One of the best ways to prepare for the GRE is by studying with official practice questions published by ETS (Educational Testing Service). However, even if you do correctly identify the right answer on an official GRE Verbal problem, you still might not understand the underlying principles that were used to create that particular GRE Verbal question, leaving yourself open to various common traps and other related pitfalls created by the ETS test question writers.
In the solutions provided below, we will use some of the core tenets of the Menlo Coaching GRE tutoring curriculum to break down three official GRE text completion questions and provide important principles for correctly attacking this important GRE question type.
The best ways to prepare for the GRE is by studying with official practice questions published by ETS.
In terms of question format, all GRE text completion questions consist of a single sentence or paragraph containing one, two, or three blanks. You then must select the correct word or phrase for each blank that best fits the overall meaning of the sentence.
The format of GRE text completion questions is unique to the GRE exam, which was developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that the number of blanks in the original sentence can change from question to question. The second main difference is that for multiple blank text completion questions, you will need to select ALL the correct answers to receive any marks for the question. In other words, no partial credit is awarded if only one answer is identified correctly.
Different Types of GRE Text Completion Questions
Single blank text completion questions are the shortest and simplest of the three text completion question variations. For single-blank questions, you are simply asked to select one correct answer from a list of five answer choices.
Double and triple-blank text completion questions are generally longer and more complex, sometimes significantly so. The question stems for these problem types can contain multiple sentences, in essence, be a short paragraph of text, not just a single sentence. Lastly, answer choices for these question types may not always be a single word but could be a combination of words (i.e., a short phrase).
Unlike single-blank questions, on double and triple-blank questions, you will be asked to select one correct answer from a list of three answer choices for each blank. In addition, no credit is given for partially correct answers, which inevitably makes these problems much more challenging to guess as, for example, random guesses will only have a one in nine chance of being right on a double-blank question and a one in twenty-seven chance of being right on a triple blank question. Not good odds at all, especially when compared to Quant-based GRE questions that have a 1 in 5 chance (Problem-Solving) or a 1 in 4 chance (Quantitative Comparison) of being right.
How to Solve Text Completion GRE Practice Questions
In the following solutions, we will review some of the core principles of the Menlo Coaching GRE curriculum to analyze three official GRE text completion questions and provide you with a set of best practice study principles for effectively attacking this complex GRE Verbal question type in the future.
GRE text completion and sentence equivalence questions are the two main GRE Verbal question types that focus on testing your knowledge of higher-level English vocabulary words. Although this particular skill set (vocabulary) is not exclusively what these two question types test on, it certainly is a key component to improving one’s score on this section of this exam.
The second major skill set tested on these questions is the ability to correctly identify the answer choice(s) that best fit the meaning of the original sentence and result in a complete coherent sentence. Successfully developing and harnessing this softer-skill ability is an area where many students tend to struggle.
In summary, students who have a clear and broad understanding of advanced college-level English vocabulary as well as those who focus on developing the ability to correctly identify important yet subtle differences in overall sentence structure and meaning will have the greatest success on GRE text completion questions.
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GRE Text Completion, Sample Question #1 (Single Blank)
Given that Hefele was obviously sophisticated and worldly, his failure to do well in the position can hardly be ascribed to __________.
A. callowness B. unintelligence C. sloth D. cupidity E. incompetence
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer is (A).
This single-blank GRE text completion question is an example of how a seemingly straightforward and relatively short sentence can still be quite a challenging problem to solve. We have selected this question as it’s one that a large percentage of our past students, even well-spoken native English speakers, oftentimes get wrong.
At first glance, this seems like it should be a relatively straightforward problem to solve. I mean, if Hefele is so sophisticated and worldly, then his failure to do well can hardly be ascribed to him NOT being sophisticated and worldly. As such, we just need to find an answer choice that essentially means ‘NOT sophisticated and worldly’ and we’re done.
This, unfortunately, proves to be easier said than done. This question also proves to be an excellent example of just how important having a solid broad-based vocabulary knowledge is in solving GRE text completion questions successfully. Simply put, the main reason students get this question wrong is because they have to guess. And why would they have to guess? Because they don’t know what all the words in the answer choices mean. Translation: a somewhat limited English vocabulary is the main culprit holding many students back from maximizing their GRE Verbal section score.
To show how easy this question is to solve if you just know what all the words truly mean, here’s a list of the dictionary definitions for all five answer choices:
A. Callowness: lacking experience of life; immature
B. Unintelligence: self-explanatory and can thus be eliminated straight away
C. Sloth: reluctance to work and/or make an effort
D. Cupidity: greed for money or possessions
E. Incompetence: also self-explanatory and can be eliminated straight away
At this point, assuming one has a solid understanding of all five words in the answer choices, the most efficient way to then get to the right answer is via POE (Process of Elimination). For example, unintelligence definitely doesn’t mean sophisticated and worldly. Therefore, answer choice (B) can definitely be eliminated.
Same goes for answer choices (C) Sloth, (D) Cupidity, and (E) Incompetence. Thus, via POE, this gets us down to answer choice (A) Callowness. Using the correct definition of callowness here, clearly a person lacking the experience of life is NOT a worldly or sophisticated person. This, of course, makes answer choice (A) Callowness the clear right answer.
Text Completion Strategy 1: Expand Your Vocabulary
At this point, you’re probably all wondering the same thing. How can you efficiently expand your English vocabulary knowledge to be in a better position to solve challenging GRE text completion questions quickly and easily?
At Menlo Coaching, we assist our GRE students in overcoming this troublesome vocabulary hurdle by giving them free access to a comprehensive Menlo GRE Vocabulary database containing more than 1,200 high-level GRE words used on previous real GRE exams.
We also take the extra step to help our students even more by ranking these GRE words by frequency distribution (i.e. how common vs. how rarely they were tested on past exams). This way students with limited study time can be hyper-efficient in their vocabulary self-study by triaging what GRE words they should focus on learning first.
Tip: Although by no means a panacea, one of the best ways to improve your GRE Verbal score is to focus on expanding your active English vocabulary by as many words as you can as quickly and efficiently as you can.
Remember, at Menlo Coaching, we have compiled one of the most comprehensive GRE vocabulary databases in the industry, a key reason why Menlo GRE tutoring students see consistently high GRE Verbal score improvements year over year.
A Word to the Wise: Expand your English Vocabulary
Although by no means a panacea, one of the best ways to improve your GRE Verbal score is to focus on expanding your active English vocabulary by as many words as you can efficiently. But how can you expand your vocabulary between now and test day?
At Menlo Coaching, our GRE students get free access to a comprehensive Menlo GRE Vocabulary database containing more than 1,200 high-level GRE words used on previous real GRE exams, a key reason why Menlo Coaching tutoring students consistently see significant GRE Verbal score improvements year after year.
GRE Text Completion, Sample Question #2 (Double Blank)
The trade in scientific literature in nineteenth-century Germany was so robust that publishers constantly worried about (i)_______ of new titles, an anxiety that gave even relatively undistinguished authors, who made their living writing technical treatises, (ii)_______.
Blank (i)
Blank (ii)
A. prices
D. limited public relevance
B. supplies
E. enviable scholarly credentials
C. embargoes
F. strong bargaining positions
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer is (B) and (F).
This double-blank text completion question is equally challenging but in a different way. When students get this question wrong, they most often do so by picking (A) prices as opposed to (B) supplies . So why would they do this?
Remember that GRE text completion questions do not solely test English vocabulary knowledge. They also often test sentence meaning. Although consistently interpreting the correct ‘meaning’ of a sentence is perhaps more of a soft skill, if a student wants to achieve a top-tier score on the GRE Verbal Reasoning section, they will need to spend a considerable amount of time focusing on developing this skill as well.
Here, the main con in this problem is related to students making a potentially unwarranted assumption, likely by bringing their own real-world experience and/or perspective into the question.
For example, when you think of the topic of ‘books’, you probably think from the perspective of reading books. As such, (A) prices likely looks and feels relevant here. To most regular book buyers (i.e., book readers), a low-priced book is better than a high-priced book. However, this is where they try to trap you.
Who exactly is the subject here in the sentence that’s related to the first blank? If you take a close look, it’s actually the publishers, not the consumers. And what would book publishers be worried about? High book prices? I don’t think so. Book publishers would love the prices of books to be high as they’d be able to make that much more money, especially in a time of such robust trade in scientific literature as the question outlines.
What then would the primary business concern be for our nineteenth-century German book suppliers in times of extremely high demand for their popular product? Well, if there are 20,000 people interested in buying a particular book, but they can only print 1,000 copies of this book, then they are missing out on a huge amount of potential additional business revenue.
As such, although in times of high demand, book readers would mostly be worried about the prices of books, book publishers would be much more concerned about their supply chain and meeting the overall market demand for their product. As such, (B) supplies is correct as opposed to (A) prices.
In terms of the second blank, if the market demand for the product (books) is so high, then it’s much more a seller’s marketing, providing book authors with stronger bargaining positions than they would have in lean times. As such, (F) strong bargaining positions is the correct answer for the second blank.
Text Completion Strategy 2: Ensure Reading Comprehension
At Menlo Coaching, we provide our students with a comprehensive suite of best-practice GRE Verbal Reasoning tutoring tips assisting them to not only how to better spot these types of hidden question cons, but also how to best develop the soft skill of accurately and consistently identifying the true meaning of the sentence, even on the most challenging of GRE text completion problems.
GRE Text Completion, Sample Question #3 (Triple Blank)
Repression of painful memories is sometimes called “willed forgetting.” Yet true forgetting is (i)_______than the phenomenon of repressed memory. In spite of the effort that it (ii)_______, repressing unwanted memories is less (iii)_______ than truly forgetting them, for repressed memories are prone to come back.
Blank (i)
Blank (ii)
Blank (iii)
A. less controlled
D. eases
G. permanent
B. different in its effect
E. conveys
H. arduous
C. far more common
F. entails
I. immediate
Answer & Explanation
Correct Answer is (B), (F), and (G).
This final GRE text completion question is probably the most challenging of all the three problems discussed here. That really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise though as three blank questions are generally longer, more complex, and (unfortunately) harder to guess than one or two blank questions. Luckily, they are also the rarest of the three main text completion question type variations.
This text completion question is tricky for a very specific and, to many untrained students, not immediately obvious reason. So, what’s the big con here? What really makes this question a challenging and time-consuming question for the majority of students?
Well, the real con here has to do with the fact that GRE test question writers know a lot about human nature and how it works. When there are three blanks in a question that a person needs to fill in, in what order do you think people normally fill them in? If you said, one, two, and then three, then you’d be correct.
However, just because that is the normal logical order that most people tackle problems in, do you think this will always be the most efficient way to tackle a problem? Maybe not?
Did you notice that the longest most complex answer choice options are listed in the first blank? Whereas the second and third blanks are shorter and easier?
GRE Verbal Tip: On multiple blank text completion questions, don’t always deal with the blanks in the order given. Do the blanks in YOUR order, not THEIR order.
And in what order should you tackle the given blanks? Well, maybe the order that seems easiest and quickest? This way, you will gain greater knowledge and context that will ultimately help you solve the harder more complex blanks more accurately and efficiently later.
Here, the main pitfall is that most students start working on the tougher first blank first and either get somewhat stuck or eat up a significant amount of time on the clock before even getting to the second and/or third blank.
Text Completion Strategy 3: Answer in the Order that Makes Sense to You
At Menlo, we teach our students to take a variety of flexible approaches to problem-solving. On this question, it is likely going to be much easier to tackle the second and third blanks first.
Given that the question says “repressing unwanted memories is less _______ than TRULY forgetting them”, this implies repressing them is NOT truly forgetting them. Truly forgetting them would be a permanent loss. Therefore, repressing them would be a less permanent result, making (G) permanent the right answer here.
Now that we have the third blank figured out, let’s take a look at the second blank. Although at first glance, it might seem like temporarily repressing a memory should be easier to do than truly forgetting a memory forever, the strong negation words in the sentence “In spite of the effort that it _______” implies that the opposite must be true. As such, it must take more effort to repress a memory temporarily as compared to truly forgetting it. As such, this makes (F) entails the right answer here.
Now that we have most of this problem solved and have a much clearer understanding of what’s going on in terms of the overall meaning of the sentence, it should be much less of a challenge to successfully tackle this final longer blank.
Let’s do it! We already know that truly forgetting is apparently much easier than temporarily repressing a memory. Therefore, these two memory-related phenomena are different in a very key respect. As such, (B) different in its effect is the right answer here.
A Word to the Wise: Multiple Blank Text Completion Questions
GRE test question writers know a lot about human nature and how it works. When there are three blanks in a question that a person needs to fill in, what order do you think people normally follow? If you said that they started with the first, moved onto the second, and then finally completed the third, then you’d be correct. But do you think that’s always the most efficient way?
On multiple blank text completion questions, don’t necessarily deal with the blanks in the order in which they are given. Follow your own order: the one that seems easiest and quickest to you. This way, you will gain greater knowledge and context that will ultimately help you solve the harder, more complex blanks more accurately and efficiently later.
Preparing for the Text Completion questions in the GRE Verbal section can sometimes feel overwhelming, but there are three key areas where steady effort will yield consistent improvements in your results.
Expand your advanced English vocabulary knowledge.
Improve your ability to spot the true meaning of the original sentence.
Learn the most common ways the GRE tries to trick and trap you and look out for these cons on all your future practice questions
By following these steps, you should see the results in your final score. Of course, we also recommend working with a GRE tutor to ensure that you’re approaching both the exam and your test prep in the most efficient way.
Looking for reliable GRE tutor online services? Our seasoned tutors employ proven strategies to help you master GRE concepts and boost your confidence for test day.
