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God I wish I'd come up with this like a week ago.
SO! Studying for the GRE verbal basically means learning vocabulary. Now, my vocabulary is pretty damn good and I didn't even need to study for the SATs or APs, but the GRE seems to revel in finding the most obscure, obnoxious words in the dusty nooks and crannies of the English language and making you memorize them.
There are three parts of the verbal test: analogies, antonyms, and close reading. Close reading takes some vocab (they like to make you sum up a passage in one absurdly specific word that you will never see anywhere else) but the other two are the real challenges to your verbal fortitude. Even people going for English degrees probably won't use most of these words in any meaningful context, and for anyone in the sciences it's just plain irrelevant. Still, the test is what it is.
The other portion worth noting is analytical writing. This isn't really something you can study for, the only way you could conceivably prepare for it is just to write to refine your turn of phrase and spelling (yes, meta, I know).
How to prepare for all this, then? Memorize a bunch of words that you'll never use again? Sit there staring at word lists or doing wrote copying? That's what I've been doing until now, but today I had a brainstorm. One day before the test, but hey, it can't hurt. I'm going to practice my writing, all right. I've made a list of all the words I could find that were unfamiliar to me, and their dictionary meanings. Now I'm going to write a story, and in that story I'm going to use each and every one of those words. I have a little checklist and everything. This way, I get to actually use each word in a meaningful context, and practice my writing to boot.
The best part is I'll never have to use any one of these words ever again.
Fuck the GREs.
Fuck them in the face.
SO! Studying for the GRE verbal basically means learning vocabulary. Now, my vocabulary is pretty damn good and I didn't even need to study for the SATs or APs, but the GRE seems to revel in finding the most obscure, obnoxious words in the dusty nooks and crannies of the English language and making you memorize them.
There are three parts of the verbal test: analogies, antonyms, and close reading. Close reading takes some vocab (they like to make you sum up a passage in one absurdly specific word that you will never see anywhere else) but the other two are the real challenges to your verbal fortitude. Even people going for English degrees probably won't use most of these words in any meaningful context, and for anyone in the sciences it's just plain irrelevant. Still, the test is what it is.
The other portion worth noting is analytical writing. This isn't really something you can study for, the only way you could conceivably prepare for it is just to write to refine your turn of phrase and spelling (yes, meta, I know).
How to prepare for all this, then? Memorize a bunch of words that you'll never use again? Sit there staring at word lists or doing wrote copying? That's what I've been doing until now, but today I had a brainstorm. One day before the test, but hey, it can't hurt. I'm going to practice my writing, all right. I've made a list of all the words I could find that were unfamiliar to me, and their dictionary meanings. Now I'm going to write a story, and in that story I'm going to use each and every one of those words. I have a little checklist and everything. This way, I get to actually use each word in a meaningful context, and practice my writing to boot.
The best part is I'll never have to use any one of these words ever again.
Fuck the GREs.
Fuck them in the face.