{"id":19640,"date":"2020-01-21T04:48:23","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T12:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/?p=19640"},"modified":"2020-01-21T04:48:23","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T12:48:23","slug":"gre-text-completion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/gre-text-completion\/","title":{"rendered":"GRE Text Completion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/files\/2020\/01\/GMAT-Probability-Post-1-600x300.png\" alt=\"gre text completion - magoosh\" width=\"1200\" height=\"600\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-19659\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/files\/2020\/01\/GMAT-Probability-Post-1-600x300.png 600w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/files\/2020\/01\/GMAT-Probability-Post-1-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/files\/2020\/01\/GMAT-Probability-Post-1-768x384.png 768w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/files\/2020\/01\/GMAT-Probability-Post-1.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Pop quiz: what&#8217;s like a sentence completion but trickier? If you answered <em>GRE text completion<\/em>, you&#8217;d be right. A GRE text completion is similar to a sentence completion, but has a few important differences. For one, there can be multiple sentences in a\u00a0text completion. In fact, this <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/gre-verbal-sections-question-type-breakdown\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">GRE Verbal question type<\/a> may sometimes run on for an entire paragraph. That\u2019s because some have as many as three blanks.<\/p>\n<p>The other important difference between a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ets.org\/gre\/revised_general\/prepare\/verbal_reasoning\/text_completion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GRE text completion<\/a> and a GRE sentence completion is in a GRE text completion question, that each blank has only three possible answer choices, but you have to get all three correct in order to get the question correct (that amounts to a 1 in 27 chance in guessing!).<\/p>\n<p>To help you master this question type&#8211;and because the odds are against guessing the correct answer!&#8211;here are five important strategies you should follow to master GRE text completions on test day:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1.\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Don\u2019t Dive In<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Read the entire stem before you try to answer a GRE text completion. The reason for this strategy is that the first blank is often ambiguous unless you have read the entire paragraph.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Break Down the Text Completion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>GRE text completions are sometimes a paragraph long, so it is\u00a0easy to get lost in them. A great strategy is trying to understand the big picture. Breaking down the paragraph in your own words\u00a0(paraphrasing the paragraph) will help you get a grasp on what the sentences are talking about. Then you\u2019re ready for step #3.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3.\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Use Your Own Words<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here, we\u2019re on familiar footing. Much like the sentence completions and the\u00a0sentence equivalence questions, put your own word(s) in the blank or blanks you see on the GRE text completion. To do so, you must always justify your answers not just on the context, but some of the specific words or phrases in the sentence itself. I\u2019ve commonly referred to these word(s) as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/gre-verbal-practice-questions\/\">the clue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4.\u00a0<\/strong><strong>The Second (or Third) Blank First<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because the first blank is difficult to deal with, first try finding a word for the second or third blank in the text completion. Then, work your way backwards to the first blank. The caveat: this technique only applies if you can come up with a word for the second or third blank. If you can\u2019t, then work with the first blank.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5.\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Use the Entire Text Completion as Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019ve finally chosen your two\/three answers, plug them back into the blanks. Does the completed sentence make sense with your earlier paraphrase? If so, congratulations! You&#8217;ve solved your GRE text completion!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Craving more strategies for text completion? Check out Magoosh&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/gre.magoosh.com\/lessons\/149-intro-to-text-completion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Intro to Text Completion Lesson<\/a>! Then, try your hand at a few practice questions with these <a title=\"Text Completion Challenge Post\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/text-completion-challenge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">text completion challenge questions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pop quiz: what&#8217;s like a sentence completion but trickier? If you answered GRE text completion, you&#8217;d be right. A GRE text completion is similar to a sentence completion, but has a few important differences. For one, there can be multiple sentences in a\u00a0text completion. In fact, this GRE Verbal question type may sometimes run on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":19664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[12261],"class_list":["post-19640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-verbal-question-types"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>GRE Text Completion - Magoosh Blog \u2014 GRE\u00ae Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Everything you need to know about Text Completion questions on the GRE\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/gre-text-completion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GRE Text Completion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Everything you need to know about Text Completion questions on the GRE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/gre-text-completion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Magoosh Blog \u2014 GRE\u00ae Test\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Magoosh\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-21T12:48:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/files\/2020\/01\/Featured-Images-Template-3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rachel Kapelke-Dale\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MagooshGRE\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MagooshGRE\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rachel Kapelke-Dale\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/gre-text-completion\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/gre-text-completion\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rachel Kapelke-Dale\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/#\/schema\/person\/e8bb674fd0d6a6accfb4fb3d336f366a\"},\"headline\":\"GRE Text Completion\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-21T12:48:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/gre-text-completion\/\"},\"wordCount\":476,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"GRE Verbal Question Types\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/gre-text-completion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gre\/gre-text-completion\/\",\"name\":\"GRE Text Completion - 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