GRE 2022 For Dummies with Online Practice. Ron Woldoff

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Skills for Finding the Correct Answers

      Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions are designed to measure two core proficiencies: interpreting the text and using the vocabulary. These are two distinct skills that you build separately but must use together.

       Most of the vocab words that you encounter on the GRE are used commonly in most professional industries, including business and journalism. One student came in with a New York Times article that had three of the vocab words that we’d reviewed in class! Such words as ephemeral (fleeting), abscond (sneak away), and imbroglio (entanglement) stump exam takers every day but appear regularly in publications.

      This chapter guides you through the basics, and Chapter 7 has the tough vocab. Interpreting the text can be challenging; otherwise, it’s no fun — and has no place on the GRE. The following sections give you an overview along with how you can eliminate incorrect answers.

      Interpreting the Text 101

      Interpreting the text means discerning its meaning in the absence of the key words. Doing this prior to looking at the answer choices is the best way to quickly eliminate choices that don’t make sense, and the GRE-makers have fun trying to trick you. No worries, though — if you know what to do, you can discern the meaning. First, though, try this simple example:

      Directions: Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning as a whole and produce two completed sentences that are alike in meaning.

       The boxes were so heavy that we could _____ lift them.

       easily

       hardly

       fully

       nearly

       barely

       effortlessly

      Even without the missing word, you can construe the meaning of the sentence. The phrase so heavy tells you that these boxes are difficult or impossible to lift. After realizing this, you can immediately eliminate easily and effortlessly. The words fully and nearly are a little tougher to ignore, but they really don’t make sense either. The correct answers are Choices (B), hardly, and (E), barely.

      Getting the gist of the text

      One way to figure out the meaning of a challenging sentence is to see whether it has a positive or negative connotation. This high-level perspective can help you find words that convey the correct meaning. Try it out on this example. Though not really a tough sentence, it shows you what I mean:

      Directions: Select the two answer choices that, when used to complete the sentence, fit the meaning of the sentence as a whole and produce two completed sentences that are alike in meaning.

       Everyone is so _____ that you did great on the GRE: We knew you could do it!

       ecstatic

       stunned

       thrilled

       shocked

       dumbfounded

       bewildered

      All the choices suggest that you did better than expected, but stunned, shocked, dumbfounded, and bewildered imply that everyone thought you would tank, and what kind of friends are those? However, we knew you would do great, probably because you used GRE For Dummies to prepare for the test. The second half of the sentence doesn’t convey doubt (“We knew you could do it!”), so the correct answers are Choices (A) and (C).

Taking the Best and Only Approach

      Whether you’re taking on a Text Completion or Sentence Equivalence question, your approach is the same. These steps are the only way to knock out these questions so you can beat the exam and get on with your life.

      1 Interpret the text without looking at the answer choices.

      2 Complete the text with your own words.

      3 Eliminate wrong answer choices.

      The following sections explain these steps in detail.

      Interpret the text without looking at the answer choices

      First, figure out what the sentence is saying. If you know this, then you know the meanings of the words that go in the blanks. How else do you know which answer choices work, and more importantly, which ones don’t work?

       While interpreting the text, don’t look at the answer choices! Each answer choice not only seems to fit perfectly but also gives the sentence a very different meaning. Then, you have no idea what the sentence is trying to say, and you’ve turned a relatively workable question into something that’s impossible. Whoa, right into the trap. Instead, get the meaning of the sentence first and then look at the answer choices!

       To avoid involuntarily glancing at the answer choices, cover them up with your scratch paper. Hold that scratch paper right up on the computer screen. (You’re not working math now, anyway.) Silly? Yes. Effective? Absolutely. Students tell me it’s a lifesaver.

      The following example illustrates the different meanings that a sentence can convey using different words in the blanks. If you first try out all the answer choices, it becomes impossible to tell what the sentence is actually saying, so they’re not shown here yet.

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