Do you get partial marks in Reorder Paragraphs?

Yes, but pairs are the unit, not positions. You score 1 point for each pair of text boxes that ends up correctly next to each other, with a minimum of 0 and no negative marking. That means placing the true opening sentence in slot one earns you nothing unless the box that follows it is also right.

Why a correct first box alone scores zero

The scoring looks at every neighbouring pair in your answer and asks whether that pair appears in the same order in the source text. With five boxes there are four such pairs, so four is the maximum.

Here's the consequence people find counterintuitive: if you get the last four boxes in perfect order but drop the true first box at the end, you still score 3 out of 4. And if you nail the opening sentence but shuffle everything after it, you may score 0. Absolute position earns nothing on its own.

So hunt for links, not for the opener

Practically, this flips the standard advice. Instead of spending your time deciding which sentence is the introduction, look for two boxes that obviously chain together and lock them as a unit. Every confirmed chain is a guaranteed point.

The signals are the usual ones: a pronoun or 'this process' / 'such measures' with no antecedent in its own box, a definite article referring to something only one other box introduces, a repeated noun phrase, a 'however' or 'as a result' that needs a specific preceding claim. Chain pairs first, then arrange the chains.

There's no reason not to attempt it

Because the floor is 0 and there's no deduction, any attempt is free. Never leave boxes in their default order out of indecision — even a partially reasoned arrangement usually picks up a point or two, and a fully random one can't cost you anything.

Don't overspend the time

The Reading section runs on a single overall timer rather than per-question limits, so four minutes agonising over one Reorder item comes directly out of the fill-in-the-blanks questions you could have answered fully correctly. Two minutes is a reasonable ceiling.

If you're stuck at that point, place your confident pairs, arrange the rest in the order that reads least badly, and move on. Partial credit means a half-solved item is genuinely worth something — the questions you rush past to get there are not.

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