The verbal section consists of 30 qestions. You get 30 minutes to complete all the questions. These fall into four types: antonyms, analogies, sentence completions, and reading comprehension questions. Your academic success will depend on your verbal abilities, especially your ability to understand scholarly prose and to work with specialized and technical vocabulary.

Here is how 30-question verbal section generally breaks down:

• 8-10 antonym questions
• 6-8 analogy questions
• 5-7 sentence completion questions
• 6-8 reading comprehension questions( based on two to four passages)

Although the amount of time spent on each type of question varies from person to person, in general form, antonyms take the least time, then analogies, then sentence completions, and, finally, reading comprehension questions.

Antonym Questions:

The antonym questions are the most straightforward vocabulary questions on the test. You are given a word and must choose, from the five choices that follow it, the best antonym. Some of these words may be totally unfamiliar to you.

Analogy Questions:

Like antonyms, analogy questions are vocabulary questions. They test your understanding of the relationships among words and ideas. You are given one pair of words and must choose another pair that is related in the same way. Many relationships are possible. The two terms in the pair can be synonyms; one term can be a cause, the other the effect; one can be a tool, the other the worker who uses the tool.

Sentence Completion Questions:

In the sentence completion questions you are asked to choose the best way to complete a sentence from which one or two words have been omitted. These questions test as combination of reading comprehension skills and vocabulary. You must be able to recognize the logic, style, and tone of the sentence so that you will be able to choose the answer that makes sense in context. You must also be able to recognize differences in usage. The sentences cover a wide variety of topics from a number of academic fields. They do not, however, test specific academic knowledge. You may feel more comfortable if you are familiar with the topic the sentence is discussing, but you should be able to handle any of the sentence using your knowledge of the English Language.

Reading Comprehension Questions

Reading comphrehension questions test your ability to understand and interpret what you need. This is probably the most important ability you will need in graduate school and afterward.

Although the passages may encompass any subject matter, you do not need to know anything about the subject discussed in the passage in order to answer the questions on that passage. The purpose of the questions is to test your reading ability, not your knowledge of history, science, literature, or art.