GRE Text Completion: Strategy, Traps and 6 Worked Examples

Aswathy Mohandas

03/11/2026

9 min read

A GRE Text Completion question gives you a short passage of one to five sentences with one, two or three blanks. You choose one word or phrase for each blank, and every blank must be right to score. The fastest method: read the whole passage, find the words that signal its direction, predict each blank in your own words, then match your prediction to the choices.

This guide covers the format, how it is scored, the method ETS recommends, the traps the wrong options set and how long to spend. It ends with six worked examples, from one blank to three, with the reason every wrong option fails.

The six examples are practice items written by Galvanize in the official format. They are not ETS questions. For the whole Verbal section, read our GRE Verbal guide; for the other sentence-based question type, see GRE Sentence Equivalence.

What is a GRE Text Completion question?

It is one of three question types in Verbal Reasoning, alongside Reading Comprehension and Sentence Equivalence. ETS sets out the structure on its Verbal Reasoning content page:

• Each passage has one to five sentences, with one to three blanks.
• A question with one blank has five answer choices. A question with two or three blanks has three choices for each blank.
• Each blank has a single correct answer, and the choices for different blanks work independently.
• There is no credit for partially correct answers.

ETS says the question type tests how a skilled reader builds “a picture of the whole” from the words that remain, and revises it while reading.

Since 22 September 2023 the GRE General Test has been shorter. The ETS test structure page sets out the Verbal section like this:

ETS does not publish how many of those questions are Text Completion. It says about half of Verbal Reasoning is based on reading passages, and the other half asks you to complete sentences, groups of sentences or paragraphs. Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence share that half.

How is Text Completion scored?

All or nothing. On a three-blank question, two right answers and one wrong answer earn the same as three wrong answers. ETS’s page on understanding your GRE scores explains the rest:

• Your raw Verbal score is the number of questions you answered correctly.
• Within a section, every question counts the same. A three-blank Text Completion is worth no more than a one-blank one.
• The raw score is converted to the 130–170 scale through a process called equating.

So a hard three-blank question is a good one to mark and come back to. Within a section you can skip questions, go back and change answers.

How do you answer a Text Completion question?

ETS warns against trying every combination of answers, which “takes too long and is open to error”. Its recommended method, in five steps:

1. Read the whole passage first to get its overall sense. Do not stop at the first blank.
2. Find the signal words. Words such as although, but, instead and far from signal a contrast. Words such as because, moreover, in fact and a colon signal that the next part continues or explains the first.
3. Predict each blank in your own words, then look for a choice that matches. A rough prediction such as “something negative” is often enough to remove two choices.
4. Start with the easiest blank, not necessarily the first. Once one blank is fixed, the others often follow.
5. Re-read the finished passage to check that it is logical, grammatical and consistent in style.

What traps do the wrong options set?

• The right topic, the wrong direction. A choice can belong to the subject of the passage while saying the opposite of what the signal words need. Always check the direction first.
• A choice that fits one sentence but not the passage. In multi-blank questions, a choice can complete its own sentence well and still contradict a later one.
• A choice that is too strong or too weak. “Modest” and “spectacular” are both positive, but only one fits a book reprinted six times.
• The hard word. An unfamiliar word is not more likely to be right. If you know the other choices are wrong, pick the unknown word; if you do not, decide on the evidence of the choices you do know.

How long should you spend on each question?

The Verbal section gives you 41 minutes for 27 questions, about 1.5 minutes a question on average. A one-blank Text Completion should take less than that, which buys time for Reading Comprehension passages and three-blank questions. If a question is still unclear after your first pass, mark it, choose your best answer and move on: there is no penalty for a wrong answer.

Six worked examples

Example 1 (one blank)

Although the committee praised the proposal’s ambition, it found the budget so ______ that approval was out of the question: the costs had been estimated with no supporting data at all.

(A) meticulous  (B) speculative  (C) modest  (D) transparent  (E) conventional

Answer: (B) speculative. The colon explains the blank: costs estimated “with no supporting data” are speculative. Meticulous and transparent say the opposite. A modest or conventional budget would not make approval impossible, and nothing after the colon describes either.

Example 2 (one blank)

Far from being the ______ figure his critics described, the senator was known among colleagues for changing his position whenever new evidence emerged.

(A) dogmatic  (B) pragmatic  (C) receptive  (D) erratic  (E) charismatic

Answer: (A) dogmatic. “Far from” means the blank is the opposite of what follows. Changing your view when the evidence changes is the opposite of being dogmatic. Pragmatic and receptive agree with the second half instead of contrasting with it. Erratic also describes someone who changes position, so it is not a contrast. Charismatic has nothing to do with changing positions.

Example 3 (two blanks)

The early reviews of the novel were (i) ______, but sales told a different story: within a year the book had become a (ii) ______ success, reprinted six times.

Answer: dismissive, commercial. Start with blank (ii). Six reprints describe sales, so the success is commercial. A critical success means praise from reviewers, which is not what sales show, and six reprints in a year is more than modest. “But sales told a different story” then needs reviews that contrast with strong sales, so blank (i) is dismissive. Glowing reviews would match the sales, and lengthy says nothing about the reviews’ verdict.

Example 4 (two blanks)

Because the data set was (i) ______, the researchers were careful not to (ii) ______ their findings to the wider population.

Answer: small and unrepresentative, generalize. “Because” means the first half gives the reason for the second. Researchers avoid generalizing their findings to a wider population when their sample cannot stand for it. A large and random sample is exactly the kind that would allow generalizing. Recent gives no reason for caution. Restrict their findings to the wider population makes no sense, and you do not attribute findings to a population.

Example 5 (three blanks)

The museum’s new director was expected to be a (i) ______, given her record of quietly preserving existing collections. Instead she proved (ii) ______, selling off a third of the holdings within months and (iii) ______ trustees who had assumed continuity.

Answer: caretaker, iconoclastic, alarming. “Quietly preserving existing collections” makes her a caretaker; a reformer or spendthrift does not match that record. “Instead” reverses the expectation, and selling a third of the holdings within months is bold and against tradition: iconoclastic. Cautious would fit the expectation, not reverse it, and indecisive does not fit fast, large sales. Trustees who “had assumed continuity” would be alarmed by this, not reassured, and the sentence describes her actions, not a consultation.

Example 6 (three blanks)

Scientific consensus is often (i) ______ unanimity in public debate. In fact, a consensus can coexist with (ii) ______ disagreement on details; what it reflects is broad agreement on the weight of the evidence, not the (iii) ______ of every dissenting view.

Answer: mistaken for, considerable, absence. “In fact” corrects a common belief, so the first sentence states the error: consensus is mistaken for unanimity. If it were contrasted with unanimity, there would be nothing to correct. The correction is that consensus allows considerable disagreement on details; no disagreement would be unanimity again, and feigned disagreement is not the point. Last, consensus does not mean the absence of every dissenting view. Nobody would think it means the endorsement or publication of dissent, so those two leave nothing to correct.

How can you practise Text Completion?

• Use the official material first. ETS publishes free sample questions with explanations, and its free practice tests use real questions.
• Build vocabulary in context. Learn words with the sentences they appear in, not as single translations. Our GRE vocabulary guide lists the words that come up most often.
• Practise prediction. Cover the choices and write your own word for each blank before you look.
• Review every miss. For each wrong answer, write down which signal word you missed or which trap caught you.

To see how you do on timed Verbal questions, take our free GRE mock test, and use the GRE score calculator to see where your score places you.