Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence
This topic covers blank logic, sentence clues, contrast, continuation, double-blank relationships, equivalent meanings, and answer pairs that preserve sentence meaning.
How to study for the GRE
Build every answer around the exact task: passage evidence, blank logic, argument structure, equation setup, units, data labels, and section-level timing.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions test reasoning under the current GRE General Test structure.
Exam cue: Name the question type, then mark the evidence, blank logic, argument role, equation, table label, or writing goal.
Concept 2
The best answer identifies the task, evidence, relationship, equation, quantity, or writing move before comparing choices.
Exam cue: Check scope, contrast words, quantifiers, units, graph labels, variable definitions, and whether the answer fits every condition.
Concept 3
Eliminate choices that add outside assumptions, reverse the relationship, ignore wording, misuse units, or answer a nearby but different task.
Exam cue: Use review time to verify the exact prompt, not just the topic that first looked familiar.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Choosing a familiar word, formula, or claim without testing it against the exact context.
Guardrail: Use a 15-second safety pause before finalizing your action.
Treating a GRE reasoning item like a memorization item rather than a task about relationships.
Guardrail: Use a 15-second safety pause before finalizing your action.
Skipping the final reasonableness check for passage support, sentence meaning, or quantitative scale.
Guardrail: Use a 15-second safety pause before finalizing your action.
Memory anchors
Blank Logic
Blank logic comes from the sentence relationship before the answer choices.
Clue Word
A clue word signals contrast, cause, example, concession, or continuation.
Prediction
Predict the blank's meaning before comparing choices.
Contrast Blank
A contrast blank points away from the nearby idea.
Continuation Blank
A continuation blank supports or restates the nearby idea.
Sentence Equivalence
Sentence equivalence requires two answers that create similar sentence meanings.
Pair Test
The two selected words should be near-synonyms in context.
Double Blank
Double-blank questions require both blanks to fit the sentence relationship.
Tone Fit
The word must fit the sentence's tone as well as its definition.
Decoy Word
A decoy word may fit one phrase but break the sentence's full logic.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
Although the biographer admired her subject, she was not _____; she documented his failures as carefully as his successes.
The architect's proposal was simultaneously _____ and _____: its unfamiliar form attracted attention, but every element served a practical purpose.
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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