Strategies to deal with P2: Reorder Paragraph

Part 2: Reorder Paragraphs is one of the five-item types in Part 2: Reading, which appears from two to three times during a PTE Academic or PTE Core test. This question type evaluates test-takers' Reading skills to see how capable they are in organising a paragraph to make it meaningful. 

Fundamental information

• Task: There are five text boxes on the screen in a random order, PTE takers need to restore the original order to make a complete paragraph
• Prompt length: Text up to 150 words in the PTE Academic and 110 words in the PTE Core
• Recommended timer: 2.5 minutes
• Frequency: 2-3 questions
• Skills assessed: Reading 

To understand all other item types in the PTE Academic, students can explore here: Comprehend all PTE question types. 

A unique step-by-step strategy

For your information, all strategies to deal with each question type that the Academic team at TADE Hub developed are based on how each item type is judged by Pearson because it’s the best way to utilise our skills and aim for the highest score in our ability. Part 2: Reorder Paragraphs is no exception. 

This item is a partial-score type, which means PTE takers can achieve a partial credit depending on their answers. According to the question format, we have a total of five (05) text boxes, which create four (04) adjacent pairs. 

For each correctly adjacent pair, PTE takers get one point, and the minimum score is zero. 

This is the sample question that will go with us until the end of this article, Question number 1 Part 2: Reorder Paragraphs that FREE users can find on our PTE Practice Website as well. Make sure that you read our guide rigorously and apply it in practice. 

Step 1: Understand the overall idea

The overall idea of the text helps us find the logical order in the text boxes because all boxes connect to one another to form the overall meaning. In order to comprehend the overall idea, we need to deeply understand the main idea of each text box by noting down keywords, and later we use these keywords to assemble the overall idea. 

We have several minor steps to guide you to find the overall idea, do not forget to apply to practice immediately.

• 1.1 Find corresponding information: As all boxes are in the same paragraph, so each always connects to the other. Hence, PTE takers need to skim through all text boxes from the top to the bottom and take notes on related information. Corresponding information means a piece of information which appears in different boxes or information about the same topic. From the above sample question, we have corresponding information in each box as follows:

1. 1. Links Angel Island’s past struggles to today’s society;
   2. Link between environmental and emotional well-being;
   3. Both “Angel Island descendants”;
   4. Rising temperatures and climate change’s effects;
   5. A warming planet on public health.

• 1.2 Form the overall idea: From all the corresponding information in Step 1.1, we can form the overall idea: The impacts of climate change on Public health and well-being and their connection with Angel Island’s case. 

PTE takers should bear in mind that this step only helps you find the logical order, which doesn’t contribute to your scores. As a result, you should not be too strict on the Overall idea. Instead, we need to complete it as fast as we can with an amount of appropriate information. 

Time management: As you may already reviewed our Time Management strategy for all question types, we developed is a bit more challenging when you practice individual question types, so when it comes to the actual test, it will become much easier. In this case, we have 2.5 minutes to rearrange the order, so students have around 60 seconds in this step to find the main idea in each box and the overall idea of the paragraph. We know it’s hard, but an amount of adequate practice on a daily basis will solve the issue.

Step 2: Find the first sentence

“Finding the first sentence is always the most difficult task to deal with because we only have the overall idea that we found in the previous step.” That’s just someone who hasn’t found our tips saying, you will not feel the same. However, there may be some expectations that don't fall into our tips. If you find any, please contact us for further support as our Academic team will always be available to offer advice and recommendations.

Here are several signs that you can detect in each text box, the first sentence will:

• Include personal names;
• Not include definite articles;
• Not include passive sentences;
• Not include pronouns: Besides, it also doesn’t have possessive adjectives, (yours, his, its, their, etc.), objective pronouns (me, you, him, us, etc.), possessive pronouns (mine, his, hers, theirs, etc.), and reflexive pronouns (yourself, ourselves, themselves, etc.) if personal names don’t appear before it. 

So, let’s get back to our sample question, what is the first sentence in your mind? It definitely is: Wong advocates for both “Angel Island descendants” and the new musical project, highlighting the historical recurrence of mistreatment towards immigrants.

Time management: Our job in this step simply is to find the first sentence by detecting the recommended signs, so it should not take over 30 seconds in general.

Step 3: Reorder the rest of the boxes 

We already had our first sentence, it’s time to put other sentences in the logical order accordingly. Based on the overall idea of the paragraph and the main ideas in each box, let’s use the first sentence as our base guide to fill in the next sentence. 

We do it by skimming through all sentences and finding the best connection to the first one. We keep doing it until rearrange all five sentences. Here is our example for the first and second sentences.

The first one: Wong advocates for both “Angel Island descendants” and the new musical project, highlighting the historical recurrence of mistreatment towards immigrants. 

What would be the second sentence? 

The second one is nothing but (b): By organizing initiatives like public discussions and a photographic exhibit, she links Angel Island’s past struggles to today’s society. 

If you notice, only the first sentence and (b) mention “Angel Island”, while the rest share about today’s issue, which is the impacts of climate change. 

One more example, so now we have two sentences that are put in the logical order. What would be the third? It’s (d): The intricate and significant impact of a warming planet on public health is evident. The second sentence is a chance to link to Angel Island’s past struggles, and the third one is to introduce today’s society problems, which is the impact of a warming planet on public health. 

The last two sentences share details about the impacts. At first, it is a bit tricky to pick which is the next. Nevertheless, we only need to pay soft attention to detect a clue, which is “Rising temperatures” and “a warming planet”. Therefore, (a) and (c) will be the next sentence and the last one respectively.

Time Management: We already spent 1.5 minutes on the previous steps, so we have around 1 minute left, from which PTE takers need to utilise every single second to form a correct order out of five sentences.

Things to avoid

• Reorder the paragraphs before reading: Without reading all the boxes first, we are blind in searching for the answer. We do not know which sentence to place at which place. By doing so, PTE takers simply sign a contract of getting zero scores. 
• Spend over three minutes: It’s ideal to spend 2.5 minutes for each Part 2: Reorder Paragraph question. However, we know sometimes some questions are more challenging compared to others, so students feel free to take up to 03 minutes but never spend more than that because it’s too risky that you aren’t able to complete other questions with the remaining time.
• Underestimate the first sentence: This is the easiest one to spot, and PTE takers only need to find the second one to get points. Besides, without the first one being placed in the correct order, it’s extremely hard to make the logical arrangement for the rest. Accordingly, make sure to follow our tips to catch the first sentence correctly.

Practice makes perfect!

Live-Interactive PTE Practice Website

Welcome to your effective PTE Practice Platform. Here are the reasons why this is the only practice website you need for your PTE Academic or PTE Core preparation. 

• Thousands of practice questions;
• Instantly detailed feedback for all question types;
• Same grading elements as what Pearson uses to evaluate your skills;
• At least 10 Full 2-hour Mock tests with estimated scores;
• Three supportive vocab lists;
• FREE Tips and Strategies to deal with all item types;
• Other supporting self-study features.

We have been supporting tons of thousands of students across the world to prepare for their PTE Academic, PTE Core, and Duolingo English Test with only the live-interactive practice websites and FREE tips and strategies on our blog shared directly by our Academic team. Everything is built for self-study students because we believe in your ability to advance your skills, transform yourself, and pursue your dreams. Thus, we developed instantly detailed feedback to create the best simulation for your preparation because we all need constructive feedback for improvement. To illustrate, if you practice Part 1: Summarize Written Text, you will receive the following feedback the website automatically evaluates your practice answers based on the same grading elements as what Pearson uses to assess your skills including Content, Form, Grammar, and Vocabulary. Feel free to take a look at this video sample feedback for a better understanding.

Wait no more, let’s take a visit to the PTE Practice Website, create your FREE account, and start practising Part 2: Reorder Paragraphs with all other item types.