Text Completion questions look simple at first. A sentence or short passage with one, two, or three blanks. Fill in the blanks, move on. But TC has an all-or-nothing scoring structure that punishes guessing, and ETS engineers the wrong answer choices specifically to attract people who read casually rather than analytically.
The right approach is methodical. Read for structure first. Predict before you look at choices. Match, do not guess.
The Format
TC questions come in three varieties based on blank count.
One-blank questions give you five answer choices. You select one. These are the fastest to work through, and a single strong prediction is usually enough to identify the answer.
Two-blank questions give you three choices per blank, labeled Column A and Column B. You must choose one word from each column. Credit requires both choices to be correct. Getting one blank right and one wrong earns zero points.
Three-blank questions give you three choices per blank across three columns. You must get all three right. With three choices per column, random guessing produces a 1 in 27 chance of getting all three correct. That is worse than leaving the question blank in most scoring scenarios.
The blank count escalates both the difficulty and the strategic weight of each answer. A careless choice on a three-blank question does not cost you a fraction of the question's value. It costs you the whole thing.
The Core Strategy
The single most important rule for TC is this: predict your own word before looking at the answer choices.
This protects you from the most common TC trap, which is reading a sentence, looking at the choices, and selecting the word that sounds the most natural or sophisticated. ETS designs the wrong choices to be plausible. If you let the choices anchor your thinking, you will be pulled toward answers that fit loosely rather than precisely.
The prediction-first sequence is:
- Read the sentence completely.
- Identify the structural clue that tells you what kind of word belongs in the blank.
- Generate your own word or phrase that fits.
- Find the answer choice that best matches your prediction.
- Confirm by reading the full sentence back with your selected word in place.
For two-blank and three-blank questions, work one blank at a time. Identify which blank has the clearest structural support and fill that one first. Then use the answer you selected to inform the next blank.
Reading for Structural Clues
Every well-formed TC sentence tells you what goes in the blank. The structural clues are the mechanism.
Continuation clues indicate that the blank should continue or reinforce an idea already expressed in the sentence. Words and phrases like "moreover," "in addition," "similarly," "and," and "also" signal continuation. If the sentence says the research was thorough and the results were ____, the blank continues the positive direction: something like conclusive, robust, or unambiguous.
Contrast clues indicate that the blank should reverse or oppose an idea already expressed. Words and phrases like "however," "but," "despite," "although," "while," "in contrast," and "on the other hand" signal contrast. If the sentence says although the theory was elegant, the experimental results were ____, the blank goes in the opposite direction from elegant: something like messy, inconclusive, or contradictory.
Cause-effect clues indicate that the blank is either the cause or the result of something stated in the sentence. Words like "because," "therefore," "thus," "consequently," "since," and "as a result" signal cause-effect. These clues often make the logic tight enough that your prediction can be fairly specific.
Definitional clues are sentences where the blank is essentially defined by a phrase elsewhere in the sentence. "His remarks were ____; he said nothing that was not hedged or qualified." The second clause defines the blank. Your prediction should be something like evasive, noncommittal, or circumspect.
Identifying which type of structural signal is present before generating your prediction is what separates systematic TC work from guessing.
Why Three-Blank Questions Demand Precision
Three-blank questions are the highest-stakes TC format. The 1-in-27 guessing odds make them the questions where deliberate strategy pays the most.
Three-blank passages are typically longer, often three to five sentences. The blanks are usually distributed across the passage so that each one depends on understanding the passage's direction at that point.
The practical risk is compounding errors. If you misread the first blank and select an incorrect answer, that wrong answer can color your reading of the second and third blanks. You build on a faulty foundation.
To work three-blank questions cleanly: read the full passage before attempting any blank. Build a clear sense of the passage's argument or narrative. Identify which blank has the strongest, most unambiguous structural support. Fill that one first. Then work through the remaining blanks using the confirmed answer and the passage's structure together.
Never guess on a three-blank question unless you are confident about at least two of the three blanks. If you can identify two blanks with certainty and the third comes down to two plausible options, it is worth making a choice. If all three are uncertain, consider skipping and returning after completing other questions.
Common Traps
The "sounds right" trap. This is the most common error. You read the sentence, look at the choices, and select the word that produces a sentence that sounds natural and well-written. But ETS places sophisticated-sounding wrong answers in every TC question. The protection is committing to your prediction before looking at choices.
Partial fit on two-blank questions. You find a word that clearly fits Blank 1. You look at Column B and choose the word that seems most natural alongside your Blank 1 choice. But you have not actually read the sentence for the structural clue controlling Blank 2. The two blanks often have independent structural support. Work each blank from the sentence, not from your other answer.
Connotation confusion. Many GRE words carry specific connotations that matter. "Zealous" and "fervent" both mean intensely enthusiastic, but in many TC contexts they are not interchangeable because one fits the structural position better. Your prediction should account for connotation, not just general meaning.
Vocabulary gaps masquerading as strategy errors. If you are consistently missing TC questions even when you feel like you understand the structure, the problem may be that you do not know what the right answer word means precisely enough to recognize it. Run through your wrong answers: did you know all five (or three) choices well enough to evaluate them? If not, vocabulary work closes the gap faster than more strategy practice.
Pacing
One-blank TC questions should take 60 to 90 seconds. Two-blank questions: 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Three-blank questions: 2 to 3 minutes. These are working targets, not hard limits.
The Verbal section is 41 minutes total across 27 questions. RC passages take more time than individual TC and SE questions. A rough pacing split: spend 25 to 28 minutes on RC passages and questions, leaving the remaining time for TC and SE.
If you are moving through TC questions faster than these targets, you are likely not spending enough time on the structural read. If you are slower, practice the prediction-first habit until it becomes automatic.
Skip questions you cannot make progress on. A TC question where you cannot identify the structural clue and cannot recognize most of the vocabulary is not worth spending three minutes on. Flag it, move on, come back if time allows.
Practicing Effectively
The habit to build in practice is explaining every wrong answer. When you miss a TC question, identify specifically what went wrong:
- Did you miss the structural clue (a contrast marker or continuation signal)?
- Did you not know the definition of the right answer word?
- Did you know all the words but still pick wrong because you anchored on an attractive-sounding choice before predicting?
Each error type has a different fix. Missed structural clues are a reading habit issue, corrected by slowing down during the structural read. Vocabulary gaps are closed in the vocab trainer. Anchoring errors are fixed by stricter commitment to predicting before looking.
The TC lessons in the Verbal module cover each blank type with worked examples and walk through the structural clue identification step-by-step. Start there if you are new to the question type or if practice questions are revealing consistent errors in your structural read.
The practice section has TC questions across difficulty levels. Working in untimed mode first, with full attention to the prediction-first sequence, builds the habit before you introduce time pressure.
Once you are consistently applying the strategy correctly in untimed mode, move to timed practice. The goal is to make the structural read automatic so that the time pressure does not force you back into casual, choice-first guessing.