👋 Hello, my friends at GRE Prep Club!

One of the most common and damaging myths about the GRE Verbal section is that Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions simply test your vocabulary knowledge. According to this myth, the only preparation needed is to memorize the definitions of as many GRE words as possible.

The reality is quite different. While building your vocabulary is an important part of mastering these questions, it is far from the whole story. Test-takers who focus solely on memorizing words often find themselves struggling when they face medium- and hard-level questions that require more than just knowing definitions.

To succeed on Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, you also need to develop skills in analyzing sentence structure, understanding context, and following the logic of how sentences are put together. These skills take time and dedicated practice to build.

Specifically, you need to learn how sentence structure influences meaning. You also need to understand how the meanings of words can shift depending on the context in which they appear. Additionally, it is important to recognize how different parts of a sentence relate to each other. Finally, there are specific tricks and patterns that GRE vocab questions use, along with clues that help you eliminate wrong answer choices and zero in on the correct one.

Relying on vocabulary study alone is not an effective strategy. The best approach combines solid vocabulary knowledge with strong sentence analysis skills. If you want to see this in action, try working through some Text Completion practice questions and Sentence Equivalence practice questions. You will notice how important it is to think about both words and sentence meaning to choose the right answers.

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

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep