One of the most commonly practiced tactics for the Verbal section of the GRE involves predicting your own word or phrase for a blank in a text completion or sentence correction and then process of eliminating that prediction against the answer choices. Well, in this post we'll discuss how predicting and eliminating isn't just for vocabulary question types any more!

Verbal Process of Elimination Markings
One of the most common complaints of GRE test takers when it comes to Reading Comprehension goes something like, "I was down to two options, but a I picked the wrong one!" It is an inarguable fact that in many cases the correct answer on the GRE seems subjective upon first glance, so to avoid falling into the traps of the exam allow two passes through the Verbal choices by applying the following markings and metrics:

• ✓ | Correct - Can Proactively Say The Option Broadly Matches Your Prediction of What the Answer Should Do
• X | Incorrect - Can Definitively Say Why The Option Doesn't Match Your Prediction of What the Answer Should Do
• ~ | Maybe - Fully Understood, But Cannot Definitively Say Correct or Incorrect
• ? | Cannot Define - Cannot Understand Terms in the Choice or How the Choice is Related to the Passage

The first two markings should be pretty self-explanatory, but let's talk about the ~ and the ?

First, the maybe ~ has to be 100% understood to be used, but it basically means that if you squint real hard and look the right way the square peg of the choice gets like two-thirds of the way down the round hole of your prediction. As for the ? it doesn't simply mean you can't define all of the terms in the choice, it may simply mean that you cannot understand the answer as it is presented really at all. Everyone has read at least a few GRE reading comprehension choices that seemingly have 27 double negatives and have the reading clarity of an Apple service agreement. This does not mean the choice is wrong! In fact that opacity of language, may be where the exam is generating difficulty.

So, what to do when you're down to a ? vs a ~ in the choices? Here is the real mindbender, pick the ? The reasoning is this, the ? could be 100% correct if you were able to completely understand what the confounding prose were articulating. However, the ~ cannot be 100% correct, because if it were, it should have been designated a ✓ already.

Four Common Reading Comprehension Tasks
Now that we've got an understanding of our markings for comparing choices to our predictions, how do we adequately predict what the answer should be in the first place? This is a great question! And, that's basically the key we need to think about what the common task are really asking in realistic terms.

Detail | "What" Question | Indicated by Phrase "according to..."
These are the easiest of the question tasks. They simply ask you to find an accurate paraphrase of information directly in the passage. If you're asked something to the effect of "According to the passage what is the relationship between the tortoise and the hare?" simply find the relevant excerpt, read a sentence above and below the term or location reference and provide your own summary of what was said directly in the passage and use that prediction to eliminate choices that don't match your proactive prediction.

Purpose | "Why" Question | Indicated by Phrase "in order to..." or Terms "primary" "purpose" or "function"
These are only a half-step up in difficulty, but do require a little bit more thought and evaluation than detail tasks. Let's consider two questions to illustrate the difference between detail and purpose questions. If I were to ask you, my dear reader, what are you doing right now, you would probably reply "reading a GRE forum post". However, if I were to ask you instead, what is your primary purpose right now, you might reply with something to the effect of "to improve my reading comprehension performance on the GRE". Each question is relatively easily answered, but they are different responses. Your approach on the GRE for these purpose questions will be similar. You'll need to proactively predict your own reason the subject matter is provided to address the purpose task, but you should be able to proactively do so and produce a prediction for elimination relatively easily. Also, always beware of selecting a trap "what?" answer to a "why?" question.

Inference | "What Must Be" Question | Indicated by Terms "infer" "imply" or "suggest"
Now, we're hitting the harder stuff. Inference questions functionally ask what must be based on the information that is provided, but isn't explicitly stated in the passage. Predicting here is more difficult, and instead you should focus solely on the limited information that is provided and make sure that one of the choices must be true based on the direct information in the passage. Let's consider another example. If a wet cat were to walk into the room you were in right now, what could you infer from the situation? Not much! You can't say that the cat was in the rain, it may be a swimmer. You can't say it even encountered water, because maybe it bathed in milk! However, you can say with certainty that the cat is not dry and that is how inference works on the GRE. Summarize the subject matter as a prediction and make sure you don't take too big of a logical leap to beat these higher difficulty questions.

Application | "What Matches..." Question | Indicated by Phrase "...of the following"
Application questions are most easily identified because they don't readily fit one of the other three more common categories. They are also the least predictable of the reading comprehension tasks, and are therefore the most difficult question type on average. So, to address these questions, note the specific application task. Often, it involves affecting an argument or finding an analogous situation in the choices. Then, much as is recommended for the inference task, you should broadly predict only based on the relevant subject such as "find info to strengthen the plan" or "or find a similar situation to the one involving the tortoise and hare in the passage".

What to Do When Down to Two!?
So, we return to the scenario we started with, and how do we pick the correct choice over the appealing trap answer? Well, the key is to focus on actions and descriptions for definitive reasons incorrect choices are objectively wrong rather than simply selecting the option that seems more familiar. Look for descriptors and actions that aren't certain. Think "always", when the passage said "sometimes" or "debated" when a subject was only "discussed". And when you're truly stumped, default to selecting the option with fewer direct terms from the passage and a less absolute claim. In short, when in doubt - Go Bland!