GRE Text Completion: Syllabus, Question Types, Strategies, and Sample Papers

GRE text completion examine your abilities in excluding crucial words from short passages. GRE text completion questions contain one to five sentences, with one to three blanks per sentence. If there is only one blank, there are five answer choices. In the case of two or three blanks, each blank has three answer choices. GRE verbal section score ranges on a scale of 130-170, and text completion contains almost 40% of the total score. Regularly solving GRE text completion practice questions will help you to understand the question types, and increase your verbal reasoning score.

GRE Text Completion Question Types

Candidates can expect 12 text completion questions in total with 6 text-completion questions in each section of GRE verbal. Table below summarises the overview of question pattern in GRE text completion:

GRE Text Completion Tips and Strategies

There are a number of GRE tips that can help candidates ace GRE exam pattern. Aspirants can comply with these tips to ensure effective preparation for GRE fill in the blanks questions. Moreover, this will also help them to strategize their approach for attempting GRE text completion questions and GRE sentence equivalence. Mentioned below are some of the valuable tips:

• Skim through the passage to derive a concept of the given texts
• Look for words like although or moreover. These words emphasise the structure of the passage or help with overall understanding of the given texts.
• Attempt GRE fill in the blanks questions with words or phrases that seem to complete the sentence. Given the condition of similar words being mentioned in the options.
• Candidates might think that there is a definite order to attempt GRE text completion questions. However, it is not necessary that the first question needs to be harder and needs to be filled first. Perhaps one of the other blanks is easier to fill first. Select your choice for that GRE fill in the blank, and then see whether you can complete another blank.
• Post selecting the answer, check for logical, grammatical and coherence within your answers to gain appropriate GRE scores.

Effective measures can be adapted to practice GRE text completion practice questions to build skills of the aspirants for GRE exam pattern. However, it is necessary that candidates undertake immense practise of GRE text completion sample questions, Below mentioned are few strategies:

• Divide the texts in understandable sentences

When dealing with the length of GRE text completion, the questions that consist of an entire paragraph can be difficult. In that case, before you consider any of the answer choices, break the text completion up into smaller paragraphs. Try this while solving text completion practice questions. This way it would be easier during finals.

To understand this, consider the below mentioned example:

To solve this question, break the texts into smaller fragments in your own words. Doing this will help aspirants to find the appropriate words for each blank. Let’s justify this with the first sentence:

“For centuries now, cancer has (i) ___________ scientists.”

Confused here is the correct word. Candidates are to look for the word that is closest to the meaning of the word confused. From the above options, confounded is the correct word. Thus, the answer to this question will be confounded.

• Keep a check on word use and idiom problems

GRE text completion questions make use of words as well as idioms to express ideas. Thus, the texts become tricky and aspirants need to understand the motive behind the texts. This will help them to eliminate the options or choices that result in the sentence appearing puzzling or awkward. To understand this, consider the below mentioned example:

In the above mentioned question, candidates can take a hint from the last line of the passage; ‘sometimes the petty differences end up fatally’. Thus, even though the social bonding in crows, bees, and humans is strong. Sometimes they also quarrel amongst themselves and this sometimes can lead to loss of life. Thus, the answer is; Humans too, like all (i) gregarious creatures who bond together, such as the crows and bees, have their (ii) quibbles. Sometimes the petty differences end up fatally.

• Understand the relationship between texts

While solving GRE text completion & sentence equivalence big paragraphs you’ll also need to understand their relationships with one another.

For instance, consider the following example:

You’ll notice that each choice for GRE fill in the blanks would be grammatically correct if selected. Here we see that John’s essay discusses three novelists. Two of whom are responsible for a number of American classics and the other who are not quite considered in the same regard. The sentence does not discuss the writers’ notoriety, however, allowing us to eliminate “nuanced” as an option for Blank 2. Since Tartt’s novels are far less sacred than Poe and Emerson, we land on “canonical” as the right choice for Blank 2.

• Insert your own words

Once you’ve broken a passage down and understand the relationship between the texts. Try inserting your own words, even before considering any of the answer choices for either blank. Considering the example taken earlier, we begin by inserting words that are used far more often in everyday conversation.

John’s final essay covered the works of such ________ figures in American Literature as Poe and Emerson, comparing them to the less obviously ________ words of Hilary Mantel.

Since we’re looking for two words similar in nature. We can use the word “historic” for both blanks. Most importantly, we can now use this to find the closest match to “historical” in each of the answer choices. This would point us again to “established” and “canonical.”