Top Tips and Strategies on How to Improve Score in GRE Verbal

How is the GRE verbal score calculated?

GRE verbal score is measured on a GRE score range of 130 – 170 with 1 point increment. Therefore, 130 is the lowest score one can get (which is very rare) and the highest GRE verbal score is 170. The average GRE verbal score is 149. 97. The GRE verbal score is calculated based on the number of correct answers given by the test-taker. The GRE general exam is adaptive, which means the second operation section will be created based on the performance level of the first one.

Is 160 a good verbal GRE score?

A GRE verbal score of 160 means the candidate has scored a GRE percentile of 86th. In fact, the GRE score range of 160 – 170 states the candidate is among the top 14% of the test-takers. So, if you are a candidate who has already taken the GRE but has scored less in the verbal section or someone whose preliminary diagnostic score result has low GRE scores, then your primary concern is definitely – ‘How to improve GRE verbal score?’

GRE Verbal Score of Top Universities

Harvard, Stanford, UCB, UCLA, are a few of the top universities in the world. If you are aspiring to pursue Masters/Ph.D. here, then ‘how to improve GRE verbal score?’ will be your big question. But let us first see what GRE verbal scores they need:

How difficult is GRE Verbal?

Often test-takers ask ‘why is the GRE verbal so hard?’ and the answer is the GRE verbal section comprises hard vocabularies and grammatical rules to be followed. GRE tests the student’s ability to analyze and examine the written paragraphs, sentences, and words. GRE vocabulary strategies are of big help in this case.

How to Improve GRE Verbal Score?

To study for GRE verbal the candidate needs to engage in smart and tactful GRE verbal preparation like knowing the vocabulary, managing time, remember the grammar rules and so on. We have curated a few GRE verbal tips which will be beneficial for the candidates questioning – ‘how to prepare for GRE verbal?’

GRE Sentence Equivalence

A brief into one of the three sections of GRE verbal syllabus, GRE sentence equivalence asks the test-takers to complete a sentence by picking two answer choices from six options that will result in a coherent and meaningful sentence.

1. Synonymous answers: GRE verbal preparation always advises the candidates to not hurry while picking the two choices and identify the word that would fit in. In most cases, the words you’re looking for are synonymous. It is to be remembered that the two words can have slightly diversified meanings but they have to be similar.
2. Narrow down the category: In GRE sentence equivalence, it might happen that you are not aware of few of the words in the answer choices, try to anticipate if you are looking for a positive or negative word to fit in the blank. Once you know that, accordingly your prefixes and root words will be helpful to ignore a few of the answer choices.
3. Hinting words: GRE verbal tips state that the sole purpose of the incomplete sentence is to provide the candidate with a pathway of finding the correct answer and they leave hints in the context for them to understand.
4. Pay heed to adverbs: Adverbs like nevertheless, however, furthermore, secondly, and so on, are instrumental in establishing relationships with the clauses.

GRE Text Completion

GRE text completion questions remove a few of the crucial words from the short passages and tests how competently the test-taker finds out the suitable answer by studying the remaining sentences. The following GRE text completion tips can prove really beneficial for test-takers questioning ‘how to prepare for GRE verbal?’

• Break down the sentence: The GRE text completion sentences can be huge, and test-takers might get confused with numerous answer choices per blank. Therefore, one of the GRE verbal tips is to break down the sentences according to your need and then proceed with finding the answer choices. Take one segment at a time.
• Words and idiom use: The GRE text completion practice will involve solving questions that have words as well as idiom uses that confuse candidates. Firstly, identify the ideas that have been expressed and secondly eliminate the answer choices making the finding process confusing. Lastly, if after reading the answer choice doesn’t sound correct then maybe it is not the correct answer.
• Read all the answer choices: Due to the time constraint test-takers generally speed up their search and end up picking the fragile answer choice. Don’t do that, and give time to finding the stronger answer choice.

GRE Reading Comprehension

GRE reading comprehension provides the candidate with prose and their understanding, rationalizing, summarizing, concluding, reasoning, identifying the author’s viewpoint, analyzing, and developing abilities are measured.

To score high in GRE verbal, follow the following GRE reading comprehension tips:

• Concentrate on Opening/Closing Paragraphs: Mostly GRE passages are short in lengths but few might be a long passage, and in those cases, GRE reading comprehension tips to be followed is focusing on opening and closing paras and skimming the middle ones. GRE reading comprehension questions mostly appear from those two.
• Read before and after the line: If a GRE RC question inquires about a particular line, don’t just read that line, but the ones before it and follow it. It will provide the idea of what is being discussed about and where it is heading.
• Shift uncommon passages to the end: Messing with unfamiliar passages will baffle the candidate. Therefore, always opt for passages where all the answers can be solved and leave the unfamiliar ones for the end.

Few more GRE reading comprehension tips are:

• Outside knowledge is not required;
• Identify the style of the GRE vocabulary;
• Underline and jot down points

The above GRE verbal preparation tips will, therefore, help the candidates in increasing their GRE verbal score. Practice answering questions under timed conditions and learn to prioritize tasks to improve your GRE verbal score. On average candidates need 2 to 3 months of preparation to achieve a good GRE verbal score.