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GRE Text Completion questions that contain multiple blanks present a unique challenge in the GRE Verbal section. Unfortunately, many test-takers have learned inefficient and ineffective strategies for tackling these tricky Verbal questions.
So, in this article, I’ll give you some high-value, easy-to-follow tips for accurately and efficiently filling the blanks in 2- and 3-blank Text Completion questions. Some or all of these GRE multi-blank Text Completion tricks may seem counterintuitive, or even contradict advice you’ve heard elsewhere. In fact, the tips I’ll be sharing fly in the face of many of the GRE Verbal myths out there.
Get ready to take your knowledge of multi-blank questions to the next level!
Here are the topics we’ll cover:
- The 3 Types of GRE Text Completion Questions
- GRE Multi-Blank Text Completion Tricks
- FAQ GRE Multi-Blank Text Completion
- Key Takeaways
- What’s Next?
First, let’s review what the 3 types of GRE Text Completion questions are.
The 3 Types of GRE Text Completion Questions
As you may know, there are 3 types of GRE Text Completion (TC) questions: 1-blank, 2-blank, and 3-blank. In this article, we’ll focus on the latter 2 types — the questions with multiple blanks.
Unlike 1-blank TC questions, which are always 1 sentence long, 2- and 3-blank questions can be either 1 or a few sentences long. Also, rather than present 5 answer choices, as 1-blank questions do, 2- and 3-blank questions present 3 answer choices per blank. We must select 1 answer for each blank. So, 2-blank questions always require 2 answers, and 3-blank questions always require 3.
In filling the blanks in any TC question, the correct answer(s) will be the word or phrase that produces a logical, coherent sentence or passage.
KEY FACT:
Multi-blank questions can be either 1 or a few sentences long and present 3 answer choices per blank.
Now that we understand the basics of multi-blank Text Completion, let’s discuss some tips and tricks for solving these questions.
GRE Multi-Blank Text Completion Tricks
To start, let’s talk about the importance of using sophisticated thinking when evaluating multi-blank TC questions.
The Obvious Answer Isn’t Necessarily Correct
One key to performing well on GRE Text Completion questions is understanding that the obvious answer isn’t always correct.
In fact, what seems to be the most obviously correct answer choice is often a trap in Text Completion.
Remember, the GRE tests you on the skills you need to be successful in doing graduate-level work. And graduate-level work requires relatively sophisticated thinking, right?
So, we have to go beyond the kind of surface-level reading of sentences in which we assume that the first answer choice that jumps out as correct must be the correct answer. If we choose an answer by simply relying on associations we have between concepts and words, then we’re not doing a deep analysis of what the sentences presented actually say.
Think about it. If the word among the answer choices that was typically associated, in real life, with the sentence topic was always correct, Verbal questions wouldn’t present much of a challenge or be particularly predictive of a test-taker’s ability to tackle graduate-level coursework.
Surface-level thinking can be especially troublesome in multi-blank questions, whether we’re dealing with 1 or multiple sentences. For instance, say we’re dealing with 1 sentence containing 2 blanks. We may not have much information to go on in the sentence. So, we’ll really have to use our critical thinking skills to piece together how various answer choices work with each other to produce a logical meaning in the sentence structure and context provided.
Similarly, say we’re dealing with 3 blanks spread over multiple sentences. We’ll need to analyze not only whether a word fits logically into a particular sentence, but also how the various sentences fit with each other to produce a coherent passage.
TTP PRO TIP:
The most obvious answer choice may not be correct.
Filling in the Blanks as You Go Isn’t Faster
Many GRE students assume, understandably, that the quickest way to answer multi-blank TC questions is by filling in the blanks “as they go.” In other words, they try to fill each blank they come across as they first read through the sentence(s).
However, attempting to fill in the blanks as you read doesn’t really save time and can even slow you down. After all, you’ve read only part of the sentence or passage when you try to fill earlier blanks. So, you’re working with only partial knowledge, instead of the full context.
Thus, as you get further along in the passage and start getting more context and evaluating answers to other blanks, you’re likely to find that the answers you chose for previous blanks no longer make sense in light of the additional information you now have. As a result, you’re likely to spend time re-reading various parts of the sentence multiple times and going back and forth between answer choices you select as “correct.”
There are countless ways in which TC passages can be structured, and everyone processes information differently. So, the important thing is not to stick to one particular order when filling the blanks in multi-blank questions. Rather, you must evaluate each passage to determine which blank the given information most clearly and closely relates to. Start with that blank, wherever it is in the passage.
Keep in mind that, in some cases, it won’t even be possible to “go in order.” For example, you may need to fill blank ii in order to have enough information to fill blank i.
TTP PRO TIP:
Read the entire passage before you start trying to fill blanks so that you have the full context when you evaluate answer choices.
You Don’t Have to Fill the Blanks in Order
Another big misconception about multi-blank TC is that the blanks must be filled in the order in which they appear. (This faulty strategy sometimes goes hand in hand with trying to fill blanks as you go.) Some test-takers may think filling in the blanks in order will automatically be the fastest method of completing the sentence. Others may believe that going in order is somehow more “logical” than filling blanks in a non-linear way.
Here’s the truth: There is no universal “proper” order for filling in the blanks for all multi-blank TC questions. In other words, the “best” or “fastest” order for filling blanks changes from one question to the next!
Depending on where key pieces of information appear in a TC passage, it may be easier to, for example, fill the blanks from last to first. Or, it may be easiest to fill the second blank first, the third blank second, and the first blank last. Furthermore, the quickest method for you in a given question may not be quickest for another test-taker.
There are countless ways in which TC passages can be structured, and everyone processes information differently. So, the important thing is not to stick to one particular order when filling the blanks in multi-blank questions. Rather, you must evaluate each passage to determine which blank the given information most clearly and closely relates to. Start with that blank, wherever in the passage it lies.
Keep in mind also that, in some cases, it won’t even be possible to “go in order.” For example, you may need to fill blank ii in order to have enough information to fill blank i.
TTP PRO TIP:
The most efficient order for filling in the blanks depends on the passage.
“Pre-Thinking” Is Often Ineffective
“Pre-thinking” is a popular GRE Verbal strategy that involves trying to guess answers before you look at the actual answer choices.
This is another of those strategies that people assume saves time. However, given what we’ve already discussed about multi-blank questions, pre-thinking really doesn’t make sense.
For one, we know that the first thing that pops into our minds is likely to not actually be the correct answer. Of course, the first thing that we think of is, in essence, a “pre-thought” answer.
Remember what we said earlier about trap answers. If we evaluate the answer choices with a predetermined idea about what the correct answers should be, we can very easily end up selecting answers that fit our preconceived notions but don’t actually fit the context. Pre-thinking makes us very vulnerable to these trap choices.
Alternatively, we may end up pre-thinking answers that aren’t even among the choices! Of course, the actual answer choices are there the whole time for us to look at. So, do we really save any time by trying to guess what will be there instead of just looking at what actually is there?
In general, pre-thinking gives us an excuse not to deeply analyze how different answer choices relate to a given passage. However, we know that deep analysis — the sophisticated thinking we spoke of earlier — is precisely what we need to accurately complete multi-blank passages (and GRE Verbal questions in general).
For all these reasons, pre-thinking is not a reliable strategy for filling the blanks. To consistently and efficiently find correct answers, stick to the information on the screen.
TTP PRO TIP:
“Pre-thinking” words is not a reliable or efficient method for filling in the blanks.
Start Your Practice Untimed
Most GRE students don’t realize that they can actually save a lot of time overall in their GRE prep if they start off giving themselves as much time as they need to answer practice questions.
The fact is, you have to learn how to answer questions before you can learn how to answer them quickly.
In the case of some multi-blank Text Completion questions, beginning students may need quite a bit of time to correctly fill all the blanks — or make their best attempt at doing so. This can be nerve-racking for students because they think they need to immediately be able to answer questions under test-like constraints in order for their practice to “count” or “matter.”
In reality, the opposite is true. If, from the get-go, you’re practicing a certain question type under time constraints, you have a ready-made excuse to give up on a question if you don’t find the answers in a certain amount of time. You’re never forced to stick with a question until you learn how to answer it. Thus, you’re not getting the full benefit of your practice.
Remember, in multi-blank Text Completion questions, you’ll have to consider numerous answer choices in relation to each other, and multiple pieces of information that will inform your answers. If you don’t first take the time to learn to properly analyze all those aspects of a question, efficiently finding correct answers on a consistent basis will likely remain quite challenging, even after you practice with many questions.
So, when you first start solving multi-blank questions, don’t worry about the clock. Instead, focus on analyzing sentences and answer choices. This work is painstaking but essential.
TTP PRO TIP:
To gain the skills you need to answer multi-blank questions both quickly and accurately, start your practice untimed.
FAQ GRE Multi-Blank Text Completion
Let’s answer a few common questions related to multi-blank Text Completion questions.
How many fill in the blanks are on the GRE?
About half of the questions you see in each GRE Verbal section will be Text Completion or Sentence Equivalence. (Those questions, collectively, are what are commonly referred to as the “fill in the blank” questions.) So, since the two Verbal sections contain a total of 27 questions, you’ll see about 7 “fill in the blank” questions in each section, for a total of roughly 14 Verbal questions that require you to “fill in the blank.”
You also may see 1 or more “complete the passage” Reading Comprehension (RC) questions on your exam. Those questions are associated with Critical Reasoning-style RC passages that include a blank at the end of the passage. In those questions, your job is to select the answer choice that logically completes the passage.
Will I get credit for partially correct answers?
There is no partial credit on TC questions with multiple blanks. In fact, you won’t get credit for partially correct answers in any multiple-answer question in the Verbal section of the GRE.
For any multi-answer question, you must select all of the correct answers to gain any points for the question. So, if for example you correctly fill 2 blanks in a TC question but incorrectly fill 1 blank, the question will be marked incorrect, and you won’t gain any points for that question.
Are multi-blank Text Completions harder than Sentence Equivalence?
Although multi-blank Text Completion questions contain more blanks and can contain more sentences than Sentence Equivalence questions, the former won’t always necessarily be harder than the latter.
For each of these question types, you may encounter easy, medium, and hard-level questions on any given GRE. Furthermore, each of these question types presents its own challenges. For both, you will need strong knowledge of GRE vocabulary words. However, for Sentence Equivalence, you will also need to be able to recognize synonyms among GRE words.
For multi-blank Text Completion, you may have to relate multiple sentences to each other in addition to understanding the “internal” logic of each sentence. However, for Sentence Equivalence, you will have to not only understand the sentence logic, but also ensure that your answers produce two sentences that have equivalent meanings.
Not all test-takers will agree on which of these question types is harder. We do know, however, that 3-blank Text Completion questions generally require more time to answer than Sentence Equivalence questions. So, in that sense, we could consider 3-blank questions “harder.”
The good news is that, with strong techniques and ample, realistic practice, you can master the art of efficiently solving all the Verbal question types, including 3-blank Text Completion questions.
Key Takeaways
Here are the GRE multi-blank Text Completion tricks we’ve learned in this article:
- The obvious answer isn’t necessarily correct.
- Filling in the blanks as you go isn’t faster.
- You don’t have to fill the blanks in order.
- “Pre-thinking” is often ineffective.
- Start your practice untimed.
What’s Next?
Looking for some GRE Verbal practice questions? Try your hand at these sample questions, which include all the Verbal question types.
How do you guess answers on GRE questions? These GRE guessing strategies are your playbook for guessing in ways that give you the best chance of increasing your score.
