Improving your GRE score is relatively easy
The Graduate Record Examination, or GRE, is a test taken by many college graduates applying to graduate school programs. The test is standardized, featuring a series of multiple choice questions, and is broken into two main sections: quantitative and verbal. The quantitative section measures the student's abilities in math, while the verbal section tests her in reading comprehension and vocabulary. The verbal section is further broken down into four main types of questions--sentence completion, analogies, antonyms and reading comprehension. There are a number of methods that students can use to improve their score of this portion of the test.
Instructions
1. Learn the questions. Before attempting even basic strategies, students should first become familiar with the types of questions featured on the test, including their format, rules and commonly posed questions. For example, on the reading comprehension section, students are required to read a long passage and then answer questions about its contents, including the author's argument, tone and style of writing.
Thoroughly understanding the rules of each question before taking the actual test will save students valuable time. The best method to familiarize yourself with the rules is to review old practice tests, available from ETS, administerer of the GRE (see Resources).
2. Make vocabulary flashcards. Both the analogy and the sentence completion sections hinge on the student's understanding of vocabulary. The only way to improve your vocabulary quickly is to study a list of words you are unfamiliar with, along with their definitions. Vocabulary flashcards are a good way to do this. Using a list of vocabulary words that commonly appear on the GRE (see Resources), assemble a set of index cards, writing the word on one side and its definition on the other. Use these for practice drills.
3. After you understand the meanings of the words, learn how they relate to each other. While understanding the definition of vocabulary words should help you succeed on the antonym and sentence completion portions of the test, the questions involving analogies require you to understand a word's relationship to other words.
To answer the question correctly, students must be able to identify what type of relationship the first pair of words in the question has--Are they synonyms? Antonyms? A synecdoche?--and to see how that relationship is repeated in the other pairs of words listed in the answers. Using practice tests, student should draw up a list of the kinds of relationships that words in analogy questions commonly fall into.
Tags: reading comprehension, practice tests, sentence completion, verbal section, vocabulary words