Planning on studying abroad? GRE is perhaps already on your list of exams to take. GRE isn’t just for b schools, but for an array of postgraduate degrees. So far in this series, we’ve covered the Analytical Writing section of GRE, as well as GMAT along with its four sections. Today, we’ll be looking at the Verbal Reasoning section of GRE. Now Verbal Reasoning in GMAT and GRE is supposed to be quite difficult, but is it really so? How can you prepare for Verbal? Read this article and find out!
What is being tested?
This section tests your ability to understand discourse, analyze and evaluate the author’s perspective and argument, and test your overall verbal reasoning skills on multiple levels. Because of the complexity of the discourse, you will be required to read between the lines, identify missing data and incorrect assumptions, have a strong vocabulary and understand the overall structure of the text. To sum it up, you have to focus on:
Vocabulary
English Proficiency
Analytical Skills
Reasoning Skills
Scoring:
Verbal Reasoning is scored between 130-170 in 1-point increments. On average, students score 149.97 in the Verbal Section.
Time Duration:
Verbal is divided into 2 subsections, each of which has 20 questions(25 in the paper-delivered test). You have 30 minutes per section(35 for the paper-delivered test), giving you a total of 60 minutes for the Verbal Section as a whole. That gives you 1.5 minutes per question.
How To Crack:
Verbal Reasoning in GRE consists of 3 question types.
Reading Comprehension
Text Completion
Sentence Equivalence
While most of the questions asked will be of the multiple-choice kind, each one requires a different skill to solve. Here’s what you need to do for each of the question types:
Reading Comprehension
Don’t be in a hurry to finish reading. Key to cracking RCs isn’t speed, but understanding.
Read the given texts very carefully. You don’t just have to understand what is written, but also have to assume what is implied.
Often, people read the given texts as if they’re simple texts. Don’t read like a casual reader, but with the intent of reading between the lines.
Practice reading and analysis by reading newspapers, articles, essays, and everything that you can get your hands on. The better you are able to understand these texts, the easier tackling RCs will be for you.
While solving mocks, focus on improving your accuracy.
Text Completion
Read the given options twice. You need to understand the nuances between the given words to be able to mark the right answer.
Some of the questions require you to mark multiple answers. Make sure you’ve read the questions properly before answering.
Read as much as possible (newspapers, books, essays, blogs, etc.) to get a hang of the language. The more proficient you are in English, the more naturally you will be able to solve these questions.
Make a list of new words you’ve learned along with their definitions so as to improve your vocabulary.
When reading, pick out keywords from sentences and try to find synonyms that can appropriately replace those words.
Sentence Equivalence
Once again, your vocabulary is put to test. Reading is the best way for you to improve that.
You will be given a bunch of options, and choose 2, which are synonyms. While practicing vocabulary, make sure you try to find synonyms for all the words you encounter and make a list of them.
When reading the given problem, try to solve it without looking at the options. If you follow this during your mocks, you will be able to identify the right answers even without looking at the options, all the while improving your vocabulary.