at any options.
- Slot the letters in and re-read the sentence to check it sounds natural and is spelt correctly.
- Confirm every gap is filled — a common slip is solving one gap and forgetting the second.
Worked example
Sentence: "The chef sh_rp_ned his knife." Step one, context: a chef and a knife means the blade is being made sharp. Step two, visible letters: s-h-_-r-p-_-n-e-d. Step three, prediction: sharpened. Step four, slot in the missing a and e → "sharpened", which reads perfectly. Step five, both gaps filled. Notice how the sentence did the heavy lifting: a child who ignored "chef" and "knife" might waste seconds trying shorpened or sharponed, neither of which is a real word. Meaning first, letters second — always.
The classic traps
The examiner designs distractors that catch predictable mistakes. Coach your child to watch for these:
- The real-but-wrong word. Some letter sets build a genuine word that does not fit the sentence. "The garden was in full bl_ _ m" could technically become bloom or, if a child misreads, another word — only the sentence tells you which.
- Solving letters without the sentence. Working purely from the letter pattern is the single biggest cause of lost marks here.
- Forgetting British spellings. Colour, favour and practise (the verb) trip children who default to American forms.
- Missing a second gap. When two letters are missing, both must be checked, not just the first.
- Ignoring plurals and tense. "The dogs b_rk_d" needs a past-tense barked, not barks.
Where it sits among the VR types
Complete the word is one of a family of around twenty-one named GL verbal-reasoning question types (Bond labels them Type A to U). GL does not tell you in advance which types will appear in a given paper, so broad, type-by-type preparation matters. The table below places this type next to its close cousins so your child can tell them apart.
| Question type | What it asks | Quick cue |
|---|---|---|
| Complete the word | Supply missing letters inside one word in a sentence | Read sentence, predict word |
| Insert a letter | One letter completes the first word and starts the second | Both bracketed words must be real |
| Hidden words | Find a 4-letter word hidden across the end of one word and start of the next | Scan word joins |
| Complete the sentence (cloze) | Choose the whole word that best completes a sentence | Meaning and grammar fit |
| Anagrams | Rearrange given letters into a real word | Letters given, order hidden |
Confusing complete-the-word with insert-a-letter is common: in insert-a-letter the same single letter must finish one word and begin the next, so both resulting words have to be real. Keeping the cues above on a flashcard helps your child pick the right routine instantly.
How the marks convert — the SAS
GL papers are marked as a raw score and then converted to a Standardised Age Score (SAS), usually reported on a scale of roughly 69-141 with 100 as the average. The score is adjusted for your child's exact age in months, so a summer-born child is not disadvantaged against an autumn-born peer. Every complete-the-word mark banked lifts the raw total that feeds this conversion; many grammar schools look for an SAS around 111 or higher, though exact qualifying marks vary by area and year. Getting the quick, high-frequency types like this one reliably right is one of the surest ways to protect the score.
How to practise this type
Little and often wins: five questions of this type daily for a week beats fifty in one sitting. Our free verbal-reasoning worksheets are organised by exact question type, and the Arena's VR mode gives instant feedback with XP so mistakes are corrected on the spot. Build vocabulary alongside the drills — a short synonym-and-antonym list read aloud each evening feeds directly into recognising the target word faster. When the type feels automatic, fold it back into full timed mock papers so pacing develops alongside accuracy, and use the revision hub to schedule a mix of types across the week. For the full landscape, see the 21 VR types overview and the wider GL 11+ paper guide.
Frequently asked questions
How many complete-the-word questions are in a paper?
Usually three to five, though GL does not publish the exact mix and it can vary between papers, which is why covering every VR type matters.
Should my child solve the letters or read the sentence first?
Always read the sentence first. Context tells you the likely word before you examine a single letter, and it stops your child choosing a real-but-wrong option.
How long should each question take?
On a typical GL paper the budget is roughly 35-40 seconds per question. Complete-the-word items are usually quicker than average once the method is automatic, freeing time for harder questions later.