NTS GAT Verbal Ability Section

Unlike, the Quantitative section, the Verbal section consists of six types of questions: Sentence Correction, Analogies, Antonyms, Synonyms, Reading Comprehension, and Sentence Completion. We will look deeper into each of these question types, and also discuss strategies to answer each of them.

Sentence Correction Questions

Sentence Correction questions on the GAT are sentences with a portion of the sentence underlined. The question will then ask whether the underlined portion is correct as is, or offer four choices of how to improve the sentence. The test taker must choose the answer that is not only the most correct but the one that makes the sentence the clearest and concise. In other words, there may be more than one answer that is grammatically correct, but the right answer improves the overall clarity of the sentence. These can be tricky because the choices will all look very similar.

In terms of grammar, grammatical rules assessed include subject-verb agreement, pronoun consistency, pronoun case, verb tense sequence, and parallel construction. Also look out for dangling or misplaced modifiers. In terms of clarity, be wary of automatically choosing the shortest phrase. Weigh each option carefully and if there are two that are both correct, choose the one that makes the sentence the clearest and understandable. This might involve a having a bit of a feel for what's best, but with a practice that can be developed. For those who struggle with this section, a brush-up on the basic rules of grammar will be helpful.

Analogies

An analogy question on the GAT is a type of word problem that consists of one main word pair along with four option pairs. To solve the analogy, you must find a word pair from the option pairs that correctly describes or matches the relation between main word pair. At first glance, the words in an analogy may seem to have nothing to do with each other, but the words are always logically related. The first pair of words has a relationship similar to the second pair of words. To solve the analogy, you need to figure out that relationship.

Antonyms

An antonym is a word opposite in meaning to another word. Antonyms can be of any part of speech; however, the words have to be the same part of speech in order to be antonyms of each other. Not all words can have an antonym as some words such as a chair, bottle, etc. have neutral meanings and hence no opposites.

Possessing a good vocabulary can help a test-taker identify antonyms of words given. However, there are various strategies and approaches that can help in determining the word farthest in meaning.

Synonyms

Synonyms are words which have the same or nearly the same meaning as another word. For instance, ‘affluent’ and ‘opulent’ are synonyms because they mean the same, that is, ‘rich’. Generally speaking, knowledge of synonyms of words and general vocabulary is of utmost importance. These become doubly important in examinations where these often appear as questions.

Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension questions are designed to test a wide range of abilities required to read and understand the kinds of prose commonly encountered in graduate school.

Each Reading Comprehension question is based on a passage, which may range in length from one paragraph to several paragraphs. Passages are drawn from the physical sciences, the biological sciences, the social sciences, the arts and humanities, and everyday topics, and are based on material found in books and periodicals, both academic and nonacademic.

Sentence Completion

Each question on the GAT Sentence Completion section contains one or two blanks, and you have to find the best answer choice to make the sentence make complete sense. Be sure to study the sentence carefully so that you notice all the clues built into the sentence. On average you will need a little under one minute to answer each question.