5 tricks to crack GRE Verbal section

2.      Structure of GRE Verbal Section

To understand the test better, it is important to comprehend the structure of the Verbal Section on the GRE test. We have already posted how understanding the structure of GRE Verbal section is going to help you in previous post. Click here to read it.

3.      Improve your reading habits

An average non-native speaker who has completed Bachelor in English needs to face this truth. From our experience in our class-rooms, majority of students read with a speed of hardly 100 words per minutes with just more than 50% retention of the details.

Let’s say you need 5 minutes to read a long passage of 500 words and understand the meaning well. However, to complete a section in time you finish the same passage within 3 and half minutes and retain hardly 40% of data. Now, while solving the first question you need to re-read the part of the passage again even if you recall the placement of probable answer. What if you cannot recall the location as you were too busy reading the passage? In such cases you waste precious time in scanning through the paragraphs.

If you wish to score well on GRE Verbal section, you must have a reading speed of about 200 words per line with more than 90% retention of ideas.

To improve reading habits, we would suggest every GRE aspirant to buy “How to read better and faster” by Norman Lewis.

4.      Get involved

How many of us remember Thanos and his infinity stones from Avengers Infinity War? Why? Because you were so engrossed in the movie that most of us can recall the movie bit by bit.

You need to be involved in the subject matter. You may not care about a monkey learning to boil potatoes on its own but show some sympathy. You may not care about position of African Americans in nineteenth century but try to feel their pain.

If you can empathise with the main character of the passage, chances are you have clarity about the topic and the author’s message effortlessly.

4.      Time Management

One of the major concerns for GRE Verbal section is time management. Simple calculation tells you that if we are to solve 20 questions in 30 minutes, you need to allot 1 minute 30 seconds on an average. Following table breaks down a typical Verbal section in sequence of questions and allotted time.

If you find it hard to finish a tricky question in allotted time, you may take extra time and the delay may percolate in later questions leaving hardly any time for last few questions. It is wise to leave a tricky question for later part and stick to the time-line.

However, allotting the above time-line is unfair.

If number of words read to find an answer is a yard-stick to measure efforts, Reading Comprehension deserves maximum period.

Then, Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence are low hanging fruits for most of the students as one need not read much. Now in the above analysis add one more aspect, approximate number of words then relatively we can allot the time as follows.