GRE verbal reasoning effective time management strategy

Verbal Reasoning section of GRE has 20 questions per section, for which 30 minutes is allocated. Cracking it certainly takes some level of effort and dedication. In order to crack the test within the time frame, one must carefully observe the question types that are associated with the specific serial number.

Different test preparation materials provide very random questions, which do not align with what you could see in the real test. Even the ETS GRE prep materials (paper-based) have 25 questions per section, but in real test, you will encounter only 20 of them. These materials would provide you the practice needed for the test day but they fail to provide the time management skills in response to the question types. Therefore, this blog article is designed to make you accustomed to the types of questions you’d see in the real test and introduce you with the effective test-taking strategies that will ultimately increase their scores in the test.

ETS GRE has provided the question types and how many questions of such types are asked in the real test. The following is the standard protocol of questions to be asked.

1. Text Completion (TC): 6

2. Sentence Equivalence (SE): 4

3. Reading Comprehension (RC): 10

This much information is still not enough as the test-takers are unable to map a question with its specific number. We have summarized the first section of the verbal question and linked each question type with the serial numbers. (The second section, however, is variable based on the level of difficulty and hence, the question type would change accordingly**).

 

The following table shows the question format associated with the serial number in the real GRE and the estimated time expenditure for each type of question.

 

Fractionalized view of Verbal reasoning questions in the first section

S.N.	Question format	Question type	Estimated Time expenditure
1	Text Completion	Single blank	You should spend less than 1 minute
2	Text Completion	Single blank	You should spend less than 1 minute
3	Text Completion	Double blank	You should probably spend around 1 minute
4	Text Completion	Double blank	You should probably spend around 1 minute
5	Text Completion	Double blank	You should probably spend around 1 minute
6	Text Completion	Triple blank	You should probably spend around 2 minute
7	Critical reasoning (Reading Comprehension)	Short passage	You should probably spend around 2 minutes
8	Reading Comprehension	Large passage (3/4 paragraph)	You should spend around 2 minutes
9	Reading Comprehension	Large passage (3/4 paragraph)	You should spend around 2 minutes
10	Reading Comprehension	Large passage (3/4 paragraph)	You should spend around 2 minutes
11	Reading Comprehension	Large passage (3/4 paragraph)	You should spend around 2 minutes
12	Sentence Equivalence		You should spend less than 1 minute
13	Sentence Equivalence		You should spend less than 1 minute
14	Sentence Equivalence		You should spend less than 1 minute
15	Sentence Equivalence		You should spend less than 1 minute
16	Reading Comprehension	Medium passage	You should spend around 2 minutes
17	Reading Comprehension	Medium passage	You should spend around 2 minutes
18	Reading Comprehension	Medium passage	You should spend around 2 minutes
19	Reading Comprehension	Medium passage	You should spend around 2 minutes
20	Critical reasoning (Reading Comprehension)	Short passage	You should probably spend around 2 minutes

What changes you could see on the question types based on the level of difficulty? **

• The number of single blank TC questions may vary: (two questions in easy and medium level; one question in difficult level may appear).

• The number of double blank TC questions may vary: (generally three to four questions may appear).

• The number of triple blank TC questions may vary: (one question in easy level; two questions in medium and difficult level may appear).

• Critical Reasoning Question may appear before or after the four consecutive Sentence Equivalence (SE) questions (enumerating as 7, 11, 16, or 20).

• Sometime the passages may substitute one another in number (Which means Question no. 8 to 11 may have a two medium passage, and the passage in 16 to 19 may be the large one).

 

 

Time Management Skills

It doesn’t matter how good you are in Verbal if you do not have good time-management skills, you may not ace this section. For that, we recommend you to solve the easiest question first. Though we cannot determine which of the question is easy; we definitely know our strength in dealing with the question format. Some might solve the blank related (TC and SE) questions easily and some might be acumen enough to crack the RC section. But the majority of the test-takers would find it easier to solve blanks more than the comprehension part.

Since the GRE General Test (Computer-based) is equipped with the friendly design features like moving back and forth between questions and marking them up, we can use this feature for our benefit by solving the questions of our merit. We have set a format to solve the Verbal reasoning questions based observation from several test-takers (This may not work for everyone, thus we inspire them to make their own definite format). You may:

• Solve the Text completion (TC) questions from 1-6.

• Jump to the question number 12-15 to solve Sentence Equivalence (SE) questions.

• Solve the Critical Reasoning question that is consecutive to the SE.

• Solve the Reading comprehension (RC) passage that you see of your familiar topic (Science, Arts, History, Politics, etc.)

• Solve the remaining passages.

• Proofread for the trickiest questions.

Solving the blank related questions first, in less than the first 10 minutes, leaves you much time to devote yourself to reading the long passages and solve them. Make sure to solve the entire twenty questions before 30 minutes and leave yourself a window that allows you to go back and look again for the trickiest questions (Try to mark those).

(Though jumping and moving back and forth between questions might lose you some seconds but the confidence that boosts in the test is unmatchable.)