GRE Verbal -- Is vocab really the key?

[tsuga]

I'll be applying to humanities programs in the fall and I would like to improve my GRE verbal score. I scored a 580 (I think 82%, at the time) on the previous version of the test. Ideally, I would like to score in at least the 90th percentile (what would that be on the new scale?). When I was studying the first time, I often scored in my desired range on Power Prep and other practice tests, but didn't perform on test day. I knew all of the Kaplan 500, Barron's 800, a bunch of new words I found in PR, worked on that crazy list of 3000+ words, and took notes on every new word I saw. I still remember most of those words and more since I've been working on my vocab as I do coursework in my Master's program. I did timed practice questions for hours multiple days a week for at least three months before the test.

My primary question is, given the changes to the GRE, what is the best way to study and improve on the verbal section now that there aren't the vocab-focused questions (antonyms/analogies)? Should I return to flashcards and vocab games again? I'm thinking about just working through the ets practice questions, but wouldn't mind another book either. Are the new Kaplan/PR/Barron's verbal guides up to snuff yet?

I'd like to take the GRE in August. I'd like any suggestions on a six-month study plan. I'm not worried about the writing, and I scored a 670 on the math section the last time which I think is more than enough competence for a humanities student (although I'll freshen up my skills, don't want an embarrassing score)/

[tt503]

Sounds similar to me. I was scoring around 650+ for practice, and got a 590 on test day. Analogies killed me, every time. I'm really happy they've changed the verbal because it seems to favor more of my strengths (now I'm stlil practice testing at 90% and I'm not taking until July). I'm going through Barron's word list again, and I'm using old(er) textbooks to understand word relationships for sentence completions (understanding secondary meanings, etc). At the end of the day, it's significantly a vocab test.

I haven't really messed up on any reading comprehensions, as I prepared simultaneously for the LSAT and reading comprehension on the LSAT is harder (the GRE basically seems wants you to understand organization--main idea, author's intent, sentence/word placement in passage) because you have to identify more things (flaws in argument, logical reasonings). This might be a helpful way to go about studying for the GRE RC, as it really does teach you what to look for while you're reading the passage.

[Helpplease123]

I think the test is less vocab focused now than it was. You're only being tested on words for sentence completion questions, which means you can also use context to establish the correct answer - on the old test you really needed to know all the words perfectly and their synonyms etc. Now you just need to put them in context and you can quite often do that without even fully knowing the meaning of every word. I'm not sure what 90th percentile exactly is but i scored 165 which was 96th... so you're probably aiming for a score of at least 160.

[wildviolet]

My brief answer is... no.

Got a 164 (94%) on the Revised GRE (August 2011). Was a science major, not humanities, but took several nonfiction writing courses and enjoyed reading classic literature.

I used Kaplan's box of vocabulary cards... got through all of them at least once and was working on the ones I didn't know at the time I took the GRE, but I never mastered all of them. It didn't matter. There were words on the GRE that I had *never* seen before (and I don't think they were in the box). Tried studying roots, prefixes, etc., but not much success.

I think the key to getting a good verbal GRE score is doing well on the first verbal section. Because the sections are now adaptive, if you get a much harder second verbal section, then you know you did fairly well on the first one. So, you don't have to answer as many questions correctly on the second one to get a good score. After taking the GRE, I used their diagnostic service to break down my results:

First Verbal Section

7/7 correct on Long Reading Comp

2/3 correct on Short Reading Comp

6/6 correct on Text Completion

4/4 correct on Sentence Equivalence

Second Verbal Section

3/3 correct on Long Reading Comp

6/7 correct on Short Reading Comp

2/6 correct on Text Completion (yikes!)

2/4 correct on Sentence Equivalence

So, although I think vocabulary certainly plays a role, what may be more important is becoming comfortable with the question types and staying calm on test day. The Princeton Review strategy of doing the easy questions first and coming back to the harder ones later (as you're running out of time) definitely worked for me, especially for the Reading Comp questions.

Good luck!

[czenzi]

^{Tsuga, I never took the old test, but I was one of the first batch of people to take the new test. I did find the new practice books helpful for general iformation and for taking practice tests, but mine erred slightly on the side of too easy. Learn the question types and when it is best to guess and when it is best to leave an answer blank. A books should teach you this and I found that it helped.}

^{In general, there is still plenty of vocab on the test, but none of the analogies or antonyms. The reading passages seemed a little longer than what I expected from the test books for the old version, so I would focus on improving your reading speed and comprehension to cope with the new test's shift in focus to reading comprehension. Also, for the sentence completion section you will still have to know word meanings. There were a couple of unfamiliar words, but I managed to use context clues and process of elimination to get through them. I never use flashcards for anything, so I can't tell you if those will help, but my strategy is to try learning vocabulary in context. It really helps me to remember new words. I realize you probably don't have time to acquire vocab through just doing a lot of reading, but as you learn new words try to go over a couple of example sentences so you can stick the words in your head better and get a better feel for how they are used. Also, I would focus on secondary definitions, as they do show up. It may be helpful as well to review root words, suffixes and/or prefixes if you have a background in a language like Latin, Greek, German or French (I don't know how much learning a whole bunch of prefixes from scratch would help though. I don't have a background in any of these languages, so I didn't focus on this part at all).}

^{I agree with wildviolet that it is important to do well on the first section. The test is still adaptive, but it is no longer recalculated as you go along (like on the previous version), but only after you complete a section. This basically means that if you do well on the first section, you've set yourself up for higher-point questions in the second section (meaning you can afford to miss more and get the same score as someone who did two easy or medium difficulty sections). However, while taking the test, I would not spend time actively trying to figure out whether or not your second section is harder than the first because [A] I think it'll waste time, cause you to lose focus and cause more anxiety than it's worth, and It actually can be hard to tell in the moment because of self-doubt/stress/bad memory recall.}

^{Oh, and from what I've seen on the conversion charts, the 90% percentile is a 162. However, I have a feeling that ETS will probably re-scale these scores in a year or so after they have a larger test-taking population for the new test.}

^{Best of luck in studying!}

Edited February 2, 2012 by czenzi

[Helpplease123]

I think the key to getting a good verbal GRE score is doing well on the first verbal section. Because the sections are now adaptive, if you get a much harder second verbal section, then you know you did fairly well on the first one.

Be careful with this though - I panicked a bit with my second verbal section as it seemed too easy but it turned out to the be an experimental section as the third was then very hard...or maybe the first was experimental, who knows. My point is, don't put too much stock in this as it can really through you off during the test. Just try your best on every single part, there's no way you can figure out which of the sections are scored.

[slaNYC]

I don't consider myself to have a very good vocabulary. I didn't read a lot growing up and I think that matters. Yet, I scored well on the verbal section without ever (not kidding) studying a single vocabulary list. The 90th percentile is 162. I'm not saying I did things the best way but I really focused on the reading sections. If you master those you'll be in a great position and I don't think most people pay enough attention to those portions of the test. Then studying vocabulary will be icing on the cake and get you well into the 90's. That's my two cents for the verbal section. Good luck.

[bfat]

While vocab is very important for the text completions, etc., I found that the hardest part is trying to decode and "dumb down" my response to the reading comprehension questions. I had the same problem with the SATs in high school (I'm in a humanities MA program right now, so I know it's not my actual reading comprehension that's the problem).

For a lot of the reading comp questions, I'd look at the answer choices and say "All of these sound completely idiotic," and then have to eliminate until I got to the least-stupid-sounding answer, and I was still wrong a good percentage of the time. I found that the Princeton Review helped me to decode the dumbass answers on the test pretty well. Not 100% of the time, but at least better than I'd been doing.

Good luck!

[wildviolet]

Be careful with this though - I panicked a bit with my second verbal section as it seemed too easy but it turned out to the be an experimental section as the third was then very hard...or maybe the first was experimental, who knows. My point is, don't put too much stock in this as it can really through you off during the test. Just try your best on every single part, there's no way you can figure out which of the sections are scored.

You're right--thanks for the caution.

I was just sharing my experience, which of course may be different from yours. My perception was that both the second verbal and quantitative sections were much harder. I had a third quantitative section that was super easy, so I guessed (hopefully correctly) that it was the experimental section, and it came later during the test.