The GRE’s Verbal Reasoning section consists of a rigorous battery of questions that measure two things: your ability to use the English language in a rational manner and your skills at interpreting writings from various genres. Unlike the GRE’s Quantitative Reasoning section, the Verbal examination presupposes a great deal of advancement in your skills from the time that you were in high school. Whereas the GRE’s Quantitative section generally is no more difficult than the SAT’s Math section, the test’s Verbal section is significantly more difficult than similar sections of the SAT, requiring a great deal more preparation than might at first be expected. For such preparation, there are primarily two major categories of questions, each having its own particular character and demands. Whether you need top GRE tutors in New York, GRE tutors in Chicago, or top GRE tutors in Los Angeles, working with a pro may take your studies to the next level.

The first such category can be called the “discrete” verbal questions. These questions are comprised of sentence-completion exercises and sentence-equivalence questions. Although the specifics for each of these question types are unique, they share the same heavy reliance on vocabulary knowledge. Vocabulary knowledge is key to success on these questions, for they presuppose an extensive range of words and expressions merely to begin to complete the questions being asked. This requires a great deal of initial preparation for vocabulary prior to any preparation regarding the specific question types. Each of these types of questions has answers that are relatively clear, concise, and unequivocal. The options provided are specific (hence, “discrete”) words or short phrases that adequately complete the sentences in question. For the sentence-completion questions, you will be required to use the verbal clues within a given selection in order to fill in one or more blanks, using your acquired vocabulary skills as well as your ability to infer the needed meanings from context clues. Above all, these questions test your ability to think rationally about the meanings of complete sentences, using that thoughtfulness to infer words and expressions intelligently.

The sentence-equivalence problems are quite similar to the sentence-completion questions, though they have a unique sort of reasoning as well. In these questions, you will be required to utilize many of the vocabulary and inferential skills that you use in the sentence-completion questions; however, in addition, you will need to show a keen ability to see similarities among the word options, for you will need to choose a pair of synonyms that work well in the sentence in question. Varsity Tutors offers resources like free GRE Verbal diagnostic tests to help with your self-paced study, or you may want to consider a GRE Verbal tutor.

Finally, there are the reading comprehension questions—a group of questions that is quite difficult and, above all, requires a significant amount of time to complete. These questions test your ability to interpret and infer information related to a short passage presented to you. Often the chosen topics will be quite technical, perhaps even outside your area of academic expertise. This section therefore tests your general skills of interpretation—without relying on your own acquired knowledge and achievements. Success on these problems requires a great deal of preparation, so as to teach you the proper techniques for ascertaining the non-discrete and seemingly subjective answers that will be presented to you as options.

When preparing to meet the various challenges with which the GRE will present you, you can use Varsity Tutors’ free GRE Verbal Flashcards to brush up on your vocabulary knowledge and verbal expertise on your computer or on your smartphone using Varsity Tutors’ free app. Each free GRE Verbal flashcard comes with a full explanation, so if you miss a problem, you don’t need to wonder where you made a misstep; instead, you can identify your mistake and prevent yourself from making it again. In addition to the GRE Verbal flashcards and GRE Verbal tutoring, you may also want to consider taking some of our GRE Verbal practice tests. Don’t procrastinate studying for this difficult section of an imposing exam: instead, get started studying for the GRE today with Varsity Tutors’ free GRE Verbal flashcards!