GRE Verbal Help

[gre42013]

Hello,

 

I am planning to appear in GRE in next month. I have improved my Quantitative section.

 

I am not able to improve my verbal score whether it is reading comprehension, text completion or sentence equivalence.

I have memorized Manhattan's Essential and Advanced words. In addition, I am also memorizing Magoosh GRE e book.

I also learnt Magoosh verbal lessons but still I am not able to apply the technique to crack GRE questions.

 

I know English is not my primary language and I am aiming verbal score between 145-150 at least. I am really loosing my motivation and I am so frustrated now. 

 

Please help...

 

Thanks

[midnight]

Check out The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE for tips. I don't know how much it will help you, but it's cheap and worth a try.

 

Practice A LOT; Powerprep along with the ETS book and Barron's Six Practice Tests contain questions that are similar to real test material (or were test material at one time).

 

Also, when you take the actual test, make sure to answer every question and manage your time well. Don't be afraid to guess and use process of elimination. Do anything that will up your chances at getting a question right.

 

Good luck!

[msb2012]

I'm in the same situation like you. Verbal is very difficult and boring.

 

by the way, where are you from?

[gre42013]

Check out The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE for tips. I don't know how much it will help you, but it's cheap and worth a try.

 

Practice A LOT; Powerprep along with the ETS book and Barron's Six Practice Tests contain questions that are similar to real test material (or were test material at one time).

 

Also, when you take the actual test, make sure to answer every question and manage your time well. Don't be afraid to guess and use process of elimination. Do anything that will up your chances at getting a question right.

 

Good luck!

Thanks for help. I will try to follow this.

[gre42013]

I'm in the same situation like you. Verbal is very difficult and boring.

 

by the way, where are you from?

I know, I am not finding any concept based solution to crack questions.

I am from India.

[msb2012]

nice to meet you. I'm from Saudi Arabia, if you have any ideas about improving verbal section, just contact me via private messages, we may find a good way

[phmhjh85]

Check out The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE for tips. I don't know how much it will help you, but it's cheap and worth a try.

 

Practice A LOT; Powerprep along with the ETS book and Barron's Six Practice Tests contain questions that are similar to real test material (or were test material at one time).

 

Also, when you take the actual test, make sure to answer every question and manage your time well. Don't be afraid to guess and use process of elimination. Do anything that will up your chances at getting a question right.

 

Good luck!

I agree with Cracking GRE , ETS and Barron's all are essential

I am also an international student and my first language is Arabic too and I got 164 with little preparation

 

My advice is NO cramming of Vocab - it just undoable to stuff your brain with 100s of new vocab words in context over a short period of time

 

The new GRE is not as vocab oriented as it used to be, but still you cannot answer write and within time without strong vocab

here is what I do and you can see if it works for you

 

1. I started with Cracking GRE hit parade and learnt the techniques it offers- especially POE for example

2. Then familiarized myself with exam like questions using the ETS OG and Magoosh

3. The different part was using my iPhone for preparation- I had so little time to prepare with masters exams , work , applications....etc

so I downloaded many Apps for vocab and whenever I had a free moment, or before I go to sleep , or while stuck in traffic I would get it out and use the flash cards, some apps help you track your progress as well

The best was quizlet- and I really liked the game like format matching words to their meanings

 

But remember that memorizing words and meanings is hardly helpful since you need to practice them in context- GRE likes to use the weird meaning or the less known of well known words

 

4. Finally in the final 2 days I finished Barron's

But the catch here is that I actually enjoyed the passages offered in the GRE format and I am a fast reader.

I also loved the TOEFL reading section which I got a perfect score at.

However, as you study you will find that most of the techniques used in GRE are different from those of TOEFL

 

In my opinion Manhattan is too complicated and uses too weird vocab that is rarely seen in the exam as far as I know and I have a very negative opinion about Kaplan 

 

GRE is one of the only ways the adcoms can compare us to the American students, so the higher you get the better

And despite most Unis claiming that they consider that our first language is not English when regarding the verbal score, the reality of the matter that the average GRE verbal score for accepted international students is higher than the accepted Americans so...

I appologize fir the long post

Best of luck

[iojove]

Check out this thread at Magoosh:  http://magoosh.com/gre/2012/gre-for-non-native-english-speakers/

 

I give you a TON of credit for taking an exam in a foreign language & wish you the best of luck!

 

 

[classmint]

Prepare for verbal using free audio-visual study notes:

http://beta.classmint.com/note/browse

 

You can also create your own notes.

 

Cheers,

Rajan

[Shimeng]

I agree with Cracking GRE , ETS and Barron's all are essential

I am also an international student and my first language is Arabic too and I got 164 with little preparation

 

My advice is NO cramming of Vocab - it just undoable to stuff your brain with 100s of new vocab words in context over a short period of time

 

The new GRE is not as vocab oriented as it used to be, but still you cannot answer write and within time without strong vocab

here is what I do and you can see if it works for you

 

1. I started with Cracking GRE hit parade and learnt the techniques it offers- especially POE for example

2. Then familiarized myself with exam like questions using the ETS OG and Magoosh

3. The different part was using my iPhone for preparation- I had so little time to prepare with masters exams , work , applications....etc

so I downloaded many Apps for vocab and whenever I had a free moment, or before I go to sleep , or while stuck in traffic I would get it out and use the flash cards, some apps help you track your progress as well

The best was quizlet- and I really liked the game like format matching words to their meanings

 

But remember that memorizing words and meanings is hardly helpful since you need to practice them in context- GRE likes to use the weird meaning or the less known of well known words

 

4. Finally in the final 2 days I finished Barron's

But the catch here is that I actually enjoyed the passages offered in the GRE format and I am a fast reader.

I also loved the TOEFL reading section which I got a perfect score at.

However, as you study you will find that most of the techniques used in GRE are different from those of TOEFL

 

In my opinion Manhattan is too complicated and uses too weird vocab that is rarely seen in the exam as far as I know and I have a very negative opinion about Kaplan 

 

GRE is one of the only ways the adcoms can compare us to the American students, so the higher you get the better

And despite most Unis claiming that they consider that our first language is not English when regarding the verbal score, the reality of the matter that the average GRE verbal score for accepted international students is higher than the accepted Americans so...

I appologize fir the long post

Best of luck

Thanks for sharing!