How to Prepare and Practice for the GRE Verbal Reasoning Section

The Verbal Reasoning section of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) challenges a student’s reading comprehension, vocabulary, and sentence completion skills. Our talented instructors at Varsity Tutors teach students how to prepare for GRE Verbal Reasoning questions using practical strategies that can help them conquer even the most difficult questions in this section.

Check out some valuable tips that you can use to prepare for the Verbal Reasoning questions on the GRE. 

Complete One or More Practice Exams

Taking a practice test is an important step in preparing for the GRE. Verbal Reasoning practice questions give students a sneak preview of what to expect on the test. In addition, practice test results can help you figure out what skills to focus your study time on. 

Some students may do well on the reading comprehension questions, but need a little help with questions that involve analogies. Other students may experience success with questions that involve antonyms and synonyms, but have trouble with questions that ask them to identify the main point of a written passage. Varsity Tutors’ professional instructors are able to provide students with techniques on how to improve specific skills tested in the Verbal Reasoning section.

Put Tips and Strategies Into Practice

After working with a Varsity Tutors instructor for a time, it’s a good idea for students to take another practice test. This helps them get into the habit of using our strategies on the GRE. Verbal practice questions are much easier to handle when a student employs our strategies.

One example of an easy test-taking strategy is to look at the questions, as well as all of the answer options before reading a passage. Skimming the question and the answer options gives a student an idea of what to look for in the passage. Perhaps the question concerns the main idea of the passage or asks a student to notice something about its supporting details. Our instructors are experts at providing strategies that help students pinpoint the most important parts of a passage.

Another simple strategy can be used on sentence completion questions in the GRE Verbal section – look through all of the answer options and eliminate choices that are obviously incorrect. In addition, it’s helpful to plug each answer option into the sentence and read it to see if it makes sense. Students who want to take advantage of these and other strategies for the GRE are encouraged to contact our offices to sign up for a prep course today.

Read Magazines and Newspapers

Reading magazines and newspapers is another way for students to prepare for the GRE. The GRE requires students to be familiar with a lot of vocabulary words. A student who reads magazine and newspaper articles is likely to encounter some of the same vocabulary words that appear on the GRE. Art, science and news magazines are ideal choices for students who want to see these vocabulary words in context. Seeing unfamiliar vocabulary words used in context is an effective way of retaining a word as well as its definition.

Students who study online with Varsity Tutors are giving themselves an extra advantage on the GRE. Verbal prep exercises can help them to feel less anxious about the test. Our team uses effective study resources to help students thoroughly prepare for the Verbal Reasoning section of the GRE.

Want to jump-start your GRE preparation? Check out our variety of GRE Course and Private Tutoring options.