GRE Verbal Section: Breakdown and How to Study

Format checked against ETS, October 2026

The GRE Verbal section has 27 questions in 41 minutes, split into two sections (12 questions in 18 minutes, then 15 in 23). About half the questions are Reading Comprehension. The rest are Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence, which test vocabulary in context. To study for it, review vocabulary every day with spaced repetition, learn to predict each blank from clue words before you look at the choices, and practice with ETS's official material.

Key Takeaways

Scored 130 to 170. The second section gets harder or easier depending on how you did on the first.
No partial credit on any multi-answer question.
Predict the meaning of a blank before reading the answer choices.
Learn vocabulary in context sentences, not as bare definitions.

GRE Verbal section breakdown

The current GRE (since September 2023) is shorter than the version in many older prep books. Older books describe two 30-minute sections of 20 questions each. That format is gone.

Section	Questions	Time	About per question
Verbal 1	12	18 min	90 seconds
Verbal 2	15	23 min	92 seconds

The three question types:

Reading Comprehension (about half). Passages of one to several paragraphs, each with one to six questions. Most have five choices and one answer. Some ask you to select every correct choice out of three, and you only get credit if you pick all of them.
Text Completion. One to five sentences with one to three blanks. A single blank has five choices. Two or three blanks have three choices each, and every blank has to be right.
Sentence Equivalence. One sentence, one blank, six choices. Pick the two words that each complete the sentence with the same meaning. Both must be right.

Within a section you can skip questions and come back, so leave a hard passage for last instead of sinking four minutes into it.

Text Completion: predict before you look

Cover the answer choices. Find the clue words in the sentence and decide whether the blank should be positive or negative, and roughly what it means. Then pick the choice closest to your prediction. Trying each choice to see what "sounds right" is how the trap answers work.

Contrast words (although, however, despite, yet, while) flip the meaning. Continuation words (and, moreover, similarly, furthermore) keep it the same.

"Although the professor was known for his ____, he spoke with surprising humility." "Although" flips the meaning of "humility", so predict something like arrogance.
"The city's roads were antiquated, and its transit system was similarly ____." "Similarly" continues the meaning, so predict something like outdated or dilapidated.
"Despite the apparent simplicity of the poem, its themes are ____." "Despite" flips "simplicity", so predict something like complex or convoluted.

For two- and three-blank questions, solve the blank with the strongest clue first, then use it to work out the others.

Sentence Equivalence: find the pair

Predict the blank the same way, then look for two choices that both match the prediction. A word that fits the sentence but has no synonym among the choices is usually wrong. The test often includes a pair of synonyms that don't fit the sentence, so check the pair against your prediction, not just against each other.

Reading Comprehension: find the core of each sentence

GRE passages pack meaning into long sentences. Strip each one down to subject and verb, then add back the logical turn.

"The proliferation of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic, while ostensibly a sign of ecological vitality, may actually be indicative of an underlying nutrient imbalance caused by anthropogenic climate shifts."

Subject: the proliferation of phytoplankton.
Verb: may be indicative of.
Core: phytoplankton growth may indicate a nutrient imbalance.
Turn: it looks healthy ("ostensibly") but probably isn't.

Answer from the passage, not from what you know. On inference questions, the right answer is the smallest step the text supports.

Vocabulary: learn words in sentences

Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence are about half the section, and they mostly come down to vocabulary. Build a deck of words from official questions and a reputable GRE list, and put each word in a sentence on the card. Review the deck every day with active recall and spaced repetition, so you can recall the meaning, not just recognize it. Adding 20 to 30 new words a day is a steady pace. More than that and the review load grows quickly.

Reading long-form articles in The Economist, The New Yorker or Scientific American gets you used to the sentence style, and gives you words in context to add to your deck.

A simple study plan

Start: take an official ETS practice test. Note whether you lose points to unknown words or to reading.
Every day: 20 to 30 minutes of vocabulary review.
Most days: one set of 10 to 15 mixed Verbal questions. For every miss, write down why: unknown word, misread clue, or trap answer.
Weekly: one timed 18 or 23 minute section.
Final two weeks: full official practice tests, plus redoing every question you've missed.

For timelines across the whole test, see how to study for the GRE and how long to study for the GRE.

StudyCards AI turns a vocabulary list or your reading notes into flashcards with example sentences, ready to review or export to Anki.

Try StudyCards AI Free

Frequently Asked Questions

How many questions are in the GRE Verbal section?

27 questions across two sections: 12 questions in 18 minutes, then 15 questions in 23 minutes, for 41 minutes in total. This is the shorter format ETS introduced in September 2023.

How is GRE Verbal scored?

On a scale of 130 to 170 in one-point steps. The test is section-level adaptive, so how well you do on the first Verbal section sets the difficulty of the second.

Do I get partial credit on GRE Verbal questions?

No. Sentence Equivalence needs both correct words, multi-blank Text Completions need every blank right, and select-one-or-more Reading Comprehension questions need every correct choice.

Should I study vocabulary or reading for GRE Verbal?

Both, but in proportion. About half the questions are Reading Comprehension, and the other half are Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence, which depend heavily on vocabulary. If you miss blanks because you do not know the words, prioritize vocabulary. If you know the words but pick wrong answers, practice reading and sentence logic.

How long should I study for GRE Verbal?

Most people need several weeks of steady practice, with daily vocabulary review running throughout. Take an official practice test first: the gap between your score and your target tells you how long to plan for.