Verbal Section

The Verbal section of the GRE presents you with questions very much like those on the preceding sample test. As you can see from the pretest, a good vocabulary will help you immensely. In addition, numerous strategies can help you maximize your chances of correctly answering the questions, which this chapter will discuss. 

Remember that you may also have an additional section (which could be presented as a Verbal or a Quantitative section). If so, one of the two Verbal (or Quantitative) sections will be a research section that will not count toward your score. However, you will not be able to tell which of the two similar sections is the scored section and which is the research section. It is important to treat each one as though it were the scored section. 

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As you saw in the pretest, there are four kinds of Verbal section questions analogies, antonyms, sentence completions, and reading comprehension questions. These questions are designed to test your comprehension of the logical relationships between words, as well as your ability to understand and think critically about complex written material. 

There are roughly six to eight analogies on the Verbal section. You will see instructions on your screen, which read something like the following ... 

At the beginning of the sentence completion portion of the Verbal section, you will find instructions along the lines of the following ... 

The Verbal section of the GRE has 30 questions. There are four kinds of questions ... 

There s not enough time to memorize the dictionary to prepare for the Verbal section, but you can easily boost your vocabulary, practice critical thinking skills, and learn to be a good guesser. This section explains how. 

As you have seen, all four kinds of verbal questions test your knowledge of, and ability to use, words. It is no surprise, then, that success on the Verbal section of the GRE depends largely on both the size of your vocabulary and your facility with using it. 

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