Study Prof

Spiftaculous website Exemplar will show you lots of examples of that irritatingly unfamiliar vocabulary term in context so you can get the straight skinny on how it’s used. It will also give you some stats about how often your word is used by year and geographic locale. Strangely, it doesn’t give you the actual definition though–don’t ask me why–but combine it with wordnik.com for a more robust vocabulary experience.

A heads up; apparently the examples are drawn only from scientific literature. Didn’t seem to make much diff on the test words I typed in, but just so’s ya know.

More scrumptious FREE practice tests than you can shake a stick at for the GRE, SAT, and GMAT. Regular readers will know that sometimes third-party tests can be sub-par, but a quick perusal of some of the GRE tests shows only very minor errors. Let me know in the comments if you find big problems on any of the other sections. Still, gobs of great practice for the low low price of zero dollars. Thank you, Mathurs! Click the logo to check it out…

abstruse
adjoin
alimony
analgesia
apathy
archetype
astringent
awl
behemoth
billowing (more…)

Taking a prep course is really an ideal first step for most students.  If you’ve never built a house before, it would NOT be smart to go out and start pouring concrete and putting up boards on your own for a couple of months, and only then go talk to an architect/builder to find out exactly how to do things.

You normally start by getting with an architect to plan the building and by talking to a builder who knows something about exactly how to procede with each step of the process.  Taking a prep course is like talking to an experienced builder and architect first.  Although their services can come at a premium, they can help you make sure that none of your time and effort is wasted.  In fact, they will more than pay for themselves!

A GRE prep course can raise a student’s combined score an average of (more…)

VocabSushi, though still in beta, is proving to be a nifty tool for bulking up those flabby vocabulary muscles. You’ll need to sign up first (free) and pick the test your studying for (GRE, SAT, whatever). VocabSushi will give you short quiz to find out your current verbal expertise, and then you’re off! Quizzes, reviews, pronunciations, definitions, contextual uses, and more! And when you master a word, VocabSushi will add a new word to your list so you’ll never run out.

It does have some minor beta issues, but they’re small, and certainly worth the annoyance. I wouldn’t necessarily use this as a replacement for flashcards, but it’s a nice upgrade for your arsenal.

I tell my students to learn at least 300 new words, but that is really the bare minimum. Why? It takes at least that many before you have a snowball’s chance in H-E-double-hockey-sticks of seeing enough of them on the test to actually nudge up your score.

Consider, if the GRE or SAT has 4,500 possible vocabulary words to choose from (a rough guesstimate), and you see, say, 150 on any given verbal section, what are the chances that one of the 300 new words you studied will be among them? (more…)

My SAT and GRE students will be familiar with my admonishment to look up each new vocabulary word in a good dictionary, read all the definitions, look at the roots and prefixes, look at the synonyms, and ESPECIALLY to see the word used in context. I stumbled across Wordnik the other day. What a godsend! It seems tailor made for the task.

Some brave (or legally naive) soul has posted Barron’s list of most commonly occurring GRE vocabulary words online for all the world to see. Better go check them out now. A lawsuit undoubtedly looms.

I’ve mentioned before how important it is to see your vocabulary words used in context.  Google book search is a great resource for that kind of thing.  You can type in your vocabulary word and it will allow you to see the word as it’s used in thousands of different books.  Take a look …

Cast an eye upon these nifty (short) videos. See a short video defining and illustrating words such as fulminate, histrionic, caterwaul, etc. What a great addition to your current vocabulary learning methods!