Triple blank problems are some of the most difficult problems in the GRE. However, if you stick to the strategies and approach them step by step, you’ll boost your chances of getting them correct.

Just like single and double blank problems, read the entire text first before picking your filler words. These questions are longer, so it helps to actually write down your filter words, and then compare your picks to the possible choices at the end. Remember that you often need to work backward from the last blank to understand the context of the passage!

Let’s try an example question.

It’s ___(i)___ to see that the firm has laid off so many employees in recent months. One would expect the company should be ___(ii)___ employees since demand for their services has risen so dramatically in the past year. Nonetheless, the management has ___(iii)___ that the company needs to cut costs.

Blank (i)
A. sad
B. unsurprising
C. surprising

Blank (ii)
D. hiring
E. managing
F. firing

Blank (iii)
G. enjoyed
H. denied
I. made it clear

Do you know the correct answers?

(spoiler)

Answers:

C. surprising
D. hiring
I. made it clear

At first, it’s difficult to determine if we expect the company to be firing or hiring people. Scanning the passage for evidence, we learn that “demand for their services has risen so dramatically in the past year” - which indicates that the company is doing well. In that case, it would be surprising if the firm is laying people off - so that’s a good option for our first blank. Although we may feel “sad” to know that people are losing their jobs, there is no evidence in the passage to support that this is the author’s goal in writing the text. Additionally, the second sentence starts with “one would expect”, further supporting surprising as the first blank.

From here, the meaning starts to become clear. We’d expect the company to be doing the opposite of laying people off, i.e. “hiring”.

Finally, if people were fired, the management would have made it clear to employees that they will no longer be working there. There is no evidence that they “denied” the fact that the company needs to cut costs, nor is there any evidence that they “enjoyed” laying people off.