How to Master the GRE Verbal Reasoning Section

Published on: 27 January 2021 Last Updated on: 24 December 2024

The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) assesses a graduate school applicant’s aptitude. They range from verbal skills and mathematical skills necessary to succeed in their higher education.

Test-takers work through five total sections: one Analytical Writing, two Quantitative Reasoning, and two Verbal Reasoning sections.

Especially if you don’t have a background in a writing and reading-intensive discipline. Plus, the Verbal Reasoning portion of the exam can be quite challenging.

Many GRE test-takers don’t know where to get started with improving their reading comprehension skills.

What is Verbal Reasoning?

According to the official GRE website, the Verbal Reasoning section “assesses your ability to evaluate and analyze with written material.

Then it checks how you synthesize information you obtain through analyzing relationships within sentences and recognize relationships among words.

The two Verbal Reasoning sections of the exam have 30 questions each and give test-takers 20 minutes to complete them.

They include the following types of questions to test the skill sets described above:

1. Reading Comprehension Questions

Throughout the Verbal Reasoning section, test-takers will encounter three different subtypes of reading comprehension questions:

Traditional multiple-choice questions with five choices and one correct answer.
More complex multiple-choice questions with three choices and either one, two, or three correct answers. No partial credit is given for identifying some but not all the correct options.
Select-in-passes questions, where the exam taker reads a short passage and then answers questions about the specific function of sentences within the text.

2. Text Completion Questions

These questions are based on a passage with one to five sentences. Within these passages, one-, two-, and three-word spaces are left blank, and the test-taker must answer multiple-choice questions about which words would best complete the sentence if filled into the blank space.

3. Sentence Equivalence Questions

Each of these questions presents a single sentence with one word missing. The test-taker is given six choices of words that could fill in the blank.

Also, they must identify which two options, if chosen, would create sentences with equivalent meaning.

How to Prepare

Since the GRE tests aptitude and skill sets, not your knowledge of specific topics, many students find it difficult to strategize their studying.

When it comes to the Verbal Reasoning section, the following preparation methods can sharpen the skills that the section assesses.

1. Brush Up on Your Vocabulary

Vocabulary plays a big part in GRE’s success. Answering text completion and sentence equivalence questions becomes quite challenging if you aren’t familiar with the answer options.

Additionally, strong vocabulary skills will help you easily parse the complex passages included in the reading comprehension questions.

There are two steps to improving your vocabulary skills: simple memorization and vocab-in-context.

You can use flashcards with word definitions to help with memorization, and you can read dense materials or study vocabulary words within complete sentences to practice the latter.

2. Take Practice Tests

Practice tests are a great way to know where you stand. It will help you learn about your strengths and weaknesses and how much you must improve to achieve a higher score.

It will also guide you in deciding how rigorously you will have to work on your existing vocabulary skills.

Consider using guides and reference books like Kaplan GRE study books to practice with questions that accurately simulate the difficulty of the exam.

3. Pacing and the Process of Elimination

When taking practice tests, focus on your pacing throughout the Verbal Reasoning section.

Get a gauge for how long the passages typically take to read and understand and how long each type of question takes you to answer.

To get through questions faster, work on your process-of-elimination strategies.

It’s also important that you recognize when you simply don’t know the answer to a question and are better off choosing a random answer than spending too much time on it.

4. Markup the Text

One mistake most test-takers make when reading through a passage is not making simple annotations, which results in them having to reread the passage.

It will save precious time to take to circle or underline important points or keywords while going through the text the first time.

5. Stick to the Text and Information Given

Never get carried away by your opinions or background knowledge when dealing with a critical reasoning question based on a given passage.

The passages present all the information you need—assuming information can lead you astray.

6. Tacking Test Day

The most effective way to prepare for all sections of the GRE is to familiarize yourself with the skills tested, types of questions asked, and pacing.

If you focus on these elements and take full-length practice tests to simulate the day of the test, you’ll know exactly what you’re up against and how to tackle every aspect of the exam.

How Does GRE Help Your Professional Life?

You might wonder, “How does spending time mastering these tricky verbal questions benefit me professionally?”

It’s a valid question, no doubt!

The skills you develop while preparing for the Verbal Reasoning section of the GRE aren’t just helpful in school. Yes, they are applicable to the real world. They can also impact how you communicate, think critically, and problem-solve.

Enhanced Communication Skills

Reading comprehension questions force you to read through the matter properly and understand it with a step-by-step approach.

Seriously, does anyone ever send you anything that is easily understood at work?

When you are working, you will be dealing with reports, proposals, and technical documents. In meetings or in emails, you need people to understand what you mean to say quickly. This is why GRE puts emphasis on that, as well as understanding and articulation.

Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

The type of analytical reasoning you use to answer GRE questions is the same kind of thinking you’ll be doing if you’re in a position of leadership. Or you must make high-stakes decisions.

Whether you are interpreting data sets, inferring information from texts, or computing information from a graph or chart, you are likely to need those skills if you’re looking for insights about a market trend. Or even trying to draw conclusions based on project results.

Those kinds of higher-order reading skills are something you can develop in the GRE’s Verbal Reasoning section.

You’ll quickly realize that succeeding in the GRE prepares you for a similar competitive environment.

Something that will surface time and again in your professional existence. It can be a little difficult when you’re first starting out. However, you can find plenty of free online practice problems, and you must utilize them well.

Final Thoughts

Verbal Reasoning on the GRE is a project. Like everything else on this exam, you’ll need a blend of strategy, consistent practice, and mental discipline to achieve your maximum potential.

But if you take advantage of it, it can result in gaining skills that will be helpful throughout your academic & professional career beyond.

Whether we’re talking about writing better papers, reading more effectively, thinking through complex issues, or thriving under pressure, you can conquer them all.

Read Also:

Content Rally

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

View all posts

A Guaranteed Approach to Raising a Little Genius

There are many forms of success: social happiness, financial success, work success, being loved, and satisfied with life, but one thing is certain – all parents want their kids to achieve success. In order for our children to achieve this bliss in life, they need to be smart. And like many children, there are, there as many ways of being smart, but parents can be the essential factor in raising a little genius. So, if you are seeking ways of ensuring a great life for your child, you need to seek ways of challenging their brain. Raising an Open Mind In order to become smart children need to learn and experience new things. Keeping an open mind about the world allows them to intake new knowledge which increases their intelligence and overall capacities. From an early age, allow your kids to discover the world around them, and take in everything. Raising an open-minded and tolerant child will ultimately result in familiarity with learning, where children are not afraid to experience new and interesting things. Catering to Your Child’s Unique Learning Style Each child also learns its own way, and there are three main learning methods: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Each targets a different sensory system and finding your child’s main preference, as well as refining all three ensures a smart and individualized approach to learning. Creative arts and crafts projects, pictures, and coloring all tend to the needs of a visual learner. Reading out loud, repetition, speaking out information out loud, or learning through song can be a sure-fire way to satisfy the auditory preferences. On the other hand, dancing, learning through movement, or as part of a game can improve their kinesthetic learning. A Fun Approach to Learning Using play as a way to teach kids has enormous potential of developing a healthy attitude towards learning. Young kids use playing games and toys as a way to make sense of the world and is therefore only natural to use it to improve their intellect. Toys play a major impact on skill development and problem-solving games like puzzles and Lego’s target logical thinking, problem-solving skills, but also improves creativity. On the other hand, kids adore their video games, and incorporating math, language, and science by providing free video games to kids, such as Poptropica, can improve their skills, and overall cognitive stage development. The Value of Reading Incorporating reading into your child’s upbringing, not only expands existing mental abilities but also teaches them to make it part of their lives. During the early years, reading to children stimulates their language acquisition, and positively affect their imagination and creativity. Later, when kids learn to read, and reading becomes a habit, and providing them the best children’s books is a must. By reading people are able to use their senses and emotions, in order to understand the material. This, in turn, sparks imagination, inspiring and motivating children to create stories, as a way to resolve problems and accept any challenge that comes their way. Increasing a Brain’s Physical Properties Since a healthy mind requires a healthy body and brain food to grow and expand, kids need exercise and diet that can make them smarter. Eating regularly and incorporating Omega-3 essential fats into their diet, helps increase brain mass, improving synaptic connections. This is seen through heightened concentration and ability to intake information. On the other hand, regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle can increase lung capacity and regulate healthy sleep patterns. That also allows brain matter to store data and increase thinking rate. In the end, it is important to remember that all kids have the ability to become smart, but in order to create a little genius, kids need a little nudge. By providing them with a healthy environment in which they can grow, you, the parent, are helping them raise their intellect, and ultimately paving their path to success.

Perfect day: How to manage everything you have planned?

It's time to stop wasting your life. Even spending money for nothing is not so terrible spending time useless. Money comes and goes, and life just goes away. It's time to think about what we are spending our lives on seriously. Everyone can learn how to manage their time correctly. Everybody has 24 hours per day, neither more nor less. Surely you have dreams, plans, goals, and desires that you are continually putting off for tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. To manage to do everything planned, try to implement the following tips. 1. Managing everything is impossible : Your task is to manage to do only the most important things for you; then your days will be filled with meaning. Take primarily of all those tasks that will bring you more results, that are more meaningful for you. All secondary matters ignore or delegate to other people. If you are a student of the mathematical faculty, and you are asked to write an essay on history, you can safely ask to write my essay online fast and concentrate on the equations. Separate the wheat from the chaff, do not waste yourself on unimportant things. 2. Make a schedule for the coming week : A large number of businesspeople keep a diary, making notes about upcoming business in it. This is a beneficial thing, because, thanks to a clear plan of action, you become a more disciplined person. In the diary, you can write out definite plans for a week, a month, or even a whole year ahead, which is next to impossible to do just in your head. 3. Do not put off till tomorrow what you can do today : No matter how hard it is, do what you need to do today, in spite of laziness, lack of desire and mood. Keep discipline, do not go to rest while you still have unfinished business. Find the strength to finish it before the end of this day. Tomorrow you will thank yourself for it. Rest will be much more pleasant if you realize that there is no tail of unfinished business behind you. 4. Read a few books about rational timing : Authors of such books reveal secrets that can increase the productivity of your work and help to save precious hours of life. Learn not only from your own experience but also borrow the wisdom of successful people. Professionals will help you to allocate time, setting the right priorities, and also eliminating unnecessary occupation. You will learn how to manage time and improve productivity without too much expense. 5. Learn to say "No." No matter how polite a person you are, do not take on other people's problems. Do you have a shortage of time, why reduce the productivity of your work even more? To help a friend is a good thing, but not at the expense of your time. If you aim to reach the heights, then sometimes you will also have to say "no" to invitations to drink a beer with friends, to sleep an extra hour in the morning on the day off or temptation to skip training. Refuseeverythingthatpullsyoudown.

Why Pursue M. Tech After B. Tech?

Many students are stuck in the dilemma of deciding what they want to do once the B.Tech course is over. They mostly juggle between job, MBA and M. Tech. And when they seek opinions from people around, they end up getting all-the-more confused. Do you know what the best thing to do here is? Just ask yourself – which of the above options will make you feel accomplished and satisfied in the long run. However, if you take our opinion, pursuing M. Tech after completing B. Tech is the best choice. It will add value to your qualification and education while becoming a valuable addition to the profile. It is always better you gain expertise in one field rather than sailing in two boats and being an expert in none. So, go through the M tech chemical engineering syllabus and points mentioned below to make an informed decision. You are Still in the Learning Zone: Right after you have finished the B. Tech course, it is the best time to enroll for a degree in M. Tech. You have all the concepts fresh in mind and still in the learning zone. This will make it easier for you to pursue the degree right away. Any break between B. Tech and M. Tech will make it hard for you to go back to studies. So, if you want to pursue a degree in M. Tech, no better time than doing it right after B.Tech. Increased Domain Knowledge: There is no doubt that pursuing a master’s degree in any domain increases the knowledge and makes one suitable for higher and well-paid job roles. With increased domain knowledge, you can even set up a firm of your own for a better future. So, wait no more, go through the M tech chemical engineering syllabus today to give your future the right wings to fly. A High Paying Job: We all study and gain knowledge with a few aims in mind – a better lifestyle and high paying job. How good your lifestyle will mostly depend on the salary you are drawing. So, if you want you and your family members to have a life full of happiness and no financial stress, you must work hard towards getting a high paying job. That being said, it becomes essential to get an M. Tech degree after B. Tech. Increased Prospects of Career Growth: You can't in the same salary package all your life. You must grow in order to meet the financial demands of the family and your personality as well. With a master’s degree in engineering, your prospects of career growth will increase and so will your chances of going higher in life. After you have completed your M. Tech course, you can even go for a research degree, start your own company or join any of the popular engineering colleges as a teacher. Final Words! Having a clear aim of the career in mind will not only make you a subject matter expert in the field but also a thorough professional. Now that all the points are clear, we hope you have a decision in mind. Our advice is to go for a college or university like UPES that offers a great learning environment has industrial collaborations and an excellent panel of faculty members to guide the students. Read Also: 4 Emerging Trends In The Education Sector Seeking A Healthy Career: 10 Tempting Medical Careers To Check Out Finding Your Dream Career: 5 Useful Tips For You To Research About A Company Before You Apply

How to Master the GRE Verbal Reasoning Section