TWENTYThe

Most Di!cult GRE Questions

BenchPrep’s Most-Often Missed GRE Practice Questions

Table of Contents

Ch. 1: IntroductionIntroduction to BenchPrep’s GRE Test Prep Program !

BenchPrep Games, Flashcards, Adaptive Nature and Other Features !

How BenchPrep Can Improve Your Score

Ch. 2: Verbal Reasoning QuestionsVerbal Reasoning Section Basics ! Question Types !

The 9 Most-Missed Verbal Reasoning Questions

Ch. 3: Quantitative Reasoning QuestionsQuantitative Reasoning Section Basics ! Question Types •

The 11 Most-Missed Quantitative Reasoning Questions

Ch. 4: Verbal Reasoning Solutions and ExplanationsCorrect Answers ! Detailed Explanations for Every Answer Choice !

Most-Common Incorrect Answers ! Average Time Spent on Each

Question ! Graphs and Charts and Charts from BenchPrep’s

User Interface

Ch. 5: Quantitative Reasoning Solutions and ExplanationsCorrect Answers ! Detailed Explanations for Every Answer Choice !

Most-Common Incorrect Answers ! Average Time Spent on Each

Question ! Graphs and Charts and Charts from BenchPrep’s

User Interface

Ch. 6: ConclusionSpecial $50 O" BenchPrep Promo Code

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Chapter 2

Verbal Reasoning Questions

Verbal Reasoning Section Basics

Question Types

The 9 Most-Missed Verbal Reasoning Questions

BenchPrep | The 20 Most-Di!cult GRE Questions | 22

Chapter 2 – Verbal Reasoning Questions

Q.03Based on the same Passage as the previous question, choose the best answer to the question. Answer on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.

A scientist makes new observations and learns that water waves of shorter wavelengths spread in all directions not only because they scatter o! piers but also because they interact with previously scattered short water waves. Drawing upon the analogy between water waves and light waves, we might hypothesize which of the following?

A. Blue light waves act like ripples that other red light waves meet and scatter from.B. Red light waves will be scattered by blue light waves like incoming long water waves are

scattered by outgoing ripples.C. Red light waves can scatter blue light waves, but blue light waves cannot scatter red.D. !e analogy between water and light waves cannot be extended to include the way in

which short water waves become ripples and scatter one another.E. !e scattering e"ect of blue light waves is canceled by that of red.

Q.04After reading the following passage, choose the best answer to the question. Answer on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.

In the United States the per capita costs of schooling have risen almost as fast as the cost of medical treatment. But increased treatment by both doctors and teach-ers has shown steadily declining results. Medical expenses concentrated on those above forty-!ve have doubled several times over a period of forty years with a re-sulting 3 percent increase in the life expectancy of men. "e increase in educational expenditures has produced even stranger results; otherwise President Nixon could not have been moved this spring to promise that every child shall soon have the “Right to Read” before leaving school.

In the United States it would take eighty billion dollars per year to provide what educators regard as equal treatment for all in grammar and high school. "is is well over twice the $36 billion now being spent. Independent cost projections prepared at HEW and at the University of Florida indicate that by 1974 the comparable !gures will be $107 billion as against the $45 billion now projected, and these !g-ures wholly omit the enormous costs of what is called “higher education,” for which demand is growing even faster. "e United States, which spent nearly eighty billion

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Chapter 3 – Quantitative Reasoning Questions

Q.13Determine which of the two expressions below is larger, whether they are equal, or whetherthere is not enough information to decide.

Column A!e area of parallelogram ABCD

Column B15

A. Column A is largerB. Column B is largerC. Column A and Column B are equalD. Not enough information to decide.

Q.12Determine which of the two expressions below is larger, whether they are equal, or whetherthere is not enough information to decide.

!e number of distinct elements in set A is 8, and the number of distinct elements in set B is 3. Column A!e number of elements common to set A and set B

Column B!e number of elements in set A that are not in set B

A. Column A is largerB. Column B is largerC. Column A and Column B are equalD. Not enough information to decide.

On the Quantitative section, your ability to

apply reason and logic to solving the quantitative

questions is more import-ant than your ability to

recall mathematical for-mulas and principles.”

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Chapter 4 – Verbal Reasoning Solutions and Explanations

Q.06Read the following multiple-choice question and select the answer that is best suited to com-plete the concept.

Her attitude toward child-rearing was complemented with plenty of love.

A. austereB. indi!erentC. ambivalentD. lenientE. sycophantic

Solution: !e correct answer is A.

A complement is something that makes up a whole, bringing it to perfection. Of the answer choices o!ered, only austere could complement “love” in such a manner.

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Chapter 4 – Verbal Reasoning Solutions and Explanations

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The most common incorrect answer was A.Users who answered the question correctly spent an average of 54 seconds while users who answered incorrectly spent an average of 49 seconds.

Correct Incorrect

This question has been attempted by our users a total of 1773 times.Of those users, 578 got the question correct and 1195 got the question incorrect.

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Chapter 5 – Quantitative Reasoning Solutions and Explanations

Q.10Determine which of the two expressions below is larger, whether they are equal, or whetherthere is not enough information to decide. Column APerimeter of a square whose area is a! Column BPerimeter of a right-angled isosceles triangle whose area is a!

A. Column A is largerB. Column B is largerC. Column A and Column B are equalD. Not enough information to decide.

Solution: Column A: Remember that the area of a square is equal to the length of its side squared. Since the area of the square is a!, the side of the square is a.

Hence, the perimeter of the square is P = a + a + a + a = 4a. Column B: Let b represent the length of the equal sides of the right-angled isosceles triangle, and let c represent the length of the hypotenuse:

Since the hypotenuse of a right triangle is opposite the right angle, the sides labeled b are the base and height of the triangle. "e area of the triangle is # base $ height = # bb = # b! . We are given that the area of the triangle is a!.

(Solution and explanations continued on next page.)

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