Matching headings punishes keyword matching harder than any other question type, because the headings are written to share words with the wrong paragraphs. The paragraph about funding will contain the word "research", and so will the heading you were meant to put somewhere else.
Work from function instead. After reading a paragraph, close your eyes and answer: what is this paragraph doing? Introducing a problem. Giving an example. Conceding an objection. Explaining a cause. Describing a method. Reporting a result. Looking ahead. That answer — the job, not the topic — is what a heading names.
Then use these three in order:
- Topic sentence first, last sentence second. In academic prose the paragraph's job is
- usually announced at the start and summarised at the end. The middle is evidence.
- Eliminate, do not select. You will normally have more headings than paragraphs. Crossing
- out the ones that name a job no paragraph does is faster than hunting for perfect fits, and
- it raises your odds on everything left.
- Do the easy ones first and lock them. Every heading you place with confidence removes a
- candidate from all the others, which makes the hard paragraphs easier as you go.
Two warnings. Never choose a heading because it repeats a striking word from the paragraph — that is the trap the type is built on. And do the headings LAST if they appear first on the page: by then you will have read most of the passage answering other questions, and the jobs will be obvious.