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Last Updated on April 30, 2023
It’s an all-too-common refrain among students studying for the GRE: “Why is GRE Verbal so hard?” For many test-takers, preparing for the GRE Verbal section is one of the most challenging aspects of their test prep. Even many students who consider verbal skills their strength find that GRE Verbal questions are trickier to master than expected. And often, they’re not quite sure why.
In this article, we’ll discuss 5 main challenges of tackling GRE Verbal — both during GRE prep and on test day. We’ll also answer a couple of common questions about GRE Verbal, including whether it’s “too hard” for nonnative English speakers.
Here are the topics we’ll cover:
- Challenge #1: Learning a Large Number of Vocabulary Words
- Challenge #2: Developing a Strong Synonym Game
- Challenge #3: Understanding the Logic of “Vocab-Based” Questions
- Challenge #4: Unpacking Reading Passages Efficiently
- Challenge #5: Getting Every Answer in Multi-Answer Questions
- Is Verbal on the GRE Too Hard for Nonnative English Speakers?
- How Hard Is It to Get a 160 on the GRE Verbal Section?
- Key Takeaways
- What’s Next?
Let’s get into the first (and possibly biggest) challenge of GRE Verbal: learning a large number of GRE vocabulary words.
Challenge #1: Learning a Large Number of Vocabulary Words
Memorizing GRE vocabulary words is a vital aspect of properly preparing to tackle GRE Verbal questions of all types. Your vocabulary knowledge will come into play mostly when you’re dealing with Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions. However, the fact is, you can encounter hard vocabulary words in Reading Comprehension as well.
So, a significant part of earning a high GRE score in Verbal is building your knowledge of GRE words.
And there are a TON of them! Now, a reputable GRE vocab list will present words that have the highest chance of appearing on the exam. However, even the list of “common” GRE words is large. In essence, there are many different words that could appear on the GRE, but there is no way to predict exactly which ones will appear on your GRE.
As a result, students generally study hundreds of vocab words over the course of their GRE prep. Even students who start out with a relatively high level of vocab knowledge typically need to devote a good amount of study time to brushing up on familiar words and learning unfamiliar ones.
KEY FACT:
GRE students generally need to study hundreds of vocab words over the course of their prep.
So, the sheer number of GRE words that most students need to learn presents an obvious challenge. Additionally, learning vocab can be challenging because it is primarily a memorization task. Let’s discuss.
Learning Vocab Is Different From Other GRE Tasks
For much of your GRE vocabulary study, you won’t be engaging with and applying concepts or logical reasoning skills in the way you will when studying, say, Reading Comprehension. You’ll be memorizing definitions.
However, there is only so much new info we can pack in at once before our brains get overloaded. The thing is, students often look at the long list of GRE words to learn and get nervous or overeager. Every bone in their bodies is telling them to pack in as many words as possible as quickly as possible. They want to spend hours every day drilling vocab or learn 200 new GRE words a week.
It’s only after several weeks go by that these students begin to notice that the words they’re studying aren’t sticking. They frequently forget or mix up the definitions of words. Or, they never make time to review words they previously studied. Or, they neglect other areas of their Verbal prep because they’re so focused on vocab. Their vocab time investment is not yielding equivalent returns.
It’s difficult to see a giant list of words you need to learn and steadily, methodically chip away at it, little by little, each day. However, that process is exactly what’s required for students to effectively retain new words and ultimately be able to apply their vocab knowledge in the various contexts the GRE presents.
Fortunately, if we study vocab words the right way, we’re capable of adding to our lexicons substantially. If you’re looking for tips on managing your GRE vocabulary study, this article on memorizing vocab has some great strategies.
KEY FACT:
Learning vocab is a memorization-heavy task, and there are only so many new words we can pack in at once before our brains get overloaded.
Challenge #2: Developing a Strong Synonym Game
Your general vocabulary knowledge will come into play in all types of Verbal questions on the GRE. However, for Sentence Equivalence questions in particular, you’ll also need to have a strong synonym game.
Having a strong synonym game involves making connections between various GRE words, so that you can efficiently recognize when words produce the same sentence meaning in a given context.
Being well-versed in not only word definitions but also word synonyms adds another layer to your GRE vocabulary study. And since roughly 20% of the questions you see in each GRE Verbal section will be Sentence Equivalence, you’ll want your synonym game to be on point.
A good way to make sure you’re learning relevant synonym pairs for the GRE is to use a vocab resource that includes both word definitions and synonyms. For instance, the TTP GRE Vocab List provides both definitions and relevant synonyms of GRE words. Including that information saves our students a ton of time. After all, they don’t have to do the work of hunting down appropriate synonyms for every word themselves.
KEY FACT:
To perform well on Sentence Equivalence questions, you must have a strong synonym game.
Challenge #3: Understanding the Logic of “Vocab-Based” Questions
Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions are generally regarded as “vocab-based” GRE Verbal questions. And it’s true that these question types focus heavily on testing vocabulary knowledge.
That said, a very common and damaging misconception about Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence is that test-takers can master them with vocab knowledge alone. In reality, TC and SE also test your logical reasoning skills and ability to understand how sentence structure affects the meaning a sentence conveys.
In fact, there are particular logical patterns in Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence that, with time and proper study, you can learn to recognize. And in becoming well-versed in the types of “tricks” that frequently appear in these questions — clues in the punctuation used, transition words, and more — you’ll be able to quickly understand the logic of TC and SE sentences.
In understanding the sentence logic, you can more quickly interpret the logical meaning of the sentence. Thus, you can more quickly and accurately select the correct words to complete the sentence.
Moreover, if you don’t understand the sentence logic, there is a good chance that even knowing all the definitions of the words in the answer choices won’t be enough to get you to the correct answers.
So, part of the challenge of mastering TC and SE, which together make up roughly half of the GRE Verbal questions you’ll see on test day, is that you must do more than master vocab. You must learn the logic of TC and SE sentences and apply your vocab knowledge within that logical framework.
KEY FACT:
Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions test more than just vocabulary knowledge.
Challenge #4: Unpacking Reading Passages Efficiently
One big challenge of performing well on GRE test day is reading a passage and answering the Reading Comprehension questions associated with it efficiently.
Even short, one-paragraph GRE passages can be thorny. Passages may be long, dry, dense with detail, and/or written in a style that is tough to interpret. Furthermore, you’ll see a variety of passage types and Reading Comprehension question types on any given GRE. So, you have to be able to take on any challenges that GRE Reading Comprehension could throw at you, without seriously upending your pacing strategy.
Thus, you must have solid reading strategies in place for tackling any type of RC passage and specific passage-analysis strategies for each RC question type. Your ability to read, interpret, and further analyze RC passages efficiently will be key in maintaining proper pacing throughout the GRE Verbal sections on test day, and thus answering as many (hopefully all) of the Verbal questions as possible.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can tackle GRE Reading Comprehension passages in the same way you would read other types of material. After all, we don’t normally set a timer while we’re reading the day’s top news or leafing through a magazine.
Test-takers need to build GRE-specific muscles to do the heavy lifting that efficiently unpacking RC passages may require. And many GRE students are surprised to learn that those muscles relate far more to the way they read passages than to the speed at which they read.
The fact is, when we have smart reading strategies in place, we’re naturally faster.
TTP PRO TIP:
Efficiently unpacking GRE Reading Comprehension passages is more about strategy than about speed.
Challenge #5: Getting Every Answer in Multi-Answer Questions
Some Verbal questions on the GRE are multi-answer questions. Multi-answer questions may either always or sometimes have more than one correct answer.
For instance, Sentence Equivalence questions always have 2 correct answers (since you need to select 2 words that produce the same sentence meaning).
Similarly, in Text Completion questions containing 2 or 3 blanks, you’ll need to find a word to fill each blank. So, a 2-blank question will always have 2 correct answers, and a 3-blank question will always have 3 correct answers.
In Reading Comprehension, some questions will ask you to “select all that apply.” For these questions, there may be either one correct answer or more than one. It could even be that all of the answers presented are correct.
Already we can see an obvious challenge. Having to find more than one answer to a question could be more time-consuming than a “one and done” situation. However, there is an added wrinkle: multi-answer questions do not allow for partial credit.
If, for example, you incorrectly fill 1 of 3 blanks in a TC question but correctly fill the other 2, you will not get any credit for that question. Or, if you select 1 answer to a multi-answer RC question in which 2 are correct, even if your 1 selection was right, you won’t get any points. And so on for any multi-answer question.
Many students find this aspect of GRE Verbal to be one of the tougher challenges of the test format. Of course, if you prepare for the GRE using a resource that provides ample practice, multi-answer questions shouldn’t be much harder than single-answer questions on test day.
KEY FACT:
There is no partial credit on multi-answer Verbal questions.
Let’s now answer some questions about GRE Verbal that commonly come up.
Is Verbal on the GRE Too Hard for Nonnative English Speakers?
Many nonnative English speakers consider the Verbal section the most difficult part of the GRE. However, I have worked with MANY nonnative English speakers who went on to earn impressive GRE Verbal scores.
So, I think it’s a mistake to assume that, if you’re a nonnative English speaker, the Verbal section will be harder for you than for any native English speaker. (Trust me, plenty of native English speakers have a tough time with GRE Verbal questions.)
I also wouldn’t say that the Verbal portion of the GRE is “too hard” for nonnative English speakers. As I mentioned, I know many students whose first language isn’t English who performed at the highest levels on GRE Verbal. If they can do it, you can too!
Probably the biggest challenge facing some nonnative English speakers will be sufficiently building their vocabularies for the exam. As we discussed earlier, most students — including native English speakers — study hundreds of GRE words over the course of their prep. Some nonnative English speakers may need to spend a little extra time on vocab each day.
Of course, every person’s baseline vocab proficiency varies. So, there aren’t really any hard and fast rules about who will need more time to study GRE vocabulary. But if English isn’t your first language and you’re particularly worried about the challenges GRE Verbal may present, vocab study is one area where you may want to make sure you give yourself ample time to prepare.
Remember, whether you’re a native English speaker or not, as long as you give yourself the time you need to learn the material, you can rock GRE Verbal!
TTP PRO TIP:
If you’re a nonnative English speaker, you may want to devote a little extra study time each day to learning vocab.
How Hard Is It to Get a 160 on the GRE Verbal Section?
The answer to the question “How hard is it to get a 160 on the GRE Verbal?” — or to earn any top GRE score — differs for each test-taker and depends mainly on 3 things:
- your starting level of proficiency
- the amount of time you can devote to GRE prep
- the resources you use for your prep.
But, if we want to get a general sense of how hard it may be for test-takers to score 160 on Verbal, we can look at the current GRE score percentiles. According to ETS (the GRE test-maker), a 160 Verbal score is associated with the 85th percentile of GRE test scores.
However, many test-takers retake the GRE and score higher on their retakes. So, by combining this information on retakes with the percentile information, we can estimate that around 20% of GRE test-takers score 160 or higher on Verbal.
Thus, the vast majority of test-takers don’t reach that score in GRE Verbal. So, a 160 score is nothing to sneeze at. However, around 20% of test-takers do score 160 or above. So, that score is not exactly rare.
The only way to get a better sense of how difficult it may be for you to hit the 160 mark is to take a full-length, ETS practice test. Your Verbal score on that test will indicate how much work you’ll need to put in to score 160. And hey, it could be that you’re already there!
If you’re interested in some study tips for scoring 160, the strategies in this guide to earning a 170 Verbal score will be useful for you as well.
TTP PRO TIP:
Take a full-length, official practice test to determine how much work you may need to put in to hit the 160 mark in Verbal.
Key Takeaways
By knowing the challenges you’ll face in the GRE Verbal section, you can better prepare yourself to overcome them! In preparing for test day, remember to tackle these 5 main challenges:
- learning a large number of vocabulary words
- developing a strong synonym game
- understanding the logic of “vocab-based” questions
- unpacking reading passages efficiently
- getting every answer in multi-answer questions
What’s Next?
Now that you know what makes GRE Verbal so hard, you may be interested in learning about these common GRE Verbal mistakes and these myths about the Verbal section.
Ready to practice with some GRE Verbal question examples? Try your hand at these TC, SE, and RC practice questions.
And for strategies for performing well overall on the Verbal section, check out this guide to acing GRE Verbal.
