Year to prepare for 2nd try on GRE

[nu_wildcat]

Hi all,

I took the GRE this summer as a rising junior (probably not my best decision to take it early). I scored a 550 on verbal and 670 on quantitative. I'll take it again next August with the new GRE. Vocab is a huge weakness for me and I struggled even after studying for two months. I did successfully learn the 300 common GRE words in the Princeton Review Cracking the GRE book. However, I'm not sure how to prepare for the verbal on the new test. I'm pretty good with sentence completion, but should I still be working on vocab to raise my score next year?

I'm a dedicated student that is willing to take the time to raise my scores. Any suggestions are appreciated!

For those of you who are already done with the GRE, if you had a significant amount of time to prepare for the GRE what would you recommend?

Thank you!

[Strangefox]

Hi all,

I took the GRE this summer as a rising junior (probably not my best decision to take it early). I scored a 550 on verbal and 670 on quantitative. I'll take it again next August with the new GRE. Vocab is a huge weakness for me and I struggled even after studying for two months. I did successfully learn the 300 common GRE words in the Princeton Review Cracking the GRE book. However, I'm not sure how to prepare for the verbal on the new test. I'm pretty good with sentence completion, but should I still be working on vocab to raise my score next year?

I'm a dedicated student that is willing to take the time to raise my scores. Any suggestions are appreciated!

For those of you who are already done with the GRE, if you had a significant amount of time to prepare for the GRE what would you recommend?

Thank you!

You definetely must learn words and I would recommend reading more authors who use GRE vocabulary! It's much easier to learn words when you see them in the context.

[Tdearr]

You definetely must learn words and I would recommend reading more authors who use GRE vocabulary! It's much easier to learn words when you see them in the context.

I agree with Strangefox, learning words in context is a big help. If the words mean something to you personally, you will retain them better.

For instance, it is harder to remember that "Recalcitrant means resisting authority or control" and "Upbraid means to scold" than it would be to remember "The Wildcats benched recalcitrant cornerback Sherrick McManis for ignoring the coaches in practice. They chose to upbraid him in the hopes that it would spark obedience in later practices."

Now I don't really think Fitz benched Sherrick at all last year, but you get the idea. You will make personal associations with the words which will make it easier to recall their meanings, especially on test day when the multiple choices are designed to trick you and make you think a word means something different than it actually does.

Also, if you have some free electives think about taking a lit class, reading more is a great way to learn words.

Finally, at Manhattan GRE we recommend the Barrons "Essential Words For The GRE" book among other things for vocab prep. You can check out some of our recommendations on our site which is listed in my signature. Good luck with your studies!

Regards,

Taylor Dearr

[finalcountdown]

I would also recommend the Barrons essential words for Verbal.. It has sentences along with words which is very helpful. I gave my test in Aug 25 and most words were from Barrons..