Part B headings: keyword overlap is not the main idea
In a heading-matching task, five paragraphs (A–E) must be matched to five of seven headings. Paragraph C reads: 'Cost, too, has proved harder to pin down than promoters promised. The headline subscription price is easy to quote; the staff hours spent migrating data, the training that never quite finishes and the consultants' fees are not. Nor do these costs fall in the same budget year, which makes comparison with the old system almost meaningless.' Paragraph D discusses a minister's reputation and 'the price of being seen to fail'. Chen Hao has pencilled 'Financial savings fail to materialise' beside C, largely because of the opening phrase 'Cost, too'. The heading list also contains 'Costs that resist easy calculation' and 'The political price of disappointment'. He has eight minutes left for the whole task and has not yet matched A, B or E. His habit is to match on repeated words because it feels fast.
1. Which heading fits paragraph C, and what procedure should Chen use to reach it rather than guessing from the opener?
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Costs that resist easy calculation.
Procedure to get there reliably:
- Strip the examples. Migrating data, training, consultants' fees and different budget years are all illustrations; ask what they illustrate.
- Find the claim sentence.
harder to pin down than promoters promisedandmakes comparison … almost meaninglessboth assert difficulty of measurement, not absence of savings. - Test the heading against every sentence, not just the first. 'Savings fail to materialise' would require the paragraph to say the money was never saved; it never mentions savings at all.
- Treat the opener as a signpost, not a summary.
Cost, toosignals the topic area and links to the previous paragraph - examiners place such signposts where candidates will over-weight them.
A heading must cover the paragraph's whole argument. If it only paraphrases the first clause, it is a trap.
2. How should he avoid the C/D confusion created by the shared vocabulary of cost and price?
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Ask what abstract noun each paragraph is really about:
- C: measurement and comparability -
harder to pin down,easy to quote … are not,comparison … meaningless. Topic: quantification. - D: legitimacy and reputation - a minister,
being seen to fail, political damage. Topic: political consequence.
So the shared word 'price' is deliberate noise. The correct heading usually paraphrases the paragraph's claim in different vocabulary (resist easy calculation for harder to pin down); a heading that repeats the paragraph's own words verbatim is a warning sign, not a confirmation. Practical check: cover the shared keyword and reread the heading - if nothing is left but the topic area, it is too vague or belongs elsewhere. Then insert the heading as a topic sentence at the start of the paragraph and see whether the rest of the paragraph reads as a development of it.
3. With eight minutes left, A, B and E unmatched and two surplus headings, how should he sequence the work?
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Easiest-first with elimination as the engine.
- Match the two or three paragraphs whose topic is unmistakable (likely A, B or E) in about 90 seconds each. Confidence buys certainty cheaply.
- Cross off used headings. The two surplus headings then become a negative constraint: any paragraph that would need a crossed-off heading has been misread.
- For the remaining paragraph, assign by elimination even if it feels imperfect - blanks score zero.
- Spend the last 60–90 seconds checking each match by inserting the heading before the paragraph and reading the first two sentences together. If the heading predicts what comes next, keep it; if the paragraph immediately contradicts it, swap.
He should also stop himself from re-matching settled items on feel. In heading tasks, changes made in the final minute without a textual reason are more often wrong than right.