my Verbal is the problem

[laylas]

Dear all

 

 Im using Kaplan but i feel that its usless in verbal !

my score still bad (no more than 140 !!!)

my score in Q is good (155)

but still need to work on my Verbal , but realy im confused b/w books

should I learn more Vocabs (words lists ) or concentrate on what ?

my scores in comprehension passages  are good

my  problem is im Text completion ..etc. !

plz i need ur advice

regards

[roseisarose]

I really liked the way the Princeton Review book prepared me for the verbal section. Maybe try that if you haven't? I don't know. I didn't do wonderfully on it (158) but I got by.

[laylas]

thank u for ur reply I will try Princeton Review i have a  pdf copy for cracking the gre 2012!

 

that will give me some tricks to solve comprehension passages and txt comp.

 

what do u suggest first to study some special wordlists?

 

us score is very good

I need to reach 150

[roseisarose]

That's the one I had!

 

Do you like using flash cards? I'm a flash card junkie, so I made flash cards for the word lists and studied them before I went to bed and when I woke up; I like to think it helped!

[brkyvz]

If you have an Android device this app is really useful:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brkyvz.grevocab&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5icmt5dnouZ3Jldm9jYWIiXQ

[laylas]

THANK U

I'm using falsh cards in quizlet.com

concentrating on magoosh-gre 194 words

and 500 Kapalan !

do u think those lists r frequant in GRE
and a way to get a high score ?

[brkyvz]

THANK U

I'm using falsh cards in quizlet.com

concentrating on magoosh-gre 194 words

and 500 Kapalan !

do u think those lists r frequant in GRE

and a way to get a high score ?

 

yeah somewhat. the problem is, you get the words you least expect and don't remember in the exam, it's best to study to as much of them as possible. I improved my verbal score by like 8 to 10 points after studying for 2-3 months to the words

[zapster]

A very personal opinion - I think just picking flashcards / wordlists to cram off the shelf is a very inefficient method. Whilst nothing works like reading, reading and reading over a long period - I understand that may not always be an option. So even if you want to study over a short period and specifically for the GRE verbal I suggest the following (rather than the so-called tactics that many of the books provide):

 

Keep practicing as many complete GRE verbal tests as you can get hold of. During the tests note down any words that you do not understand - even if the word appears, for example, in a comprehension and has nothing to do with any question specifically on the test, or appears as part of the various answer choices in a text completion task, regardless of whether it is the correct answer. Post the test, look up all of these words and create your own list - keep adding to the list and reviewing it periodically. Keep knocking off words that you are comfortable with after a few days. This provides a context to the words you are learning making it easier to retain the meanings, and also provides you with constant practice of the actual GRE verbal section, and being far less monotonous.

 

There are many online websites which help you maintain your own customized wordlists (cant recall them right now - but am sure someone will know and post!).

[midnight]

I liked Princeton Review, too, and if you want solid practice for both verbal and quant, I absolutely loved Barron's Six Practice Tests (well, as much as you can love taking GRE practice tests).

 

If you do choose to study vocab by itself, make sure to remember synonyms.

[IRToni]

I used anki, which is an amazing flashcard tool for pretty much all studying that you need to do. You can input everything, from formulas for math to words. I just downloaded one of those GRE wordlists (there's a large numbers in the anki archives), and used one that had synonyms, and examples of usage. In addition, I added words that I encountered in the practice tests. I didn't manage to finish all the revisions before the test, but scored 166 (94th percentile). I'm a non-native speaker, but have learned English earlier and more enmeshed than most other people (went to school in England), so didn't revert to translations at all. Since I know a fair amount of Latin and German, I could also infer a lot of meanings. If you don't, it might make a lot of sense to look at roots that help you pinpoint the meaning!

[Guest |||]

I used princeton, and the scores I recieved there were spot on to how I performed on the exam.

 

But in short though, the best technique really was just memorizing words.  All of the words from princeton, any new words I found from novels I was reading at the time, and randomly googling "GRE words" and taking note.

 

 

I memorized between 750-1000 new words for the GRE, though I have heard some study guides go as far as 5000 words.

Edited February 23, 2013 by |||

[iowaguy]

From other post on practice scores:  Time studying: One week prior to exam, for most the day everyday

 

I memorized between 750-1000 new words for the GRE, though I have heard some study guides go as far as 5000 words.

 

You memorized 1000 new words in the one week preceding your exam?!?

[Guest |||]

Yes, but I litteraly did nothing during that week but eat and study.

 

Mind I only recall the meaning of a few of those words now.

Edited February 23, 2013 by |||

[valkener]

You can memorize 1000 words per week if you really apply yourself. Use mnemonicdictionary.com to help yourself with the ones that don't stick. I've been doing over 100 per day and they are sticking. Good luck!

[Rapang]

Rather than memorizing the words or any of that, frankly b.s., I wrote little short stories and paragraphs using as many vocabulary words as possible. This method made it much easier to remember the words and their contexts, and was also pretty fun and comical.

[Guest |||]

Rather than memorizing the words or any of that, frankly b.s., I wrote little short stories and paragraphs using as many vocabulary words as possible. This method made it much easier to remember the words and their contexts, and was also pretty fun and comical.

 

Well by memorize, I do mean if possible, use some sort of strategy.

 

I personally would write the words into sentences (this is important as it also helps to give context), would memorize the sound they make, the kind of overall shape formed by the words, how irregular the word seemed through its letter compositon, etc etc.