TOEFL Complete the Words, Explained

TOEFL Complete the Words is a short academic paragraph with missing letters, not a word bank and not a long reading passage. The public task keeps the first sentence whole. After that, the second half of selected words is deleted, and you type those letters. A typical text has ten incomplete words. Each blank is right or wrong. This practice task is the Reading set a new account can start, and it costs 1 credit when the exam starts.

In this guide

1. What the screen shows
2. A worked paragraph
3. The misses that score zero
4. A filling order that fits the clock
5. How the report should change the next set
6. Try this yourself
7. Frequently asked questions

What the screen shows

You see a paragraph of about 70–100 words on an ordinary academic topic. You do not need outside knowledge of the field. The first sentence is there so the topic is already stated before any letters disappear. Later words show their beginnings. You supply the rest. The number of missing letters is part of the puzzle: the gap has a shape, and a guess that is a real English word still fails if it does not fit that shape and that sentence.

There is no list of options under the paragraph. Scanning the page for the same word repeated later is a weak habit, because the keyed word usually is not sitting intact somewhere else. Context is the sentence around the gap: the verb that needs an object, the adjective that needs a noun, the phrase that already started.

This is also why spelling is not a side skill here. On Write an Email, a small spelling slip may sit inside a 0–5 criterion. On Complete the Words, the wrong letters are the whole item. Case does not matter. An extra letter does.

A worked paragraph

Read the first sentence whole, then finish the words. The endings in parentheses are the key for this original example. They are not from an ETS form.

“Campus clinics now book same-day visits online. Students requ__ (est) a nurse wh__ (en) a fever star__ (ts) at night, and the fo__ (rm) asks for the on__ (set) time, not a diagno__ (sis). A photo of a ras__ (h) can be atta__ (ched), but the cl__ (inic) still confir__ (ms) the slot by email before you walk over.”

Ten gaps, ten decisions. “Requ__” is a verb because “students” need one before “a nurse.” “Wh__” is fixed by “a fever starts.” “Star__” agrees with “fever.” “Fo__” is the thing that asks. “On__” plus “time” is the collocation the form wants, not “only time.” “Diagno__” is what the form is refusing to collect. “Ras__” is what a photo shows. “Atta__” is the verb for a file. “Cl__” is the subject that confirms. “Confir__” has to agree with “clinic” and with “by email.”

If you wrote “requesting” in the first gap, the letters do not match “est,” and the item is wrong even though a longer verb can be grammatical in another sentence. The gap length is evidence. Use it.

The misses that score zero

Four patterns show up more often than “I did not know the topic.”

The word class is wrong. The sentence needs a noun and you built an adverb because the letters looked familiar. Read one word to the left and one word to the right before you commit.

The family is right and the form is wrong. “Confirm” versus “confirms,” “attach” versus “attached.” The letters after the stem are the grammar. Say the whole sentence aloud once. A form that you would not say is usually the miss.

The collocation is almost right. “Onset time” was the keyed phrase, and “only time” used legal letters that answer a different question. Complete the Words is not a creativity task. The paragraph already chose the phrase.

You spent the clock on gap three. The other seven stayed empty and scored the same zero as a confident wrong ending. An empty blank is not a milder miss. Move when the second guess is no better than the first.

How Reading is scored states the rule without a rubric: one blank, one point, no partial credit. A model of “almost” belongs to Writing criteria, not to this task.

A filling order that fits the clock

Read the intact sentence and the gapped sentences once without typing. Mark, on paper or in your head, which gaps are function words and which are content words. Function words (“when,” “the” shape, short prepositions) often fall out of the grammar. Content words need the paragraph’s topic, which the first sentence already gave you.

Then type in order. Do not hop to the gap you find interesting. Hopping leaves the easy grammar gaps for a rushed last minute, and those are the ones you are most likely to get right if you see them. If a content word will not come, put your best letter shape and continue. You can come back only if the practice clock still shows time. On the full section you may not get a leisurely return once the module advances.

Ignore the urge to rewrite the paragraph in fancier vocabulary. The beginnings are constraints. “Diagno__” will not become “illness,” because the visible letters forbid it.

How the report should change the next set

The report lists each blank, the ending you gave, and the keyed word, plus a short note when the miss has a reason beyond “wrong letters.” Sort the ten into two piles only: form (ending, agreement, part of speech) and meaning (right shape, wrong word for the sentence). The larger pile is tomorrow’s drill. If the piles are equal, drill form first. Meaning work on top of broken endings produces another zero.

Do not start the 3-credit Reading section because one Complete the Words set felt easy. Easy on ten blanks you guessed slowly is not evidence about daily-life questions or a passage. Read in Daily Life is the next credit if letters were clean and you still feel slow on notices. The section guide is the map of when both modules are worth it.

Start the scored set from Complete the Words practice. The hub at TOEFL Reading practice is the same first step if you are choosing among tasks.

What to do with a blank you cannot see

Say the intact sentence and the gapped sentence as if the gap were a hum. The hum has a length. If your candidate is much longer than the hum, it is the wrong family even when it is a real word. If your candidate is the right length and the sentence becomes ungrammatical, keep the length and change the ending, not the stem you were shown. The stem is a constraint the task already solved for you.

Then check collocation with one word on each side only. A wider scan invites you to import a word from a later sentence that happens to start with the same letters. That import is how “form” becomes “forum” in a sentence about a clinic questionnaire. The later sentence may discuss results. It is not offering you the letters. Trust the local pair of words, type, and move. An empty gap at the end of the clock is the same zero as a brave wrong ending, with less information in the report.

Try this yourself

Cover the parenthetical endings in the worked paragraph and fill the ten gaps in four minutes. Uncover and mark form versus meaning. Then run a new set under the product timer so the words are ones you have not just memorized.

Start Complete the Words for the scored attempt. Bring the two-pile note to the report. If the piles disagree with how the band feels, trust the piles.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a word bank?

No. You type the missing letters. The public task deletes the second half of words in a short academic paragraph after an intact first sentence.

How many words are incomplete?

The public description uses ten incomplete words in the paragraph. Treat each as its own item. A blank left empty scores 0, the same as a wrong ending.

Can I use context from later sentences?

Yes. The paragraph is one meaning unit. Later sentences can confirm a word you were unsure about. They rarely reprint the answer as a whole word, so do not hunt for a copy.

Does this task appear in both modules?

Yes. Complete the Words is one of the three Reading task types in Module 1 and again in the easier or harder Module 2. The practice difficulty of this task is not where the routing shows up most. Your accuracy on the letters still counts.

Next steps

After one scored set, follow the miss pile into the 14-day Reading plan or into a different task. Do not repeat the same paragraph until the letters feel familiar and call that a higher score.