👋 Hello, my friends at GRE Prep Club!

Pre-thinking is a popular approach in the GRE Verbal where test-takers try to predict the correct answer before checking the options. At first glance, it seems smart. If you already know what you are looking for, shouldn’t the question be quicker to solve? In practice, this strategy often backfires.

To see why, consider what multi-blank Text Completion questions are really assessing. These questions are designed to test how well you can analyze an entire sentence and recognize how the blanks interact with one another. Pre-thinking skips that process. When you guess answers in advance, you are usually working with an incomplete understanding of the sentence, guided by first impressions rather than full context. That is exactly the kind of thinking the GRE exploits.

The test writers know how people pre-think. As a result, they deliberately include trap answers that resemble the most obvious or intuitive guesses. If you enter the answer choices with a preconceived idea, you are more likely to gravitate toward something that feels familiar, even if it does not truly fit the sentence. The result is misplaced confidence built on shaky logic.

There is also the risk that your predicted word or idea will not appear among the options at all. When that happens, you have not only lost time but also narrowed your thinking unnecessarily. Instead of weighing each choice objectively, you may reject strong answers simply because they do not match what you expected.

Most importantly, pre-thinking can become a substitute for real analysis. And the GRE does not reward shortcuts. It rewards careful reading, logical reasoning, and a clear understanding of how each answer choice works within the sentence.

If accuracy and efficiency are your priorities, stop trying to anticipate the test’s moves. Focus on the actual wording, understand the full meaning, and judge each option based on evidence from the sentence, not on assumptions formed in advance.

Reach out to me with any questions about your GRE prep. Happy studying!

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep