One of the most common and damaging GRE myths that test-takers hear about the Verbal section is that Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence simply test vocab knowledge. According to this myth, there is nothing more to preparing for these questions than memorizing the definitions of as many GRE vocab words as possible.

The reality is that properly preparing for Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence requires more than becoming a human dictionary. Yes, building your vocabulary is a key aspect of mastering these questions. However, GRE test-takers who make the mistake of treating that piece as if it’s the whole puzzle usually find themselves struggling with medium- and hard-level questions.

The other piece of the puzzle is learning to efficiently analyze and interpret the structure, components, and logic of sentences. Mastering those essential skills requires dedicated study and practice in which you learn:

• how sentence structure affects meaning
• how the meanings of words change in different contexts
• how different parts of sentences relate to each other
• the specific tricks vocab-based questions employ and the clues they contain

So, relying on vocab study alone is not a sound strategy for preparing for vocab-based questions in GRE Verbal Reasoning.

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep