I would like to state here some principles of learning:

1. Space your learning- Know Thyself: It is essential for you to understand the pace of your learning. Are you a fast learner? Or do you require some moderate time for learning? An analysis of this kind is very important. Once you understand this you will certainly learn at an effective pace. Apportion yourself a few words everyday and try to understand the word from the meaning perspective and the contextual usage perspective. Have your own note book and personalized dictionary. Have your own paraphernalia for language learning.
2. Haste is waste: Do not rush. Do not commit to learning 500 words a day. That’s absolutely quixotic and meaningless!! Instead commit yourself to just five words a day and imbibe their meanings thoroughly.
3. Review: You have to keep going back to the words you learned every now and then. Words are like relatives, you don’t keep visiting them; they feel offended and would leave the room of your memory…J
4. See where you stand: After all this effort, won’t you feel like testing your knowledge. Keep taking tests frequently. This will help you identify your faults. You can then come up with suitable remedies.

But most important of all ‘Have a plan of action’ and ‘follow it religiously’!!

Anu Veluri

Manager- Learnwordlist.com

“Words, Words and Words”, this is all about GRE Verbal. The more words you know the brighter the chances of securing an awesome score in the Verbal Ability segment. The brighter are the chances for securing a seat in that coveted University you always aspired to be in.

As most of us know the GRE Verbal Ability part has four main sections- Antonyms, Sentence Completion, Analogies and Reading Comprehension I would like to start a sequence of explanation for all the major components of the GRE. To begin with, I will first deal with Vocabulary as one major controlling factor to crack the first three question types in the aforementioned sentence.

The Wikipedia defines Vocabulary as a person’s set of words he/she is familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. I guess we all now understand how justified is the ETS to include this very pertinent field in order to sift the rightful candidates for the American Universities.

Adding to your vocabulary is certainly not a Herculean task. It is much easier than you realize. Setting realistic goals for snow balling your vocabulary list is very important. An average person would have, not more than 1000-1500 words stored in his/her memory. When I say 1500 it’s a bit on the higher side!! At the same time one cannot become a Winston Churchill with an awesome 10,000 words at one’s command! To score a perfect 800 in GRE Verbal you need to have a decent understanding of say 3500 words (which are usually termed – High Frequency GRE Words). They are called ‘High Frequency’ because once you land in the US of A; you will get to hear these words the most on the College Campus. Once you equip yourself with these magical words, you would be able to locate yourself more appropriately. There would be no embarrassing occasion (misunderstanding, misconstruing) whatsoever.

I would now like to speak on some ‘realistic goals’ that you may like to set for yourself. But before dealing with the ‘realistic’ goals I would like to comment on the ‘unrealistic’ ones.

Some unrealistic goals students set for themselves:

1. Learning 20-30 new words a day!
2. ‘Remembering words’ and ‘learning by heart’ techniques
3. Memorizing words in sequence, i.e. (let me first complete list A and then I will go to list B…that’s a big pain in the neck isn’t it?…phew!!)
4. Learning the words mechanically without imbibing it’s flavor
5. Not caring even a bit for the word history and considering test taking a sheer mechanical process

What are the realistic goals?

1. Start adding to your ‘Vocabulary’ list well in advance
2. Do not try to imbibe the meaning of more than 3-5 words a day
3. Learn the ‘synonyms’ of the words that you shortlist for a day
4. Start reading good magazines, journals and newspapers
5. Develop vision, ear and heart for good words
6. Adding to vocabulary is fun! Do not make it a stress generating act for yourself!

The more words you know, the more articulate speaker you can be. Such a credential boosts and enhances your confidence, building your profile cut above the rest!

Therefore, for all you aspirants!

Silence is definitely not golden in today’s competitive world. Hope all you guys now would surely agree with me.

Stay tuned to my Blog to catch up with a Series on GRE Verbal Prep Strategies and more comments on Vocabulary Development/ Improvement Strategy.

Kindly post queries on the topic if any.

Anu Veluri

Manager- Learnwordlist.com

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