How can I ace 5000-6000 GRE® vocabulary words in 3months?

[Princess]

Hi everyone,

As the topic, my exam is in the OCT.27th this year. Now I nearly have 5000-6000 new GRE vocabularies(means HARDER words) needed to be learned and to keep in my memory. So I would like to consult you if there are other proper ways to handle this?

P.S. I can prepare this exam using a whole day in these three months.

Thanks alot.

[Princess]

So...if there are no such an approach for coping this tough task or you all think this is a mission impossible=___=|||

Whatever, I would done it at the end..

[Dakini]

Hi Princess,

Love the name, just saw your post. Do you think its really necessary to learn that many words for the GRE? Are you an English 2nd Language student? If so, what are your English skills like? I learned over 1,000 new words for the GRE (in 2 months) and scored 700 for the verbal. If you can tell me what problems you are having I may be able to help. But I think that your proposed word list, while not impossible to learn if you really put yourself to the task, is really not necessary. If you look at my post "So I did the GRE today" perhaps there is information there that would help you as well.

Good luck!

[Nazeedzia]

hi dakini,
i have read almost all your posts, first of all many many congrats for your scores, amazing one, i also need the same one. but i have a difficulty remembering the vocabulary , is there any best way to remember the vocabulary as fast as i can.
i m seeking help for this waitting for your encouraging advice

[Princess]

[Princess]

And Dakini, If necessary, I may send the list I collected to you that you can evaluate the English level I am..

Btw, are you a applicant for the fall semester 2008? If it is the case, we are the same! And I like your major! I like literuture, I hope you can achieve it no doubteful! I will apply for the Media, Culture and Social behavior in MIT, it did not require the minimum on tests but I think it has the high standard to the writing sample.

Except the test, I wand to improve my English writing skills very much! I think I have lost of interesting stories can tell people if I can translate them all into English, that would be amazing So we can communicate more about this feild and you can guild me efficiently!

Good Day again!

[Dakini]

Dear Nazeedzia,

Thank you for kind words. Vocab is a tricky thing, but hopefully my method will work for you.

I am a free associate, so what I mean is that when I learn a word, I try to contextualize it or connect it to something I already know. For example, OBDURATE means resistant to persuasion, and hardened in feeling so I associated it with my horrible boss from before. Or, take the word PREVARICATE which means to deceive; notice that it has the word VARY in it, so you can associate that with "varying from the truth." For something like MALEVOLENT, I thought of the evil witch character in the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty because she has a similar, if not the same name. The same applies to UMBRAGE, which means offence, and when you remember the Harry Potter character, you see how you can remember that offensive person's characteristic. Does this help?

Sometimes word roots help. For example, if you know that BEL means war, you can get BELLICOSE = warlike. This is not a hard and fast rule, but if you have the time, knowing the roots can help with memorizing actual words.

These are the techniques I used and unfortunately sometimes you will have to rely on memory alone. Seeing it used in a sentence may help you, so check unfamiliar words on dictionary.com or other dictionary websites.

Good luck studying! And all the best for the GRE!

[Dakini]

Dear Princess,

My handle/name means "angel" or "spirit" in Tibetan, and I am glad you like it =)

I see that you are working real hard on the GRE and I am sure that it will pay off. Please see my post to Nazeedzia above because this might help you. Having English as a second language also helps (it is also mine - I learnt English proper for the first time when I was 6) especially if you are European since many words are borrowed or have similar roots. I know German and a little ancient Greek. My French is quite bad though, haha, since I learnt it by reading poems I liked in the original French.

In your case I think it may help you immensely if I sent you my word list. Please send me a private msg w/ your email and I will get some files over to you. There are top words, and some additional words too. Please also look at Dynamite's post and follow the link to the blog there, and join the yahoo group if you like. I cannot stress enough how this will help you and boost your confidence on test day.

I am applying in 2008, like you! MIT is very nice, just a stone's throw away from Harvard where I am doing my Masters' right now. Even though MIT doesn't specify a minimum, do call them and ask them about their expected GRE scores; they are required to tell you, and it will give you something to aim for.

Your intended field of study is actually quite related to mine; I am interested in comparative literature and I really like to study different cultures as reflected by the texts =) Media is also fascinating for literature as you will appreciate! I am sure we will have lots to talk about in the future!

Hope to hear from you soon and in the interim, good luck to you! Take care!

[Princess]

[Nazeedzia]

Hi dakini,
thanx for your kind support, i m used to of the other practices but not the relating the words which is also a good idea. I will try this one too.
Good luck for your future

[Jetendra]

hi princess can u send me those hard words what u have got from dakini as i to give up the xam in october and apply for fall
jetendra_2@yahoo.co.in
thank u

[Dakini]

Err Jetendra, wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask me directly? FYI those are my personal notes that I prepared so I don't particularly want them passed around without prior approval.

[Jetendra]

ok boss can u atleast suggest me what to do then

[Dakini]

Are you being sarcastic Jetendra? That's really not the way to get help around here.

[Jetendra]

no am not makin sarcasm over her,just thot of askin her