Five-Step Guide to GRE Vocabulary.
What if improving GRE Vocabulary could get as easy as working on your quants skills? Basically, to improve upon your quant skills you need to go through the concepts, understand formulae and learn to apply these concepts based on the context of the question. Practice bunch of them and get comfortable. Whoosh! it seems like a clear, definite path which can be covered possibly in a short time, but, when it comes to improving your vocabulary in the same duration, you feel a little stranded.
So this problem boils down to the following factors:
- Inability to determine a clear path to improving the vocabulary.
- Asserting the time frame to get better at it.
So here are the five steps that you can take from now on to start improving your vocabulary and crack competitive exams.
1.Establish a goal
First of all, you clearly need to understand what is expected out of you in these competitive exams Talking about GRE, it doesn’t comprise of words that we use normally on day to day basis. Either you will get a complex sentence with simple words or some tricky ones with straightforward one. Your ability to comprehend sentences with deciphering words is needed.
Your goal should be to first gain this ability.
2. Assert your level of competency
Go ahead and just take a mock test of the verbal section of these exams. Don’t get disheartened if you fall short of your expectations. Just clearly note how far you have to get to achieve your goal.
Here is the link that you can use to know more about the Free resources to take one of these tests.
3. Understand the root of the words
Having a good understanding of the root words can help you a good deal in asserting the meaning of the words. Word Power Made Easy is a great source for the same. Not only it teaches you the meaning of the root words, but it also gives you a lot of context to them which helps in remembering the words for long.
It has great practice material. If you are consistent with the sessions in the book, you will definitely get a great boost in your vocabulary.
4. Grouping words of the same meaning
It will help you a great deal in registering the words in your memory and will help you in tackling a few direct questions. Flashcards can also help you to practice and remember these words. You can try Tweak- English Vocabulary Flashcards for the same. Unlike other flashcard apps, it clubs together with the words of similar meaning together. The best part about this app is that it has most of the GRE frequent words.
It also throws examples and has practice levels to reach your goal. You can also try other popular resources on the play store like Magoosh.
You can also use this GRE’s most frequently appearing from The Economist.
5. Read and Practice
Simultaneously, read a different type of contents. Reading articles from The New York Times and The Economist can also help you understanding sentence structures, frequently used words and getting you comfortable with a different type of topics, author tones, etc. The Economist also has its vocabulary app which cites sentences from its articles and explains the meaning of the difficult words cited. It also helps you with their synonyms.
Above all, it’s extremely important to stick to your preparation consistently. You really have to keep your frustrations at the bay and show some resilience from distracting.
Happy Learning!