We hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day!

Here’s a roundup of some of the top graduate school articles from the week. Happy reading!

Best Graduate Schools Rankings Coming March 12 (U.S. News Education)

This week U.S. News Education announced that it will be publishing the 2014 edition of the Best Graduate Schools rankings on usnews.com on March 12, 2013.

What’s the Purpose of an Admissions Interview? (About.com Graduate School)

Want to make sure that you interview well? The first step is to understand the purpose of the graduate school admissions interview.

7 Reasons to Write from the Start (Grad Hacker)

A current grad student gives seven great reasons for why you should start writing as soon as you begin anything related to your thesis collection.
Read more

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

Studying vocabulary was probably my least favorite part of preparing for the GRE. Nope, that’s not true. It was definitely my least favorite part. The first time I took the GRE, I thought I could roll in cold and knock it out of the park. That’s another nope. My math score was killer, but my lack of esoteric vocabulary knowledge killed me.

So I had to learn it, and learn I did—all the way to a 1600. We all know some of the good vocabulary learning tricks covered in the Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides, like sorting words into groups, sharing words through social media, and labeling items or rooms in your house. But here are other ways you might learn vocabulary — some weirder than others.

1. Replace words in songs you know. Music is a great learning tool because it contains sets of words that we already have memorized. When your vocabulary words offer up a synonym, try to think of a song you know that features that word, and just swap in your GRE word. If you aren’t that into songs, you can do the same thing with famous quotes.

2. YouTube video-search the word. Sometimes, hearing a word in context can really make it stick. Try doing a YouTube search for the word you have in mind. A YouTube search for inchoate makes me aware of the phrase inchoate crimes, which I can hear in context and internalize. A search for laud reveals a number of songs containing the word. The list goes on!

3. Take your flashcards to the gym. The repetition of many fitness activities, from running on the treadmill to doing push-ups, makes them perfect for studying vocabulary. Plus, with your body moving, your brain is better activated. I like to pick a word at a time and repeat it, with its various definitions, 10 or 20 times along with my movements. After the first read, try doing the rest of the repetitions from memory.

4. Put a face or motion with each word. Some people learn kinetically, and most of us benefit from learning in more than one way. Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are the four classic ways to learn language, but adding in motion and other sensory learning methods can really help. Associating a word with a grimace, a disgusted face, a sigh, a huge smile, a growl, a sly look, or a jump into the air can help cement its meaning in a way that memorization can’t. Try it!

5. Use Google Images search to “picture” words. A general Google search is of course a great learning tool, but don’t forget about Google Images. An image may stick in your mind in a way that words don’t. Image-search a word such as lavish or luminous, and it will stick with you. You can even print out an image that really helps you and put it on your flashcard—for this test, that’s often definition enough.

6. Color-code or sticker your flashcards or notes. Sometimes you come across a word on the GRE that you know you knew. Once upon a time, you read and defined the word, but it’s not cemented in your memory. In those cases, even a glimmer of the word’s meaning can make a difference. Think about putting all the “bad” words in red and all the “good” words in green. Or putting smiley-face stickers on all the words that define something positive or pleasant. At any convenience store, you can buy a pack of round label stickers in red, green, yellow, and blue—why not assign those colors to mean bad, good, happy, and sad?

7. Match a stack of words to a collection of items. For me, forcing vocabulary words into categories helps me to understand them. It makes me tell a story, which causes me to think about the word in a new way. Sorting words is one great way to do this. But for a different take, try taking a collection of items and assigning each word to one of the items. This might mean you dump out a box of crayons or the contents of your spice rack, and then force yourself to assign each vocabulary word to one of those items for whatever reason you can come up with! The collection doesn’t have to be physical items—it could be your list of Facebook friends or the contacts in your phone. Searching your mind for qualities that each word’s definition shares in common with an item or person in the collection helps form connections that stay with you.

8. Write the word in a way that shows its definition. Writing is often neglected as a learning tool, especially with more students printing or buying pre-made flashcards than ever before. But if you’re stuck on a word, try writing or doodling it in a way that mixes the word with the meaning. Maybe you turn the “o” in loquacious into an open mouth, talking and talking. Maybe you write the word lethargic long and melting along the bottom the page, or the word inimical covered in spikes.

9. Label a magazine or newspaper with vocabulary words. Whether you print your trouble words on actual labels or just crack open a magazine with a pen, try putting those words on other words, images, or ads that evoke the correct meaning. When you go through the process of searching for words or images that match the word and meaning you have in mind, you are actively using the words and their definitions—and that’s the best way to long-term memory!

10. Post your top-ten hit list where you’ll see it. Despite all the unique, multifaceted ways you find to study vocabulary, there will probably be some words that elude them. Pick ten of the worst offenders, and give them each a one-word definition. Then, put those words and their definitions on a Post-it note, and put that note somewhere you can see it. Sticking it on the bathroom mirror and reviewing it while you brush your teeth is a great option, or posting it by your computer at work. Once you feel you’ve mastered those words, make another hit list. Short, manageable chunks and lots of repetition are key.

If you have other ways that have helped you learn vocabulary, please share them with us! ?

Want more guidance from our GRE gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free! We’re not kidding. Check out our upcoming courses here. 

Each week, we post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for two free Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides.

Note: Figure not drawn to scale.

In the figure above, quadrilateral ABCD is inscribed in a circle and AC is the diameter of the circle.

Quantity A

The perimeter of ABCD

Quantity B

12

Read more

Here are the free GRE events we’re holding this week (All times local unless otherwise specified):

2/11/13– New York, NY- Free Trial Class– 6:30- 9:30 PM

2/12/13– Denver, CO- Free Trial Class– 6:30- 9:30 PM

2/11/13– Online- Mondays with Jen– 7:00- 8:30PM (EST)

Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listing Page.

Each week, we post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for two free Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides.

If 5 liters of water are added to a barrel when it is half full of water, the amount of water in the barrel will increase by .  If x liters of water are then removed from the barrel, the amount of water in the barrel will decrease to  of the capacity of the barrel.  What is the value of x?

Read more

We’re very excited because our latest book, the 5 lb.Book of GRE Practice Problems, is about to hit shelves! The book contains more than 1,100 pages of practice problems (and solutions), so you can drill on anything and everything that might be giving you trouble.

Let’s try out one of the problems! This regular problem solving question asks us to pick one correct answer (other variations might ask us to select more than one answer or to type in our own answer). Give yourself approximately 2 minutes to finish (or guess). Afterwards, we’ll solve the problem and also discuss how to approach these in general

A taxi driver makes $50 an hour, but pays $100 in rent per day of use for his taxi and has other costs that amount to $0.50 per mile. If he works three 7-hour days and one 9-hour day and drives a total of 600 miles in one week, what is his profit?

(A) $700

(B) $800

(C) $1,100

(D) $1,200

(E) $1,500

© ManhattanPrep, 2013

Translation questions are the bane of most test-takers’ existence. (Don’t know the word bane? That’s a great GRE word “ go look it up!) First, we have to figure out how to re-write a paragraph in mathematical terms, and then we still have to do the actual math!

A number of techniques can help us with these tasks. We’re going to start with one discussed in our main Translations article: make it real. (Follow the link to the main, 2-part article, if you haven’t already read it.)

Make the story real

The problem no longer says taxi driver. Instead, your name is sitting there “ you’re the taxi driver. Now, what do you need to know in order to figure out how much money you get to keep at the end of the week?

Well, let’s see. First, I’d figure out how much I made, but then I’d have to subtract all of my costs. That’s how much I get to take home: my profit.

Revenue “ Cost = Profit

Read more

We’ve very excited because our latest book, the 5 lb Book of GRE Practice Problems, is about to hit shelves! The book contains more than 1,100 pages of practice problems (and solutions), so you can drill on anything and everything that might be giving you trouble.

Let’s try out one of the problems! This Text Completion (TC) problem has just one blank, so give yourself approximately 45 seconds to get to your answer. Afterwards, we’ll solve the problem and also discuss how to approach TC questions in general.

After many years of war and bloodshed, some become ____________ suffering, casting a blind eye to scenes of misery around them.

inured to

exempted from

dominant over

effusive towards

maudlin over

© ManhattanPrep, 2013

 

There are several important steps that help us to answer TC questions both effectively and efficiently.

(1) Read only the sentence

Read all the way to the period, but do NOT then jump to the answer choices. Instead

Read more

Each week, we post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for two free Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides.

Quantity A

Quantity B

a + 4b

Read more

Here are the free GRE events we’re holding this week (All times local unless otherwise specified):

1/28/13– Chicago, IL-Free Trial Class- 6:30- 9:30 PM

1/28/13– Online- Mondays with Jen– 9:00- 10:30 PM (EST)

Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listing Page.

Each week, we post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for two free Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides.

How many of the integers that satisfy the inequality (x + 2)²(x + 3)(x “ 1) ≤ 0 are less than 0?

Read more