GRE Verbal Ability Strategy
There are four types of questions in the Verbal Ability section of the GRE. In order to succeed on this section of the exam, you should be familiar with the structure and content of analogies, antonyms, sentence completion exercises, and reading comprehension questions. There are simple strategies you can use to improve your performance on all of these types of questions. For instance, the best way to approach analogies is to define the nature of the relationship between the two given terms. Some of the most common relationships used on the GRE are "part and whole," "opposites," and "noun and common adjective used to describe that noun." One trick you can use is to compose a short sentence with the given words and then substitute the words in your chosen answer to see if the sentence still makes sense. If it does, you have probably chosen the right answer. You can use a similar strategy on antonym questions. Make a sentence with the given word, and then see if your chosen word produces a sentence with the opposite meaning.
On sentence completion questions, it is a good idea to read the completed sentence to yourself after you have selected your answer. If the sentence remains coherent and grammatically correct, it is a good sign that you have selected the right answer. Finally, the best way to approach reading comprehension questions is by carefully reading the passage before moving on to the questions. However, you should never be reluctant to look back at the passage while you are answering the questions. The GRE computer program allows you to refer to the passage as you are working on the questions, so you should take advantage of this feature.
Last Updated: 03/01/2012