We’ve very excited because our latest book, the 5 lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems, has just hit the 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! Give yourself about 2 minutes to answer this Logic-Based Reading Comprehension (Logic RC). Afterwards, we’ll solve the problem and also discuss how to approach Logic RC questions in general. 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. 

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

Most people dislike absolute value, and inequalities can tie us up into knots. Put them together, and we can have some major headaches! Let’s test one out.

Set your timer for 1 minute and 15 seconds for this Quantitative Comparison problem and GO! 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.

The Blog as GRE Prep Guide

A student recently had a great idea for an article: how to use the blog as a GRE prep guide. There are so many articles—where should you start and what should you do? This article contains a lot of practical advice along with many links to additional resources. Follow the links! Read more

When I make an error, I get excited. Seriously—you should be excited when you make errors, too. I know that I’m about to learn something and get better, and that’s definitely worth getting excited!

Errors can come in several different forms: careless errors, content errors, and technique errors. We’re going to discuss something critical today: how to learn from your errors so that you don’t continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. First, let’s define these different error types. Read more

If you wanted to meet every neighbor on your block, how would you go about it? You wouldn’t re-introduce yourself to your best friends who live a few doors down, or to the busy-body who walks her dog up and down the street all day and knows everybody’s business (no thank you!). Rather, you’d make a list of the neighbors you don’t already know and go knock on their doors. The same is true for learning GRE content. You need to identify the material that you do not yet know, and the material that’s giving you trouble, and concentrate your efforts there.

Follow the Yellow-Brick Syllabus

If you’re taking a class right now or using one of the self-study packages, then we’ve already done a lot of the hard work for you. Your syllabus tells you what material to study from week to week. However, you should also prioritize based upon your own knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses. Don’t read every last sentence or do every last practice problem if you find a particular lesson really easy. Speed up! By the same token, take extra time, and possibly seek out extra resources or practice problems, in areas where you’re struggling.

If you’re taking a class right now, then you also have a teacher, so make sure to talk to him or her if you’re having any trouble prioritizing or want some ideas about additional resources.
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When we study practice problems, our overall goal is to master the problem we’re working on right now. What does mastery mean? It means that, when we see a future different practice problem that tests the same thing as this current practice problem, we will realize that the future problem has certain things in common with this current problem, and we will know what steps to take as a result—we will, literally, recognize what to do on the future different practice problem, a problem we’ve never actually seen before.

It’s necessary to get to this level of mastery because the problems we study will never be the actual problems we’re expected to do on the test. But we will see similar problems—problems that have something in common with problems that we’ve already studied. If we can recognize what to do, then we will be faster (which is always important on this test), and we will be more effective—we’ll be more likely to get it right because we’ll know that the method we’re using actually worked the last time we saw a similar practice problem.

This mastery we’re talking about—the ability to recognize what to do on a new, different-but-similar problem—comes from the analysis we do after we’ve already finished trying a new practice problem for the first time. So how do we do that?

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One of the highly touted features of the Revised GRE is the ability of students to navigate freely within a test section. While the old GRE was (and the GMAT is) a Computer Adaptive Test, which required students to complete the test without skipping a question, the Revised GRE is a Section Adaptive Test, which allows students to skip questions and analyze the overall section on a review screen. But, as great as this feature sounds, you shouldn’t skip around. On the GRE, time is extremely valuable. Time spent hunting for an easy question is time wasted.

That is not to say the review screen isn’t a boon; it can be. Pacing is an extremely important part of GRE strategy, and the review screen can help you with that.

By test day, you should have an idea of how much time you will spend on each question. Here are some good guidelines for how much time you can afford on each problem type: Read more

A few months ago, the New York Times published an interesting article: Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits. (Click on the title to read the original article.) We’ve been discussing it here at Manhattan GRE and I wanted to share this discussion with you.

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This is a little story of a crucial epiphany one of my students (and I) just had.

Recently, at the end of class, one of my students began asking questions about timing and guessing on test questions. He’s really struggling with the idea that he has to let some questions go and that he’s not going to be able to answer every last question correctly. I told him he’s not alone; most students have significant difficulty accepting this idea—and those who can’t accept it almost never reach their goal scores.

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