how many words did you memorize for the GRE?

[was1984]

One example would be 'quixotic', which is a word that (I believe) was adapted into the English language due to Don Quixote.

This is such a classic example...a word derived from a proper noun in a book that wasn't even written in English!

[Minnesotan]

I think the only reason I did so well was because my mom and my elementary school teachers beat me over the head with the philosophy that if you come across a word you don't know, you look it up immediately. I've been doing that all my life, so I didn't have to study.

I'm sure some memorization before the test will help a bit, but not as much as a lifetime of examining every new word you come across.

[rogue]

...if you come across a word you don't know, you look it up immediately.

Yes! That too. I used to carry a little dictionary with me, and now I have a dictionary app on my phone. It's a great habit to get into.

[belowthree]

a lifetime of examining every new word you come across.

This is what it should be about. This is what the test was supposed to determine. It's supposed to determine your level of vocabulary in situations you haven't studied for, not how many words out of the test bank you've memorized. Now part of it is determined by how much cramming you do. Which seems like a bit of a shame.

Congrats on doing it right. I wish more would do the same. (Though I have been consistently pleased that a good fraction of the forum seems to have not studied much for the GRE. My faith in the system rises.)

-The guy who thinks cramming for a test is only about a hairline better than cheating.[1]

[1] I wouldn't recommend this view, by the way, it ends up making you bitter to the point on giving up on classes all together.

[rogue]

I actually didn't intend to study for the verbal section. But since I've been out of school for so long, I knew I had to relearn some of the math concepts (use it or lose it... and I'd lost most of it at that point). Once I got the review books and realized that there were vocab words that I sort of knew but didn't really know (i.e., I could get the gist when I read them in context, but couldn't give a dictionary definition), I figured I might as well study those, too.

I know that many people don't bother studying for the GRE, and if I had taken it 10 years ago, I probably wouldn't have either. (I didn't study at all for the GMAT, which I took the year after undergrad.) At this point I was rusty and needed to review. I guess I just don't see anything wrong with trying to do the best I can on something that affects if and where I get into grad school, even if that means cramming for a test that really only measures how well a person takes standardized tests.

Plus, you know, all that studying was a handy excuse for not being able to go out when I was flat broke anyway. Sigh...

[was1984]

This is what it should be about. This is what the test was supposed to determine. It's supposed to determine your level of vocabulary in situations you haven't studied for, not how many words out of the test bank you've memorized. Now part of it is determined by how much cramming you do. Which seems like a bit of a shame.

Congrats on doing it right. I wish more would do the same. (Though I have been consistently pleased that a good fraction of the forum seems to have not studied much for the GRE. My faith in the system rises.)

-The guy who thinks cramming for a test is only about a hairline better than cheating.[1]

[1] I wouldn't recommend this view, by the way, it ends up making you bitter to the point on giving up on classes all together.

I didn't realize other people felt this way. I'm glad to know I'm not alone. I did the same thing for the SAT.

[twocosmicfish]

I didn't realize other people felt this way. I'm glad to know I'm not alone. I did the same thing for the SAT.

Add me to the list - My studying consisted of taking a practice test the night before (my actual score was within 10 points both sections).

[belowthree]

Hmm... all the same sentiment coming from EECS people.

Our field sure is strange sometimes.

[Minnesotan]

Hmm... all the same sentiment coming from EECS people.

Our field sure is strange sometimes.

I'm in English, so I'm clearly exempt from the strangeness!

[belowthree]

I'm in English, so I'm clearly exempt from the strangeness!

Maybe you're weirder in the context of your field than we are in ours? But as a field I wonder which is weirder...

Sounds like we need a weird off.

[RedPotato]

I'm taking the Kaplan class - which has 100 strategies to score better on the math, and 0 for the english - but i digress.

My GRE teacher said the other day that to do "fairly" well, one would have to memorize 5,000 words - but that also means one is starting from scratch and knows nothing. but it was an interesting figure. The again by the age of 5 i think one knows 8,000 words, just more along the line of cat and dog, not obsequious and misanthrope, so this number is misleading.

[Minnesotan]

Maybe you're weirder in the context of your field than we are in ours? But as a field I wonder which is weirder...

Sounds like we need a weird off.

Just so long as you give us a handicap of three post-modernists, we'll take you any day.

[belowthree]

Just so long as you give us a handicap of three post-modernists, we'll take you any day.

If you get some post-modernists we get some algorithms/theory/discrete math people.

[Minnesotan]

Are most math people indiscreet?

[belowthree]

Are most math people indiscreet?

Are they ever. I could tell you some stores that would make your hair curl and your feet spasm. That's how continuously indiscreet they are.[1]

Or you could ask my ex from undergrad who went on to date a string of math grad students after me. It was serial. Apparently that whole thing with TAs and students getting together is not so strongly enforced in a lot of math departments.

[1] For the less familiar with math: the opposite of discrete mathematics is mathematics based on continuous structures. Computer science uses so much discrete mathematics that sometimes it's actually the computer science department in a university that has all the discrete mathematics programs, researchers and classes.

[Minnesotan]

Or you could ask my ex from undergrad who went on to date a string of math grad students after me.

I never understood string theory. If she dates five TAs simultaneously, she's into M-theory then, right?

[belowthree]

I never understood string theory. If she dates five TAs simultaneously, she's into M-theory then, right?

No, I don't think anything about those relationships was that multidimensional. (Well, except for the last one, but for the sake of the joke we'll put that aside.)

[twocosmicfish]

Maybe you're weirder in the context of your field than we are in ours? But as a field I wonder which is weirder...

Sounds like we need a weird off.

NERD FIGHT!!!

[Minnesotan]

NERD FIGHT!!!

Such as they are.

I once saw my freshman year roommate (the nerdiest guy I'd ever met) get in a slap fight with my best friend's roommate (the new nerdiest, once I'd met him) in our dorm laundry room. It was priceless in that they were so earnest, yet so inept.

[was1984]

Wow you guys are nerds. OTOH, I was cracking up reading it, so what does that make me?

[socialpsych]

I memorized about 200. Not one showed up on the test. I did fine anyway.

[swisnieski]

I memorized approximately 115 words (ones plucked out of the glossary in the Princeton Review GRE book that I didn't already recognize). I got a 740 verbal.

To be fair, my personal vocabulary was huge to start with -- I knew the word "vicissitudinous" when it made a surprise appearance at the end of my test, and it wasn't one of the 115 I studied.

[melusine]

reading the past replies to this topic, I'm a bit baffled by the ambient anti-cramming stance. I get it, a lot of people are "naturally" good at the GRE from their particular life experiences and education but I don't think it's very fair to the rest of us. I probably read as much as the next English Lit major, especially with a concentration in the victorian/modernist periods, but English is only my third language. I've been learning with flashcards and randomly reading the dictionary and things like that but I still got a mere 580 on my last practice test. Also, the GRE is especially confusing to people whose first or second language is French (like me): a lot of English words also exist in French but mean something completely different... Like enervate, sanguine, derogation, accolade, diligence to me sound like enerver (to annoy), sanguin (bloody), derogation (a type of law), accolade (a type of hug) and diligence (a type of cart driven by horses). And don't even get me started on weird English inventions like "raconteur".

Ugh.. this is going to be fun.

[misterpat]

This is what it should be about. This is what the test was supposed to determine. It's supposed to determine your level of vocabulary in situations you haven't studied for, not how many words out of the test bank you've memorized. Now part of it is determined by how much cramming you do. Which seems like a bit of a shame.

Congrats on doing it right. I wish more would do the same. (Though I have been consistently pleased that a good fraction of the forum seems to have not studied much for the GRE. My faith in the system rises.)

-The guy who thinks cramming for a test is only about a hairline better than cheating.[1]

[1] I wouldn't recommend this view, by the way, it ends up making you bitter to the point on giving up on classes all together.

Waaa! I don't WANNA study for the GRE! If everyone else didn't do it, then I wouldnt' have to!

:roll:

That said, looking up every new word you come across is a great habit that I share with you fellows. There's really no excuse not to anymore, since you can simply text "d versimilitude" to 466453 and google will send you a pithy definition free of charge.

[Biff]

I have to admit that I was a huge crammer, and it did help a lot...

On my first practice test I scored in the 450 range on verbal, so I panicked and systematically went through the entire Barrons word list and made a ridiculous number of flashcards (I don't even know how many...1000? 2000?). I made the flashcards a few months in advance, but didn't really study them in earnest until the last 2 weeks leading up to the test (I probably "learned" about 500 words in the last 5 days). I ended up getting 710 on the actual thing, which was a HUGE improvement.

Although I can't really recommend the cramming from a health perspective - that much stress can't be good for anyone! - it really did work, and a lot of the words I studied ended up on the test. I would especially recommend studying the past tests, because a surprising number of words I got wrong on the practice tests showed up on the actual one.

On the other hand, I can totally see where the haters are coming from...if I had a naturally great vocabulary I'd be annoyed too if someone who crammed for 2 weeks got a similar verbal score. But I also don't think that those who have not been exposed to obscure words, for whatever reason, should have to resign themselves to having a low GRE verbal score on their grad school application. The GRE is a silly and somewhat arbitrary test that may or may not be a predictor of grad school success, and I think students are justified in using any study method that will work for them.