GRE Sentence Equivalence: Strategies, Tips, and Practice Tests

GRE sentence equivalence questions are designed to test your ability to conclude how a passage should be completed on limited information. Sentence equivalence GRE questions consist of a single sentence with just one blank, and you are given two choices. Regularly solving GRE sentence equivalence practice papers will help you understand the exam pattern and lead you to a higher score.

There are mainly three types of GRE sentence equivalence questions; a single sentence, a blank space, and six answer choices. Sentence equivalence is an important part of GRE verbal section, and there is a total of 27 questions. GRE syllabus is specially designed for aspirants to study MS programs abroad, and you need to achieve a higher score on the exam. 

GRE verbal section score ranges on a scale of 130 to 170 level. Achieving a GRE score of 155+ on the verbal section helps you to gain admission to some of the top-ranked universities worldwide. There are on average 30 to 40% of GRE sentence equivalence questions in the verbal section. Effective preparation by regularly solving GRE sentence equivalence practice questions will help you to understand the exam topics. 

GRE Sentence Equivalence Question Structure

The question structure for sentence equivalence is similar to that of GRE Text Completion. Candidates' ability to solve a question based on partial information is assessed in sentence equivalence GRE questions. The structure of the questions in sentence equivalence can be identified with three main elements: 

• A single sentence 
• A blank space 
• Six answer choices 

Candidates need to select two choices to answer correctly. Candidates should be aware that partially correct answers cannot achieve a GRE score.

Sentence Equivalence GRE Questions Examples 

For GRE sentence equivalence practice, the following examples and explanation for the answers can be considered helpful. These examples for GRE sentence completion practice would help them understand the tips better while they would be able to take the GRE sentence equivalence practice test as well. Candidates can follow GRE verbal practice papers for their GRE sentence completion practice. 

In the above sentence and word choices, allocate and designate might be considered as suitable choices although irrelevant to the sentence. Since Nancy failed to pay the rent of the house for two months, the landlord needed her to give up possession of the residence. Here, the pair of words suitable would be surrender and relinquish, both meaning to give up. Hence, a pair of words suitable to the context has been used for GRE sentence equivalence. 

The transition word after and initially are used to show cause and effect problems in a sentence. Accordingly, James was bedridden for months which has caused his muscles to become atrophied. The effect has been on his ability to walk or lift heavy objects which certainly has been affected. The correct answer hence is hampered or curtailed having similar meaning in context of the sentence. 

GRE Sentence Equivalence Tips and Strategies 

Candidates need to understand that in order to solve GRE sentence completion, it is important to follow the given instructions. Candidates need to choose words which are not just grammatically correct but are appropriate in terms of the context of the sentence. Candidates need to consider GRE sentence equivalence practice to ace the GRE verbal. The following strategies would help candidates with their GRE text completion and sentence equivalence. While certain strategies can be undertaken to answer the questions of GRE sentence equivalence, candidates also need certain tips and tricks that might help them. The following tips should be considered helpful for the candidates’ GRE Preparation. 

Use clues based on context: Candidates should read the given sentence or question carefully and try to understand the context of the sentence before answering. The word for GRE sentence completion needs to be chosen based on the context clues given in the question. 

Avoid focusing on synonymous answer choices: Candidates often get caught up in finding similarities between the choice of answers while forgetting that they need to consider the given task. The answer in sentence equivalence needs to be in the context of the question and have similarity in producing the same sentence. 

Rewrite the question: candidates need to know that there are no rules against rewriting the GRE sentence in your own words. Hence, to find the correct answer in similarity with the sentence, candidates can rewrite the sentence choosing the correct answer.