Sentence Equivalence questions have vague instructions (“select exactly two words that best complete the sentence and produce sentences that are alike in meaning”): even though the Revised GRE has debuted, many are still scratching their heads, wondering what the difference is between synonymous sentences and synonyms.
Even if a Sentence Equivalence question is straightforward, you may suddenly find yourself unsure of how to proceed. What if three answer choices work? Two of them are synonyms, and one of them isn’t. You feel, however, that one of the synonyms somewhat works in the sentence, but the one lone word that does not have a synonym amongst the answer choices works even better. What, then, is the answer?
Here are some good strategies for dealing with Sentence Equivalence questions:
- Always look for synonyms.
- If you can’t find any synonyms amongst the answer choices, given you know the definition of every word, then the correct answers will be non-synonyms.
- If you do not know a few of the words, do not just pick two words because they create synonymous sentences.
- Choose a word you do not know, and match it with one of the answer choices that work.
- If the above sounds like a gamble, that’s because approaching Sentence Equivalence, in terms of guessing, is so complex, at least compared to the old GRE’s one in five answer choices. Essentially, you will want to do anything to increase the odds of guessing correctly. And, to do so, the steps above will be your most helpful strategy.
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Hello Chris,
I have a doubt.
Precisely because non-technicians often fail to relate to abstruse__________ , Riley ordered that the recruitment manual language be carefully revised to facilitate external consumption.
slang
vernacular
argot
dialect
jargon
vituperation
I marked vernacular and dialect but it’s wrong. My doubt is all the words slang, vernacular, argot, dialect argot and jargon almost means the same. Can ETS create so close options.
Source: MGRE
No, ETS would never create such questions. This is a poorly written question and it reinforces my general point on MGRE – its SE and TC aren’t very good.
Hi,
I have a doubt. Could you please clarify?
Q) The reasoning in this editorial is so ________ that we cannot see how anyone can be deceived by it.
A unsound
B coherent
C astute
D dispassionate
E scrupulous
F specious
The blank is some negative word. More specifically it refers to reasoning that is so suspect that nobody would be deceived by it. (A) unsound means not reasonable. (F) specious means misleading but false.
Hope that helps!