Sentence Equivalence Tips: GRE Verbal 170

Sentence Equivalence is definitely not the easiest section of the GRE, but I will try to make it a bit easier with this video. I will show you a way of thinking about these questions that you may never have thought of. Or maybe you have! But practice is always good, right?


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Your job is to pick two words that can both fit in the sentence and give roughly the same meaning to the sentence as each other. This is the meaning of ‘equivalence’ – the sentences should end up meaning the same thing – they should be ‘equivalent’ – equal.

So, what is the secret?

You are basically always being asking to reinforce an idea or say its opposite. Or to be more fancy, find a synonym or antonym. Your job is to find the main idea of the passage, and then look out for hints about whether to reinforce that idea with the words you choose, or express the opposite.
To decide, look out for key contrasting words. These are turning points, or twists in the sentence, that are crucial for getting the question right. Here are over 25 examples that I have seen.
But, not, yet, even though/when/with, despite, in spite of, unexpected, however, actually, belies, notwithstanding, nevertheless, nonetheless, although, while, whereas, unlike, on the contrary, distinct, differing, contradicting, contrasting, conversely, instead, rather, hardly …

When we see one of these words, we know we are looking for a contrast. And we need to pay particular attention the words surrounding these key turning-point words.

Sentence Equivalence is of course a key part of the GRE Verbal section, and mastering it makes you one step closer to getting a GRE Verbal 170 score. This video goes well with those from Veritas Prep, greg mat, Galvanize Test Prep, Egoland Learning and Grockit.

Although it does contain some pioneering ideas, one would hardly characterize the work as __________.
A. orthodox
B. eccentric
C. original
D. trifling
E. conventional
F. innovative

Can you spot the keyword contrasting word? It is ‘although’. This first part of the sentence: ‘Although it does contain some pioneering ideas’ is alerting us to the fact that the work is actually not very original or pioneering.

This is why the answer is C and F. ‘One would hardly characterise the work as’ just means ‘you wouldn’t actually call the work …’ As we established, we wouldn’t call the work pioneering or original or innovative, which mean the same thing, broadly speaking.

Notice, the sentence could have ended like this.
Although it does contain some pioneering ideas, the work is actually quite __________.

We would again have to express the idea that the work is not pioneering, so this time the answer would be something like ‘the work is actually quite ‘uninventive, unoriginal, conventional, derivative.’
This is what makes sentence equivalence harder than the other sections. You have to not only grasp the main idea but also identify whether we need to reinforce or contrast that idea.

That’s enough theory, time to do a load of examples, to bed the idea in. I am going to use majortests.com again.

Major Tests 3


I offer private GRE / GMAT tutoring online at a fixed rate of $140/hr. Please get in touch via the email below, or through my tutoring website: https://www.gretutorlondon.com/

Enquiries: [email protected] If you’re now ready to get into your dream MBA program, my former student, Angel, is offering virtual private Admissions coaching. She was admitted into Harvard Business School, The Wharton School of Business, and Columbia Business School (accepted into every school she interviewed for) after graduating from UCLA with a degree in Communication. She also got 3 perfect scores on the GRE’s Analytical Writing Assessment (99th percentile).

Here is her link - https://linktr.ee/angel_accel - and you can reach her at [email protected] with the subject line, “PHILIP SENT ME.”