MANHATTAN PREP: GRE Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence

VERBAL: Reading comprehension questions:

Select one or more answer choices and select in passage
Tips for selecting one or more answer choice:
- Make sure consider each choice idenpendently
Tips for selecting in passage:
- If the passage is short, consider numbering each setence (i.e., writing 1 2 3 4 on your paper)
and crossing off each choice as you determine that it isnt the answer.
- If the passage is long, you might write a number of each paragrah (i.e., I, II, III) and tick off
each number as you determine that the correct setence is not located in that paragraph
VERBAL: Text completion questions:
1. Tips: DO NOT look at the answer choice until you have decided for yourself based on textual
clues actually written in the sentence, what kind of word needs to go in each blank. Only then
should you look at the choices and eleminate those that are not matches
2. Do not write your own story. The GRE cannot give you a blank without also giving you a clue,
physically written down in the passage, telling you what kind of word or phrase must go in
the blank. FIND THAT CLUE

CHAPTER 2: Text Completion

The best approach will be to anticipate an answer before looking at the choices (finding your own
answer first, then looking at choices)
Your mastery of a large number of GRE appropriate words is the biggest single factor that will
determine your success on the problem
Do not write your own stories
Keys steps for Text completion
1. Read only the sentence (not answer choices)
2. Find target, clue, the pivot and write down your own fill -in (the clue and the pivot are the two
most important parts of the sentence.
3. Compare to each answer choice
The target is the thing in the sentence that the blank is describing
The clue is what forces the contents of the blank to be perfectly predictable
The pivot is what determines the relationship between the blank and the clue
Vd: If the student had been less.., he would not have been expelled from his grade school

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The target: the student
The clue: expelled and the pivot: less not
Your own choice might be: badly behaved
Note: If the blank represents a missing now, the idea of a target may not apply
Double blank and triple blank text completion
Find clues, pivots and a subject
Start with the easiest/easier blank
Tricky aspects of text comletion sentences
1. Break it down: chop up the sentence and process it in small chunks. Start with the earliest or
the most conrete part of the story. Then add one chunk at a time.
2. Change complicated pivots to simple words, such as but and so
Unfamiliar style or content
Ex: That such a .of precedent would be countenanced was itself unprecedent in the court, a bastion
of traditionalism
Red herring clues: This clue only there in the sentence to confuse you. So be watch out
Blanks in tough spots
- The main thing to remember is that, no matter how complex or awkward the sentence, you
have to make sense of it. The best way to do that is to break it down into pieces. Start with
the easiest to understand chunk and work outward from there
TRAPS TO AVOID DURING ELIMINATION
Theme trap: in a wrong answer choice shares a theme or field (such as medicine, sports..) with the
sentence. As a result, the choice sounds ok on its own and somehow together with the sentence,
even though it doesnt really fit the blanks. Notice the trap language in the choices. So have the
mental discipline to follow the strategy every time, and you wont fall for traps like this
Close but not close enough the trap: occurs when a wrong answer choice is in the ballpark but
something is off in the meaning however the word is familiar, so it is attractive. You might feel
afraid of picking up the word you dont know. Overcome this fear

TEXT COMPLETION RECAP

Three important steps:
1. Read only the sentence
2. Find the clue and pivot, and write down your own fill-in
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 3. Compare to each answer choice
Principle for writing fill ins
Fill in = Clue + pivot (The clue describes the target. Reuse material from the sentence when wirting a
fill in)
Principle for two or three blanks
Start with the easier/easiest blank. Work outwards from the part of the sentence that is easiest to
understand
Things to watch out
1. Double negative pivots, which creat Reversal trap
2. Unfamiliar stye/contennt, which can confuse you and cause you to abandon your process
3. Red herring clues
4. Blanks in tough spots
5. Theme traps
6. Close but not close enough traps
7. Vocal traps

CHAPTER 3: Sentence Equivalence

There are 2 main methods of attack for a Sentence Equivalence question, both of which will be
reviewed in hthe pages as following:
1. Sentence analysis
2. Answer choice analysis
Sentence analysis
1. Similarily to Text completion, answer 4 questions below:
2. What is the blank referring to? (TARGET) To find the target, ask which of the nouns in the
sentence the blank is drescribing, or who is doing the action in the blank and to what
3. What does the setence tell you about the target? (CLUE). Do not guess, assume, or use outside
information, The clue will physically present in the sentence
4. Does the sentence have a PIVOT. Pivots indicate wether the blank is on the same side as or
the opposite from the clue
5. What word would you use to fill in the blank in your own words (a fill in) based on the clue?
Answer choice analysis
1. Do not look at among the answer choices for 2 words that mean the same thing
2. On actual GRE, it is almost always the case that the two correct answers are pretyy close to
being synonyms (call them, near-synonyms)

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3. Take notice of answer choice parttern: two by two (a pair synonym), weak pair, or unrelated
words, or even triplet pair, but in general, the most common correct answer choice is two by
two