Odd sentence out questions give you five sentences and ask you to identify the one that does not belong. They appear regularly in CAT VARC and reward a specific skill: the ability to identify the central argument of a paragraph and spot the sentence that breaks it.
An odd sentence disrupts the paragraph in one of three ways. It introduces a tangent that the other four sentences do not develop. It contradicts the tone or position of the other sentences without serving as a deliberate contrast. Or it operates at a different level of abstraction, moving from specific to general or vice versa without a connecting bridge.
Before looking for the odd sentence, read all five and identify what the four connected sentences are collectively arguing. This central argument is usually clear once you see three sentences that obviously belong together. The odd sentence is then the one that does not serve this argument.
If four sentences use "they" to refer to a specific group and one sentence introduces "it" referring to a different entity, that pronoun shift is a strong signal of the odd sentence. Similarly, if four sentences discuss a historical period and one sentence jumps to a contemporary example without a bridge, it likely does not belong.
The key distinction is between a sentence that develops the argument and one that shifts to a new topic. Development can look like a counterargument, an example, a qualification or a consequence. A topic shift introduces something genuinely new that the other sentences do not address. That is your odd sentence.
GRADFLIX essays are written with tight argument structure across ten CAT RC genres. Reading them daily builds the instinct for paragraph unity that odd sentence questions test.
Read Today's EssayRead all five sentences and identify the central argument of the four that belong together. The odd sentence is the one that introduces a tangent, breaks the tone or operates at a different level of abstraction.
Odd sentence out is a question type in CAT VARC where you are given five sentences and asked to identify the one that does not belong in the paragraph formed by the other four.
CAT VARC typically has two to three odd sentence out questions per paper. They are usually in the non-MCQ format.
Para jumbles ask you to arrange four sentences in the correct order. Odd sentence out gives you five sentences and asks you to identify the one that disrupts the paragraph formed by the other four.