👋 Hello, my friends at GRE Prep Club!

A key difference between GRE Quant and GRE Verbal that affects how we should practice Verbal is the following. When we answer a Quant question, it’s generally pretty clear whether we’ve completed the work necessary for finding the answer. However, we can easily decide that we’ve completed a Verbal question without really doing the work it takes to complete the question.

For example, when answering a Quant question about a rate, we know that we haven’t completed the question until we’ve calculated that rate. In contrast, in answering a short passage RC question, we can decide we’ve completed the question when we haven’t really. We could decide that we’ve completed it when we see a choice that has the vibe of being correct. Or, we could see a choice that resembles what we expected to see and just go with that one. We might feel that we’ve completed the question, but we haven’t done the work required to solidly support our choice.

The issue is that, when we answer a Verbal question, there is no obvious defining moment when we’ve arrived at the answer. So, how do we know when we’ve completed a Verbal question? We’ve completed a Verbal question when we’ve used solid logic to determine with virtual certainty which choice is correct. So, to know whether you’ve completed a Verbal practice question, you have to learn to be aware of whether you’ve solidly supported your answer.

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep