The GRE verbal reasoning section of the GRE General Test assesses the test taker’s ability to:

Analyse written material. Evaluate written material. Obtain information from written material. Analyse the relationship between different components of a sentence. Recognize the relationship between concepts and words representing them.

This section is divided into three parts basis the GRE Verbal Syllabus:

Reading comprehension

This makes up about 50% of the GRE verbal reasoning section of the GRE General Test. In this, the test taker is presented with a passage and has to answers related to it. The test is made up of about 10 passages and most of them are one paragraph long. The passages are derived from books and periodicals on:

Physical sciences

Biological sciences

Social sciences

Arts and humanities

Everyday topics in popular culture

The abilities assessed in this subsection are:

Understanding the meaning of words and sentences Understanding the meaning of larger blocks of text like paragraphs Being able to identify minor and major points in a passage Ability to summarize a passage Draw conclusions from text presented Dealing with incomplete data and infer missing information Identifying underlying assumptions an author works from Analyzing an argument to identify its strengths and weaknesses Developing alternative explanations for a situation

Text completion

This section tests the test taker’s ability to form a complete picture from the text presented. If one is able to understand the overall sense that a passage conveys, one would be able to fill in crucial words that have been omitted out of the passage. This section presents:

Passages composed of up to five sentences The passage may have up to three blanks Three or five options are presented for each blank Each blank has only one right answer Answer for each blank is independent of the answer chosen of other blanks

Remember that the correct answers would ensure that the passage is not only grammatically correct but also logically and stylistically coherent.

Sentence Equivalence

This subsection also tests the test taker’s ability to draw conclusion about a passage presented from partial information. In this case, the test taker is presented with a single sentence with a. single blank – the test taker has to choose two ways to complete the sentence that have the same meaning while also being grammatically correct. For each blank six answer choices are presented. No credit is given if only one of the two selected answers is correct.

Remember that correct answers may not be words that mean the same thing. The completed sentences have the same meaning – not the missing words.