Post by mypassion on Feb 3, 2008 21:54:07 GMT 5.5
How to prepare for Verbal section of the GRE ?
Another very common question for Indian students and also another
very subjective question. Each and every one of us has a different way
of learning new things and so there can’t be any one way for all of us to
prepare.
(a) It’s all about the roots: Blindly stuffing the meaning of words into
your brain by going through some list is the worst way to prepare
for this section. You will have to remember an unmanageably large
chunks of information. As engineers, you should realize that if you
can remember words together as groups, the storage efficiency will
be much higher. The easiest way to remember groups of words is
to via their etymology, or the way that the word originated. If you
remember the roots, you will be able to infer the meaning of even
a completely new word that you encounter for the first time. Let’s
look at an example. Consider the word euthanasia. If you learn
the roots of this word, you will learn that:
• eu- is a Greek root, meaning “good”
• -thanasia is derived from the Greek “Thanatos” who was the
god of death.
Therefore, the complete word means “good death”, which is what
we know. Now, say you come across the word thanatophobic. Chances
are that you have not seen this word before. No need to panic !
Roots will always help you out:
• We know that thanato- refers to “death”.
• Everyone knows (or should know) that -phobic means “someone
afraid of something”.
Therefore, this adjective refers to someone afraid of dying. Voila !
A very good book which emphasizes learning the roots of words is
Word PowerMade Easy by Norman Lewis [13].
(b) Flash Cards: Another very popular and effective method is using
flash cards for writing down words and their meanings. I used flash
cards to write down not only the different meanings but also examples
of usage for particularly difficult words. I went through them
every night and everymorning.
(c) Read, Read and Read: I know that most people begin GRE preparations
with a short window of time but if you are smart enough to
10
be starting a year or 2 years early, the one thing that I cannot stress
enough is the importance of reading. It may be newspapers or periodicals,
sports or automotive magazines, fiction novels. classic
literature or anything else with a relatively richer vocabulary that
you enjoy reading. Just reading will not help you prepare, however.
The point is that anytime you come across a word that you have not
seen before or do not remember, look it up right there and then in
the dictionary and enter it on a flash card along with the usage. At
the end of the day, force yourself to write a paragraph in which you
use every new word that you came across today. This turned out to
be very useful for me.
(d) Practice Makes Perfect: For certain questions like Reading Comprehension
exercises, all of the above will certainly help you but
you must keep practicing. You know what else helps with RCs?
General Reading !! If you are able to read, say, today’s editorial and
understand the premise behind and also the arguments the author
makes to support or disprove that premise, you will have no problems
with these kind of questions.
Another very common question for Indian students and also another
very subjective question. Each and every one of us has a different way
of learning new things and so there can’t be any one way for all of us to
prepare.
(a) It’s all about the roots: Blindly stuffing the meaning of words into
your brain by going through some list is the worst way to prepare
for this section. You will have to remember an unmanageably large
chunks of information. As engineers, you should realize that if you
can remember words together as groups, the storage efficiency will
be much higher. The easiest way to remember groups of words is
to via their etymology, or the way that the word originated. If you
remember the roots, you will be able to infer the meaning of even
a completely new word that you encounter for the first time. Let’s
look at an example. Consider the word euthanasia. If you learn
the roots of this word, you will learn that:
• eu- is a Greek root, meaning “good”
• -thanasia is derived from the Greek “Thanatos” who was the
god of death.
Therefore, the complete word means “good death”, which is what
we know. Now, say you come across the word thanatophobic. Chances
are that you have not seen this word before. No need to panic !
Roots will always help you out:
• We know that thanato- refers to “death”.
• Everyone knows (or should know) that -phobic means “someone
afraid of something”.
Therefore, this adjective refers to someone afraid of dying. Voila !
A very good book which emphasizes learning the roots of words is
Word PowerMade Easy by Norman Lewis [13].
(b) Flash Cards: Another very popular and effective method is using
flash cards for writing down words and their meanings. I used flash
cards to write down not only the different meanings but also examples
of usage for particularly difficult words. I went through them
every night and everymorning.
(c) Read, Read and Read: I know that most people begin GRE preparations
with a short window of time but if you are smart enough to
10
be starting a year or 2 years early, the one thing that I cannot stress
enough is the importance of reading. It may be newspapers or periodicals,
sports or automotive magazines, fiction novels. classic
literature or anything else with a relatively richer vocabulary that
you enjoy reading. Just reading will not help you prepare, however.
The point is that anytime you come across a word that you have not
seen before or do not remember, look it up right there and then in
the dictionary and enter it on a flash card along with the usage. At
the end of the day, force yourself to write a paragraph in which you
use every new word that you came across today. This turned out to
be very useful for me.
(d) Practice Makes Perfect: For certain questions like Reading Comprehension
exercises, all of the above will certainly help you but
you must keep practicing. You know what else helps with RCs?
General Reading !! If you are able to read, say, today’s editorial and
understand the premise behind and also the arguments the author
makes to support or disprove that premise, you will have no problems
with these kind of questions.