GRE Verbal Reasoning

The GRE test conducted by ETS has 3 sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Analytical Writing. Out of the three sections, the Verbal Reasoning section is the only section where the preparation is relatively easy and banks on the proficiency the student has in the language.

This section aims to analyze the ability of the student to gather information and find links between them. Candidates are also expected to find the relationships between words and complete sentences using their knowledge of the language.

Note: The Verbal Reasoning Section of GRE is not a substitute for the TOEFL test.

About the GRE Verbal Reasoning Section

The goal of the GRE Verbal Reasoning test is to measure the candidate's ability to understand and analyze written passages and to understand the meaning and context of words being used. The Verbal Reasoning section is the toughest section for non-native English speakers. If the candidate's first language is not English, then they need to prepare for it. There are 40 questions in the verbal section (2 sections with 20 questions each). Each section is of 30 minutes.

GRE Question Types

GRE Verbal section has three different types of questions:

Reading Comprehension

The Reading Comprehensive section of the GRE is designed to assess a test taker's ability to understand and analyze complex written passages. This section consists of multiple passages from a variety of disciplines, including natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and literature. Test takers are required to read and comprehend the passages, identify the main ideas, analyze the author's arguments, and evaluate the evidence presented.

Question Types-

1. Multiple Choice- Select One Answer Choice: The students are required to choose a single response from a pool of five possible answers.
2. Multiple Choice- Select One or More Answer Choice: The question presented to the students will have either one or three correct answers, and they must choose all the correct answers in order to receive credit as partial credit is not awarded.
3. Select-in-Passage: These questions require students to choose the sentence in the passage that best fits a specific description.

Text Completion

This section of the GRE requires test-takers to carefully read and comprehend the context of the passage in order to select the correct words that fit logically and cohesively within the given text. By evaluating their vocabulary, critical thinking skills, and ability to infer meaning from context, the Text Completion questions aim to assess test-takers' overall reading comprehension abilities. This portion of the exam challenges them, to not only identify the meaning of individual words but also to consider how they interact with the surrounding text to convey a coherent message.

Question Structure-
Each passage is made up of anywhere from one to five sentences, containing one to three blanks in each sentence. Each blank has just one correct answer. The selection of an answer for one blank does not influence the choices available for another blank, and there is no credit for partially correct answers.

Sentence Equivalence

The Sentence Equivalence section of the GRE evaluates the test taker's ability to comprehend complex sentences and select two answer choices that produce sentences with the same meaning. This section requires the test taker to understand not only the individual words in a sentence but also the relationships between those words and how they contribute to the overall meaning of the sentence. By selecting two answer choices that create sentences with the same meaning, the test taker demonstrates their proficiency in understanding the nuances of language and their ability to accurately interpret and manipulate complex sentences.

Question Structure-
In this section, each sentence has a blank with six possible answers, and students are required to choose two correct answers in order to receive credit. Incomplete responses will not be counted.

Approaching the Question Types

Reading Comprehension

• The passages will be taken from multiple disciplines.
• Questions will be asked directly from the passage and hence do not require knowledge of the disciplines.
• Identify the main ideas and the supporting ideas.
• Find the ideas that the author is advancing from those that are being reported.
• Also, figure out the ideas that are being stated as facts and those that are hypothetical.
• Focus only on the information provided in the text. Do not rely on external information.

Text Completion

• Identify words and phrases that seem particularly significant. Choose them according to how they contribute to the meaning of the entire structure.
• Fill in words and phrases that accurately fit rather than partially fit.
• Identify if the answers chosen will fill in the passage logically, grammatically, and coherently.

Sentence Equivalence

• Identify words and phrases that emphasize the structure of the sentence by contributing to the central meaning of the text.
• Fill in the blanks with words or phrases that seem to fit and check if more than one word in the answer choice has similar meanings.
• Select a pair of answers that can fit into the blank to create a coherent statement.
• The final meaning of the sentence should be complete both grammatically and coherently.

GRE Scoring

The Verbal Reasoning section on the GRE is scored on a scale of 130-170, in one-point increments. The scoring for Verbal Reasoning is similar to that of the Quantitative Reasoning section. The Verbal Reasoning section has two sub-sections. The first one will be of moderate difficulty whereas the second one will be dependent on the performance of the student in the first section. If the student has performed exceptionally in the first section, the next section will be comparatively tougher. If the student has not performed well enough, the second section will be easier.

The score on the Verbal Reasoning section is based on the number of questions students answer correctly, with no penalty for incorrect answers. The raw score is then converted to a scaled score using a formula that takes into account the difficulty of the questions on the test.

Tips to Crack the Verbal Reasoning Section

• Brush up on vocabulary skills. Practice using flashcards and word lists that are available online and as practice books.
• Prepare using academic passages. The passages that are provided in the Verbal Reasoning section will be dry and academic. So, practicing using easier fictional texts will not aid the student much in their endeavor to crack the section.
• Keep track of time while doing practice tests. Students often receive a lesser score since they are unable to complete the test on time. The passages provided in this section will have a few paragraphs each and this will require a lot of time to read unless the student has practiced paced reading while preparing for the test.
• Skim through the passage provided. Do not attempt reading the passages word by word since this will take a lot of time and one may not be able to retain as much information as is required for answering the questions.
• Read the question after skimming through the passage and then go back to the passage. This will provide the students with a better understanding of what to look for and help them reread the text accordingly.
• If presented with a word whose meaning is not certain, always place the word in the context to find its meaning.
• Understand that GRE offers the option of marking questions and returning to them later. If confused, never spend more than the required time on any question. Mark the question and come back to it later.
• Since there is no negative marking, one can go back to the questions that have been marked, and if there is no extra time to find the right answer to the question, mark any probable answer since it increases the chances of getting a better grade.

GRE Practice Tests