GRE Sentence Equivalence Strategies, Tips and Practice Tests

GRE Sentence Equivalence is a part of the Verbal Section in GRE. The questions in the Sentence Equivalence are presented as fill-in-the-blanks format and six answer choices. For GRE Sentence completion candidates need to choose either of two words appropriate for the blanks. Both the words need to produce the same meaning of the sentence. Candidates can expect a total of 8 Sentence Equivalence GRE Questions in the exam. Candidates need to be aware of different words and have a wide vocabulary for solving the sentence equivalence GRE questions. Below are some tips and strategies that candidates can follow as part of their GRE sentence equivalence practice. 

GRE Sentence Equivalence Question Structure

The question structure for sentence equivalence is similar to that of GRE Text Completion. Candidates' ability to solve a question based on partial information is assessed in sentence equivalence GRE questions. The structure of the questions in sentence equivalence can be identified with three main elements: 

• A single sentence 
• A blank space 
• Six answer choices 

Candidates need to select two choices to answer correctly. Candidates should be aware that partially correct answers cannot achieve a GRE score.

Sentence Equivalence GRE Questions Examples 

For GRE sentence equivalence practice, the following examples and explanation for the answers can be considered helpful. These examples for GRE sentence completion practice would help them understand the tips better while they would be able to take the GRE sentence equivalence practice test as well. Candidates can follow GRE verbal practice papers for their GRE sentence completion practice. 

1. Nancy’s landlord told her and her housemates that because of their failure to pay rent for the previous two months, they would need to ——— possession of the residence by the end of the week.

1. allocate
2. surrender
3. mandate
4. designate
5. relinquish
6. Circumvent

In the above sentence and word choices, allocate and designate might be considered as suitable choices although irrelevant to the sentence. Since Nancy failed to pay the rent of the house for two months, the landlord needed her to give up possession of the residence. Here, the pair of words suitable would be surrender and relinquish, both meaning to give up. Hence, a pair of words suitable to the context has been used for GRE sentence equivalence. 

2. After being bedridden for months, James found that his muscles had atrophied, which initially ——– his ability to walk or lift heavy objects.

1. belittled
2. castigated
3. hampered
4. bolstered
5. curtailed
6. Improved

The transition word after and initially are used to show cause and effect problems in a sentence. Accordingly, James was bedridden for months which has caused his muscles to become atrophied. The effect has been on his ability to walk or lift heavy objects which certainly has been affected. The correct answer hence is hampered or curtailed having similar meaning in context of the sentence. 

Strategy to Solve Sentence Equivalence GRE Questions 

Candidates need to understand that in order to solve GRE sentence completion, it is important to follow the given instructions. Candidates need to choose words which are not just grammatically correct but are appropriate in terms of the context of the sentence. Candidates need to consider GRE sentence equivalence practice to ace the GRE verbal. The following strategies would help candidates with their GRE text completion and sentence equivalence. 

Use clues based on context: Candidates should read the given sentence or question carefully and try to understand the context of the sentence before answering. The word for GRE sentence completion needs to be chosen based on the context clues given in the question. 

Avoid focusing on synonymous answer choices: Candidates often get caught up in finding similarities between the choice of answers while forgetting that they need to consider the given task. The answer in sentence equivalence needs to be in the context of the question and have similarity in producing the same sentence. 

Rewrite the question: candidates need to know that there are no rules against rewriting the GRE sentence in your own words. Hence, to find the correct answer in similarity with the sentence, candidates can rewrite the sentence choosing the correct answer.