GRE Verbal — Text Completion Mastery

Text Completion Question Types

Text Completion questions test your ability to interpret and evaluate context, and complete a passage based on it.

Types

• 1-blank: Single blank; choose from 5 answer choices. Tests vocabulary in context.
• 2-blank: Two blanks; choose independently for each blank from two groups of 3 choices.
• 3-blank: Three blanks; choose one word per blank. Tests understanding of the overall meaning.

GRE Vocabulary — Essential Word List

The GRE tests sophisticated academic vocabulary. Key words include: abstruse, alacrity, ameliorate, anachronism, apocryphal, arcane, assiduous, audacious, cogent, contentious, dilatory, equivocal, ephemeral, erudite, esoteric, feckless, hackneyed, iconoclast, laconic, loquacious, magnanimous, mendacious, mercurial, munificent, obdurate, perfidious, perspicacious, probity, recalcitrant, sagacious, scrupulous, tendentious, tergiversate, truculent, ubiquitous, vacillate, veracious, verbose, zealous.

Strategy Tips

1. Read the full sentence before looking at options.
2. Identify logical connectors: although, despite, because, however, therefore.
3. Predict the answer type (positive/negative/neutral) before checking choices.
4. Watch for contrast words that signal the blank should be opposite to another idea.