Time needed for a non-native speaker to improve a verbal score

[Yana]

Finally, I managed to find some time to prepare for the GRE. I purchased Magoosh Premium and spent almost all November practising. I took my first practice test (Kaplan, GRE Premier 2013) several days ago and my second practice test (Magoosh) today. My quantitative scores are 151 on both tests, while my verbal scores are 149 (Kaplan) and 142 (Magoosh)   .

I was planning to take the GRE in January, but obviously, I'm not ready, and I need to learn a lot of new words. I have 500 Kaplan's flashcards, as well as Magoosh flashcards on my tablet. I went already through one half of Kaplan's words. At the same time, I'm trying to use my Magoosh app daily.

My concern is that I can't even register for the test, as I don't know how long it might take me to learn these words to improve my verbal score (I need more than 150 on my verbal). Of course, I would like to improve my quantitative score too, but I'm more worried about the verbal section. How long did it take you to notice any improvements in the verbal part of the test? Do you think whether two months are enough to raise your verbal score if you are a  non-native speaker? Thanks.

[pohks]

Hi Yana,

 

I'm a non-native speaker and I managed to improve my verbal score considerably in 2 months; more precisely, 13 points from the first PowerPrep II practice test that I took to the actual GRE. Thus, I'd say that it definitely is possible to raise your verbal score in a relative short amount of time.

 

I took many practice exams and used Manhattan books to better understand the logic behind the questions and to work on my answering strategy (although Manhattan is not necessarily the best for the verbal section - you might want to try e.g. Verbal Grail). However, what helped me the most was, without doubt, learning a lot of new vocabulary. IMO, 500 words is not enough; I crammed in the 3,500 word list by Barron's. If you have 2 months, it is doable.

 

Good luck!

[VioletAyame]

Hi Yana,

 

I'm also a non-native speaker, but I've been in the U.S for the past 5 years and got my B.A here. I think you might be in a same situation (getting your degree in an English-speaking country). I'm mentioning this because I think with constant exposure to English, especially reading textbooks and journal articles, the reading comprehension part of the GRE would come more naturally. I agree with pohks that learning vocab would be the fastest and most effective way to raise your verbal score since it affects both the sentence equivalence and the text completion parts.

 

I made my own flashcards from free GRE vocab lists online (just Google it, there are tons of them) and then grouped words with similar meaning together. A lot of lists group them by prefixes & suffixes, but I found that it's easier to order them by meaning; I noticed that there is a disproportionate number of GRE words which mean criticize/verbal abuse/tirade. I studied all in all around 1000 words before I took the test.

 

If you don't have time to make your own flashcards, Magoosh free GRE flashcards website & app are very effective and convenient too. I only found out about them at the end of my study so I didn't use them as much, but I really liked them. Also, take a lot of practice tests - as many as possible and save the 2 PowerPrep tests for the end so you can have a pretty clear idea of the achievable score range before the real test.

 

Check out this pinned thread from the front page:

There are several resources which you can try out to see which ones suit you the best.

Edited December 12, 2013 by VioletAyame

[waypastnoon]

Hi Yana,

 

I didn't take a proper practice test before I started preparing for the GRE, but I looked at some practice questions, and in most verbal tasks I didn't know a single word. I wasn't in much hurry though and I spent about 6-7 months learning the words (mostly with memrise.com, they have a few lists of GRE words). I got 165 in verbal which was much better than I hoped for. Out of these 6-7 months I was really studying for 1-1.5 (every day), most of the time I would only open the app maybe once or twice a week. 

[Yana]

VioletAyame, pocks, waypastnoon, thank you for your replies and advice!

 

pocks, 12 points is a great improvement. Right now, I can only dream about that. :-) Do you mind if I ask you whether you studied in the US before taking the GRE? I agree that 500 words are not enough to get a decent score on the GRE. All I mean is that I want to make sure that I know at least these 500 Kaplan words and 1000 Magoosh words well.

 

VioletAyame, I got my BA in a country where I was born, and English is not a native language there. I never studied in the US, although, I've been living here for the past 2 years. I don't have a lot of problems with the reading comprehension part of the test. My issue is with the vocabulary, and I make mistakes simply because very often I don't know several words from which I need to choose the answer.  

 

waypastnoon, your verbal score is great for a non-native speaker! It gives me hope. :-) Did you study in the US before? Maybe it makes sense to give yourself more time, rather than study intensively. I don't know. I just really wanted to try to take the test before the spring, 2014.

 

 

 

[pohks]

pocks, 12 points is a great improvement. Right now, I can only dream about that. :-) Do you mind if I ask you whether you studied in the US before taking the GRE? I agree that 500 words are not enough to get a decent score on the GRE. All I mean is that I want to make sure that I know at least these 500 Kaplan words and 1000 Magoosh words well.

 

 

I hadn't studied in the US before taking the GRE - however, a great part of my MS studies were in English, and I also wrote my MS thesis in English, which probably helped quite a lot especially in the reading comprehension parts. I struggled with vocabulary, though; of the 3,500 Barron's words, I was familiar maybe with 10 - 20 %.

 

Now, take the following with a grain of salt. I studied a hundred words a day, meaning that I wrote them down with their explanations and then went through the list around 5 times until I had memorized all the words. In the end of the week, I'd go through all 700 words studied that week and, again, wrote down the ones that I didn't remember. I then transferred the words to an excel file and categorized them according to their meaning (e.g. all the words meaning "to praise" would form a category). I also looked the words up by using the "define" function of Google in order to better understand them in a context. All this didn't take as much time as you'd imagine - I worked Mon-Fri from 8 to 5.30, and studied for around 3 hours every evening and 8 to 9 hours at weekends.

 

This is not necessary the best strategy to truly master all the words, but it enabled me to learn a large amount of words in a short amount of time, something that tremendously helped me when taking the GRE. 

[waypastnoon]

No, I haven't studied in the US before. I used English for my work and I read a lot, both fiction and nonfiction, but still I didn't know many words. By the way, my husband had the same starting level, but he only studied the words for 6-7 weeks, because math was more important for him, and still he got 161 in verbal. So over 150 is totally possible!

[Yana]

Guys, I appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences! Your stories inspire me, and I'll consider all of your advice. :-)

 

pohks, you definitely have a very good memory. :-) I wish this method worked for me, but when I try to learn a deck of 100 words a day, a lot of them slip my memory quickly, and I need to restudy some of them later on. What really works for me is studying some words and then reading and taking short tests. If I encounter freshly learnt words in an article, for example, it might take me some time to remember the definition, but after, these words do stay in my memory.

 

waypastnoon, thanks! I also use English daily and I read a lot. I guess, I just never tried to expand my active vocabulary; read passively and used the common words that I knew. Anyway, even if I don't get a good score on the GRE, this study won't be pointless. ;-)

[waypastnoon]

Really, try this course http://www.memrise.com/course/6830/challenging-gre-words/ on memrise, it really helped me. It's only 15 words per session, and it has a good revising schedule, i.e. it makes you revise newer words more often, brings up the words you struggle with etc.

[Yana]

waypastnoon, sorry, I forgot to tell you that today I signed up on this site after you mentioned it. I already started using it, and it seems like fun. Thank you!

[Yana]

I decided to share my experience. I took the GRE in March.  Although the score is mediocre (154V/158Q/4.5AW), I met the requirement of my school. :-)

What helped me most with Verbal section, was Quizlet app on my tablet. I was just playing with it before going to bed. I can't recommend it highly enough. I used Painless GRE app, Kaplan's flashcards and Magoosh flashcards, too.

If you are non-native speakers and you are struggling with Verbal section, have patience, try to learn new words and go through the ones you've learnt earlier regularly. Also, reading The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, etc. is very helpful. :-)

[wgong]

I decided to share my experience. I took the GRE in March.  Although the score is mediocre (154V/158Q/4.5AW), I met the requirement of my school. :-)

What helped me most with Verbal section, was Quizlet app on my tablet. I was just playing with it before going to bed. I can't recommend it highly enough. I used Painless GRE app, Kaplan's flashcards and Magoosh flashcards, too.

If you are non-native speakers and you are struggling with Verbal section, have patience, try to learn new words and go through the ones you've learnt earlier regularly. Also, reading The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, etc. is very helpful. :-)

This is so inspiring. I am also a none-native speaker. I took my GRE last week and I got 142V/159Q. I only memorized about 600 words from Magoosh flashcards, obviously it's not enough. I am still in my last year of college so I don't really have time to study during the semester. College is definitely busier than a full time job. 

My question is did you memorized all of the words from Painless GRE app, Kaplan's flashcards and Magoosh flashcards ? Sometimes I write down the word I don't know from the practice problem. Do you think it is necessary or I should just stick with those GRE vocabulary app

And how do you use Quizlet app ? Unlike magoosh flashcards, you have to enter words yourself in Quizlet, I found it is really time consuming so i give up.