VOCABULARY TIPS GRE

How to Improve Your GRE Vocabulary Skills
The single-most effective way to improve your GRE verbal score is to improve your GRE vocabulary skills. Good vocabulary skills will be useful in sentence completion, antonyms, analogies, and reading comprehension. If you know the meaning of all the words in the answer choices, it makes the question a whole lot easier.

GRE Vocabulary in Context
The best way to learn GRE vocabulary is to learn words in context. For some reason your brain remembers words much better when it can associate a word with something other than its definition.

Read from publications like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal on a regular basis. The Journal has many GRE-type articles and uses GRE vernacular. When you come across an unfamiliar word, look it up and write down its definition. You'll be amazed at how much better your vocabulary is after reading The Journal on a regular basis for just a month!

GRE Vocabulary from a List
If you don't have much time until test day, you should study from a GRE vocabulary list or invest in some flash cards. Barron's How to Prepare for the GRE has the most comprehensive GRE vocabulary list topping off at about 3500 words. Learn the general meaning of 3500 words or so, and the GRE verbal section will look a lot less daunting.

You're probably thinking 3500 words is a ton of words to learn. You're right. That's why GRE vocabulary can be scary at first, but remember, you don't have to memorize the exact meanings. The GRE does not test if you know exact definitions; just get to know general meanings. Be a thesaurus not a dictionary.

Study a little bit at a time. Try twenty words a day. If that's too easy, try thirty words a day. Don't worry if memorizing words is difficult at first--it'll get much easier. Whatever number of words you choose to study per day, don't study too many at one time! Your brain can only absorb so many words in one sitting. It's up to you to figure out how many words you should study per sitting.

Whatever you choose, always review the words you've already studied at the end of each week. Without review, you'll lose a lot. You don't want to end up getting stuck on a question with a word's definition at the tip of your tongue.

Summing Up
Heighten your GRE vocabulary skills either with reading or a list.

Review the words you've learned every week.

Watch your GRE verbal score go up!