Transitions

Pick out the sentence before the blank and the sentence after it, then look only at how those two connect.

Sort the link between two sentences into one of four kinds (comparison, cause, expansion, time) by taking the connector out and seeing what's lost.

Tell a result (something that happened because of the sentence before) from a purpose (something someone did to reach a goal), and pick the matching connector.

Swap the two sentences to tell contrast (two things that simply differ) from concession (an expectation that gets overturned).
Also meet two close cousins: correction and pre-concession.

Tell specification (the second sentence pins down the first one's exact claim) from emphasis (it adds a separate, striking fact for the same point).

Spot connectors that only tell you when something happened, and sort them: after, before, at the same time, now, or a numbered step in a list.

Learn when for example is really the answer, and how to tell it apart from in other words, similarly, and moreover.

Learn two more relations, generalization and summary, and tell apart words you already use: furthermore/moreover/besides, in turn, after all, and rather.

Sometimes the answer is a word like There, which means "in that place just mentioned," or a long phrase you haven't seen before.
Work out what it means, then treat it like the ordinary transition it stands for.

When two choices mean the same thing, cross out both, since only one answer can be right.
Then pick from what's left by asking how the two sentences connect.