GRE Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence: A Strategy That Works
These two question types are where vocabulary meets logic. A simple method to get them right more often.
On this page
Predict before you look
Cover the options. Read the sentence and write your own word for each blank, based on the clues in the sentence. Then find the option closest to your word. This stops attractive but wrong options from pulling you in.
Use signal words
- Contrast: although, but, yet, despite, however. The blank goes against the other half.
- Continuation: and, moreover, indeed, in fact. The blank agrees.
- Cause: because, therefore, thus. The blank follows logically.
Sentence Equivalence: the synonym trap
Two options can be synonyms and still both be wrong if neither fits the sentence. Find the two that both fit and give the same meaning.
Multi-blank Text Completion
Start with the blank that has the strongest clue, not necessarily the first. Solving one blank often fixes the others.
Build the vocabulary
GRE vocabulary sticks best when learned in context. Every essay on GRADFLIX has a glossary of key words with their meaning in that passage. See the GRE room for more.
Frequently asked questions
How many answers do you pick in GRE Sentence Equivalence?
Exactly two of the six options, and both must give sentences with the same meaning.
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