Last Updated on March 7, 2024
If you’re planning to take the GRE General Test, you may be wondering, “what is Verbal Reasoning in GRE terms?” In this article, we’ll cover what GRE Verbal Reasoning is, including how many Verbal questions you’ll face, the different Verbal question types, and the types of skills GRE Verbal Reasoning questions require.
Here are the topics we’ll cover:
- GRE Verbal Reasoning Format
- GRE Verbal Reasoning Questions
- GRE Verbal Reasoning: Key Takeaways
- What’s Next?
GRE Verbal Reasoning Format
Two of the 4 scored sections of the GRE General Test are Verbal Reasoning sections. The first Verbal section contains 12 questions in 18 minutes, and the second Verbal section contains 15 questions in 23 minutes. So, you will be presented with a total of 27 Verbal questions during your exam.
KEY FACT:
GRE Verbal Reasoning has two sections: 12 questions in 18 minutes, and 15 questions in 23 minutes. So, you will be presented with a total of 27 Verbal questions during your exam.
Now, let’s discuss the different question types you’ll see in the GRE Verbal Reasoning sections.
GRE Verbal Reasoning Questions
The GRE Verbal Reasoning sections consist of three different question types: Text Completion, Sentence Equivalence, and Reading Comprehension. About half of the Verbal questions you see will be either Text Completion or Sentence Equivalence, and the other half will be Reading Comprehension.
Nearly all GRE Verbal questions are multiple-choice, although some questions either require or allow you to select more than one correct answer choice. Additionally, you will encounter a small number of Reading Comprehension questions that require you to use your mouse to highlight a sentence in the passage that best answers the question.
GRE Verbal Reasoning questions test a variety of skills — everything from your vocabulary knowledge and attention to detail to your understanding of how ideas relate to each other and what purposes different sentences and paragraphs serve. You’ll need to be able to interpret what specific statements mean, evaluate arguments, draw logical conclusions based on given information, and more.
Let’s discuss each of the Verbal question types in further detail.
KEY FACT:
About half of the Verbal questions on the GRE are Text Completion or Sentence Equivalence, and the other half are Reading Comprehension.
Text Completion Questions
Text Completion questions present you with a single sentence or multiple sentences that have words or phrases missing from them. Your task is to fill in the blank(s) with an appropriate word or phrase from among the answer choices in order to create logical, completed sentences.
Text Completion questions may have 1 blank, in which case they are always just a single sentence, 2 blanks, or 3 blanks. In the case of 2- and 3-blank Text Completion questions, you may be presented with a single sentence containing all of the blanks or multiple sentences with the blanks distributed anywhere among the sentences. Text Completion questions are never more than a few sentences long.
One important thing to know about Text Completion is that you must fill all of the blanks correctly in a 2- or 3-blank question in order to get credit for the question. If you select an answer for only one of the blanks, or you select an incorrect answer for one of the blanks, the entire question is marked incorrect. There is no partial credit on GRE Verbal Reasoning questions.
KEY FACT:
You must fill all of the blanks correctly in 2- or 3-blank Text Completion questions in order to get credit for the question.
Sentence Equivalence Questions
Sentence Equivalence questions are similar to 1-blank Text Completion questions in that they ask you to fill in a blank in a single sentence. The difference with Sentence Equivalence questions, however, is that you must select 2 answer choices that convey essentially the same meaning in the given sentence. So, there are 2 correct answers to every Sentence Equivalence question.
Because Sentence Equivalence questions require you to create two sentence versions that have equivalent meanings, a lot of your skill in answering Sentence Equivalence questions rests on your ability to recognize answer choices that are synonyms.
KEY FACT:
To answer a Sentence Equivalence question, you must select 2 answer choices that convey essentially the same meaning in the given sentence.
Reading Comprehension Questions
Reading Comprehension requires you to read a passage of text covering a topic in history, science, or the arts and humanities, and then answer questions related to the passage. You do not need to have any special subject knowledge to be able to answer Reading Comprehension questions. All of the information you need to answer the questions will be contained within the given passage.
Reading Comprehension passages may be 1 short paragraph or, less commonly, up to 4 or 5 paragraphs, and there may be 1 to 6 questions associated with each passage. So, since you can expect to see around 7 Reading Comprehension questions in each Verbal section, you’re likely to be presented with around 2 or 3 passages per section, since some passages will have multiple questions associated with them. Between the two sections, you may see only 1 “long” passage.
A small portion of the 1-paragraph passages on the GRE are very short Critical Reasoning passages that present an argument or everyday scenario along with 1 question. You can learn more about these questions in our article on mastering GRE Critical Reasoning.
GRE Verbal Reasoning: Key Takeaways
- GRE Verbal Reasoning consists of two sections that ask us to complete a total of 27 questions in 41 minutes.
- Text Completion questions ask us to choose an answer or answers that create logical, complete sentences.
- Sentence Equivalence questions ask us to choose the 2 answer choices that create sentences with essentially the same meaning.
- Reading Comprehension questions present a passage of text and ask us to answer questions related to the broad ideas, details, or reasoning of the passage.
What’s Next?
You can visit this page to view some official sample questions of each of the types we just covered.
Now that you know what GRE Verbal Reasoning is, you may be asking, “how do I prepare for GRE Verbal Reasoning?” For some expert GRE Verbal Reasoning tips, check out our GRE Verbal Reasoning study guide and this article on studying GRE vocabulary.
