GMAT Verbal vs GRE Verbal: Which is Easier?

Many test-takers worry, "Is GRE Verbal easier than GMAT Verbal?" when selecting whether to take the GRE or the GMAT or when switching from one test to the other. It's a good issue since, despite the fact that there is considerable overlap between the Verbal sections of the two exams, there are also important variations that might make the Verbal section of one exam simpler for some test takers. Even in the areas where the Verbal sections of the two exams mostly coincide, there are still significant variances that could make GRE Verbal seem easier or harder than GMAT Verbal.

GRE Verbal vs. GMAT Verbal: Structure and Question Types

The GRE presents 2 Verbal Reasoning sections. Each section is 30 minutes long and contains 20 questions. So, in total, you see 40 Verbal questions on the GRE and spend 60 minutes of your exam on Verbal.  

The GRE Verbal sections consist of 3 major question types: Text Completion, Sentence Equivalence, and Reading Comprehension.  

Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence make up about half of the questions in each Verbal section, with slightly more Text Completion questions than Sentence Equivalence questions.  

The other half of the questions in each Verbal section are Reading Comprehension. Those questions include a handful of Critical Reasoning-style questions sometimes known as “Paragraph Argument” questions.  

The GMAT presents 1 Verbal Reasoning section that is 65 minutes long and contains 36 questions.  

Like GRE Verbal, GMAT Verbal consists of 3 major question types: Sentence Correction, Reading Comprehension, and Critical Reasoning. Each of those question types makes up roughly 1/3 of the questions you’ll see in GMAT Verbal.

So, overall, GRE Verbal gives you slightly less time to complete slightly more questions than GMAT Verbal does. That said, differences of 5 minutes and 4 questions aren’t that great.  

Furthermore, you may find you often need less time to complete GRE Verbal questions than to complete GMAT Verbal questions. Or, you may find that the time pressure of completing GRE Verbal vs. completing GMAT Verbal feels about the same.

GRE Vocab vs. GMAT Grammar

The biggest difference between GRE and GMAT Verbal is that GRE Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, which ask us to select the word(s) that logically complete a sentence, largely test vocabulary knowledge, while GMAT Sentence Correction questions, which ask us to identify the correct version of a sentence, largely test grammar knowledge.

So, if you have a broad base of vocabulary knowledge already — perhaps you’re an avid reader — then GRE Verbal may be easier for you than GMAT Verbal. On the other hand, if your grammar game is strong, you may find GMAT Verbal easier. The point is, in the area where GRE and GMAT Verbal differ most, neither is inherently easier than the other. Rather, whether you find a vocab emphasis or grammar emphasis easier in large part comes down to your existing competencies and personal preferences.

Are you already stronger in one area or the other? Will you enjoy learning one type of content more than the other? Ask yourself these questions before you decide whether GRE Verbal or GMAT Verbal may be easier for you.

Of course, given the time and effort (and great study materials), you can master either GRE vocab or GMAT grammar. In fact, time and effort should be an aspect of your calculation here, because a big part of the relative difficulty of GRE vs. GMAT Verbal is not just the type of content you’ll have to study (vocab vs. grammar) but the amount.  

Consider Both Content and Study Time

Many students are intimidated by English grammar — the jargon, the arbitrary-seeming rules. So, they assume that memorizing vocab definitions will be easier than learning a bunch of pesky grammar concepts. However, one of the challenges of GRE Verbal is the sheer number of vocabulary words test-takers must learn to be prepared for the exam. Even if you have a solid vocab base, you’ll likely need to study a few to several hundred vocab words. Some students need to study 1,000 or more.

On the other hand, for GMAT Verbal, you’ll need to master fewer than 100 grammar rules. Now, again, if grammar is your Achilles heel or you find learning new words a fun challenge, then GRE Verbal may still seem more doable than GMAT Verbal. However, test-takers who aren’t firmly in one camp in the vocab vs. grammar debate may be swayed toward the GMAT when they weigh studying, for example, 500 vocab words vs. just 80 or so grammar rules.

So far it has been a bit of a tossup as to whether GRE Verbal actually is easier than GMAT Verbal. We can see that GRE and GMAT Verbal are different in some significant ways, but whether that makes Verbal “easier” on one test or the other is largely personal.  

So, what about the areas in which GRE and GMAT Verbal are most similar? Can we get any further insight into which test is easier there?

RC and CR on the GMAT vs. GRE: Similar But Not the Same

The main similarities between the GRE and GMAT Verbal are Reading Comprehension (RC) and Critical Reasoning (CR). For RC, both tests present passages of varying lengths accompanied by a series of questions about each passage. For CR, both tests present very short, 1-paragraph passages that present an argument that you must evaluate in some way.  

On both tests, there is also a lot of overlap in the topics of passages, the question types, and the skills needed to perform well. However, there are a couple of differences that may make the GRE seem easier in these areas.  

GRE Passages Tend to Be Shorter

GRE passages are somewhat shorter, on average, than GMAT passages. Yes, you will see a few long passages on the GRE. However, most of the passages you’ll be presented with will be on the shorter side. And what the GMAT considers a “short” passage (roughly 200 to 250 words) generally won’t get as short as a GRE passage could. Many short GRE passages are in the 100-200 word range.

Even CR passages, which are by nature quite short, are often slightly shorter on the GRE than on the GMAT. Now, keep in mind that GMAT CR passages are, in general, already only about 100 words or fewer. However, you’re unlikely to come across a GMAT CR passage that is only 1 or 2 sentences long, while you can see such passages in GRE CR.

It’s also important to keep in mind that shorter doesn’t always equal easier. Yes, you may have to spend less time, on average, reading GRE passages. However, even a passage of fewer than 150 words on the GRE can be quite dense, using complex vocabulary and sentence structures.  

In fact, GRE passages can employ more literary or lyrical styles that you won’t see on the GMAT. GMAT passages tend to be a bit “dryer” and more “mechanical” in their style and structure.  And we haven’t even touched on the difficulty of the questions associated with a passage. In other words, we can’t assume that because a passage is shorter, the questions about it will be easier. Nonetheless, shorter passages may make GRE Verbal seem easier than GMAT Verbal to some test-takers.  

The GRE Has Fewer CR Questions

GMAT test-takers often cite Critical Reasoning as the biggest challenge they face in GMAT Verbal. Critical Reasoning questions can be TRICKY and deceptive. And because they make up 1/3 of the questions in the GMAT Verbal section, they represent a significant portion of a test-taker’s GMAT score in Verbal.

Comparatively, Critical Reasoning questions are de-emphasized on the GRE. They can be just as tough, but you’ll see only 3-4 of them on your entire exam. On the other hand, the GMAT presents 9-12 CR questions.

There are also fewer possible types of CR questions on the GRE: 8 to the GMAT’s 11. So, there are fewer CR concepts to master for the GRE.

For some test-takers, the greater emphasis on Critical Reasoning makes GMAT Verbal more taxing than GRE Verbal. Of course, as with any Verbal question type on either test, with proper preparation, there is no reason any test-taker can’t master GMAT Critical Reasoning!

So then, assuming that you’re not dead set against studying vocab, is GMAT Verbal harder than GRE Verbal after all? Not so fast. There’s one wrinkle in GRE Verbal questions that we haven’t yet discussed.

The GRE Has Multi-Answer Questions

All of the questions in the GMAT Verbal section are “traditional,” single-answer multiple-choice questions with 5 answer choices to choose from.  

The GRE Verbal sections present a variety of multiple-choice questions, including many that require more than one answer or have more (or less) than 5 answer choices. For example, Sentence Equivalence questions always present 6 answer choices, 2 of which are correct. (You need to select 2 words that produce the same sentence meaning).

Two- and 3-blank Text Completion questions present 3 answer choices per blank. So, a 2-blank question always has 6 choices and 2 correct answers, and a 3-blank question always has 9 choices and 3 correct answers.

In Reading Comprehension, some questions present 3 answer choices and ask you to “select all that apply.” For these questions, there may be 1 or multiple correct answers. It could even be that all of the answers presented are correct.  

The thing is, none of the multi-answer questions in the GRE Verbal section allow for partial credit. So, even if you select 1 or 2 of the correct answers to a question, if you don’t select ALL of the correct answers to the question, the question is still marked incorrect.

On the flipside, you’re also likely to see 1 or 2 RC questions on the GRE that ask you to highlight a sentence in the passage. In that case, there are no answer choices to choose from. You simply must base your selection on what the question stem says.

For some students, mastering multi-answer questions and the variety of multiple-choice (or no choice) questions in GRE Verbal adds to the stress of the exam. On the other hand, the standard, dependable 5-option multiple-choice questions in GMAT Verbal feel more comfortable and predictable.  

Key Takeaways

As we’ve seen, there is no clear-cut answer to the question of whether GRE Verbal or GMAT Verbal is easier. The GRE tests vocab much more heavily than the GMAT does, while the GMAT tests grammar much more heavily.  

Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning on both exams test your ability to understand many of the same concepts, but the GMAT places much more emphasis on CR than the GRE does.  Not to be outdone, however, the GRE throws a monkey wrench into things by presenting many multi-answer Verbal questions, on which there is no partial credit.  

The moral of the story is that whether GRE or GMAT Verbal is easier is basically a personal judgment that depends on each test-taker’s existing competencies and preferences.

So, the best way to determine whether GRE Verbal or GMAT Verbal is easier for YOU is to try some GRE and GMAT Verbal practice questions to get a sense of each of the different types of Verbal questions you’ll face on each exam.