I’m always on the search for fun and new ways to learn GRE Vocab. Well, “fun” might not be the right word, but learning vocabulary is easier when it is tied to things you already know and integrated into your daily life. If you can tie vocabulary to movie clips, song lyrics, other words you already know, or anything else that’s already stored in your memory, you can often remember the definition forever in a quick and easy way.

Here are ten famous quotes, either that you may already know or that you may find easy to remember, that can help you remember GRE Vocab words.

1. Alacrity. Ambrose Bierce famously said, “He who thinks with difficulty believes with alacrity.” It’s an astute observation, concisely put, and makes quite a beautiful and poetic insult. It also helps you understand that alacrity means “brisk and cheerful readiness.” Try recalling this quote to describe someone it fits, whether to yourself or to someone else. It might just stick.
2. Prosaic. You probably know the phrase “poetry and prose”; where something poetic is beautiful and flowery, something prosaic is practical and direct. When Stendhal said, “It is better to have a prosaic husband and to take a romantic lover,” he was setting up a great GRE Vocab learning sentence that not only shows that “prosaic” and “romantic” are opposites, but helps us understand the nuanced meaning of each word.
3. Loquacious. “Loquacious” is in the GRE’s rather large toolkit of words that mean “talkative.” Here’s a quote for reflection: Lucius Annaeus Seneca wrote, “Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.” Another great vocabulary learning sentence, as it clearly sets “loquacious” as the opposite of “dumb.”
4. Veracity. Veracity means truth. “Truth in spirit, not truth to the letter, is the true veracity,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson. This is a great quote to have on hand when you get in trouble for not-quite-following the rules. It’s also a good one for remembering the definition of “veracity.”
5. Paucity. Because paucity isn’t a word we often use, it’s often hard to envision it in a sentence. Consider Norman Miller’s quote, “The horror of the twentieth century was the size of each new event and the paucity of its reverberation.” It’s a thoughtful point, and it helps us remember the structure “paucity of     (usually some good quality in noun form)  ”.
6. Maintain. Sure, we encounter the word “maintain” pretty much every day. But as GRE Vocab is wont to do, it often tests the second definition of maintain, which is to assert. Think of Dostoyevsky’s words, “What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” That statement was his assertion, and whether you maintain that it’s true, it might help you remember the definition of “maintain.”
7. Contrition. Here’s a word that’s mostly used today in religious contexts, for it means a feeling of remorsefulness and penitence. Its adjectival form is “contrite,” which is tricky because it sounds like it might mean “not trite.” I find it easier to remember the noun form of contrition. Here’s a helpful quote: “To err is human; but contrition felt for the crime distinguishes the virtuous from the wicked,” said Vittorio Alfieri. This quote helps convey the seriousness and meaning of contrition.
8. Extant. “Extant” is a GRE Vocab favorite that I think I can confidently say I’ve never heard a person actually use when speaking, except in GRE class. Extant means existent, which is the word most of us would use in its place. Thoreau famously said, “There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold.” I find that the phrase “present and extant” sticks with me to help me recall this definition without much work.
9. Egregious. I’m going to let Kurt Vonnegut explain this one, as he did in Deadeye Dick. “Egregious. Most people think that word means terrible or unheard of or unforgivable. It has a much more interesting story than that to tell. It means ‘outside the herd.’ Imagine that—thousands of people, outside the herd.” He’s right on both fronts. While the word “egregious” technically means “outside the herd,” it has taken on a bad connotation—standing out for doing something wrong.
10. Capricious. The definition of this word has been with me since my mother explained that Capricorns are born in January, named for the god of Janus, who has two faces. (Maybe we just figured out why I’m a GRE teacher.) Capricious means fickle or two-faced, of two minds at once. If your mom wasn’t quite so vocabulary inclined, consider this quote from Benjamin Disraeli: “A consistent man believes in destiny; a capricious man in chance.”

Unlike Disraeli, I don’t believe that a consistent man believes in destiny, necessarily; at least not when it comes to the GRE. The consistent among us, men and women alike, know that careful study can always improve your GRE score! For these, and other GRE Vocab words, download our free GRE flashcards. ?

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There’s something very alluring about practice tests. They feel productive. They seem like they’re giving you an upper hand on “the real thing”. And there’s always that secret hope that this time you’ll knock it out of the park and you can finally stop studying.

Don’t get me wrong; I love practice tests. I love them as a teacher, because they help me assess my students’ progress. And I love them as a student, because I know where I stand. But more and more, I find myself having to caution students about using practice tests effectively.

Often times, I see students using practice tests in ways that are completely unproductive. Since your time is precious and you ideally want to get the most improvement possible for whatever time you invest, I’d like to give you my two cents on using practice tests effectively.

Take a test before you start studying.

This is one practice test that’s completely efficient and insanely valuable, and yet it’s the one students are most likely to skip. Many students skip the practice test at the beginning of a course or before they start studying. Sometimes, they skip it because they are afraid of what the results will be. Other times, they know the result won’t be good enough for their school of choice, so it seems pointless. I also often hear students say that they don’t want to “waste” one of their practice tests until they have started studying.

I feel comfortable saying that, without exception, these are all bad reasons to skip the first practice test. You have to know where you’re starting so that you can know what’s working. Taking a practice test at the beginning of your studies will give you a baseline from which to measure your progress and an invaluable exposure to the exam to frame your studying. It wouldn’t be a waste even if you couldn’t ever take it again – but since you can, and since you’re likely to take it differently after weeks or months of studying, there’s absolutely no reason to skip the first practice exam. (If you’ve very recently taken a real exam, that’s a perfect substitute for an initial practice test.)

Take tests in a real way.

If you have to caveat your test score by saying anything that starts with, “I got XYZ score on my practice test, but…”, you’re not using your practice tests as efficiently as you could be. So let me lay it out as directly as I can.
Read more

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.

Welcome to part 4 of the article series on analyzing your GRE practice tests. As we discussed in the first, second, and third parts of this series, we’re basing the discussion on the metrics that are given in Manhattan Prep tests, but you can extrapolate to other tests that give you similar performance data. If you haven’t already read those, do so before you continue with this final part. Read more

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.

Welcome to part 3 of the article series on analyzing your GRE practice tests. As we discussed in the first and second parts of this series, we’re basing the discussion on the metrics that are given in Manhattan Prep tests, but you can extrapolate to other tests that give you similar performance data. If you haven’t already read those, do so before you continue with this third part. Read more

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.

Welcome to part 2 of the process for analyzing your GRE practice tests. As we discussed in the first part of this series, we’re basing the discussion on the metrics that are given in Manhattan Prep tests, but you can extrapolate to other tests that give you similar performance data.

Last time, we discussed how to assess the data provided in the “question list”—the list that shows the questions you received and how you performed on each one. This week, we’re going to interpret the analysis given in the Assessment Reports. Read more

You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here.

The purpose of taking practice tests is two-fold:

(1) You’re testing yourself to see whether you’ve learned what you have been trying to learn.

(2) You’re diagnosing your strengths and weaknesses so that you can build a study plan going forward. Read more

Music can do a lot for us, but the word is still out on whether it can enhance our ability to stay focused and sharpen our memories during long study sessions. On the one hand, we have a report from the University of Toronto suggesting that fast and loud background music can hinder our performance on reading comprehension. On the other, there’s the recent
 research from the digital music service, Spotify, and Clinical Psychologist Dr. Emma Gray, which proclaims that pop hits from artists like Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, and Miley Cyrus can actually enhance our cognitive abilities.

“Music has a positive effect on the mind, and listening to the right type of music can actually improve studying and learning,” says Dr. Gray. She even suggests that students who listen to music while studying can perform better than those who do not.

We also cannot leave out the so-called “Mozart Effect,” which alleges that listening to classical music provides short-term enhancement of mental tasks, like memorization. We’ve heard students swear by this tactic, while others say that silence is golden.
Read more

Deciding whether to take a GRE prep course is tough. Prep courses can be expensive and take a lot of time. So the question is, is a GRE prep course worth it?

You might think that because I teach and GRE prep course and work for a GRE prep course company, my answer would be a certain “yes”. But in reality, it’s a resounding and certain “maybe”.

Helpful, right? Sorry. But I firmly believe that a prep course is incredibly valuable for some people but not for others. Here are the factors I usually encourage students to consider in deciding if a prep course will be worthwhile for them.

How much improvement do you really need?

It’s a good idea to take a reputable practice exam to see where your scores currently stand. Manhattan GRE offers a free practice test that you can use to see where you are right now. Then, check in with the programs to which you plan to apply and see what score would make you a competitive applicant there.

If you only need minimal improvement, or you only need improvement in one area, you might be able to do that on your own! Either way, you’ve got to know where you are starting and where you need to end up before you can make an informed plan.

How likely are you to stick to a schedule on your own? Read more

We all have a way of learning that works best for us. Most of us are able to learn by reading, writing, listening, speaking, and doing: the world pretty much requires that we do all five of these. But, just the same, most of us are better learners in some ways than in others.

Fortunately, when it comes to studying for the GRE, you can do a lot to design your own way of studying to take advantage of your strengths. First, you have to know what your strengths are. You may already know. If you don’t, think back to your time in high school or college. Which ways of studying were effective for you? Did you find homework to be pointless, but learn a lot in class? You might learn best by listening. On the other hand, if you found it very helpful to take notes while studying, you might learn best by writing. If you aren’t sure, you can take an online quiz such as this one to give yourself some guidance in the right direction.

I suggest that you try to combine more than one learning style in your studying – research has shown that this improves learning. I also suggest that you make sure to incorporate the learning style that works best for you.

So what are some ways to study in each learning style?

Learn by reading

• Obviously, the first piece here is to read the assigned reading in your homework.
• You might find that reading explanations of problem solutions really helps to cement things for you.
• Reading online forums can help you link concepts together.
• Doing a Google search for vocab words and reading them in context can help those who learn by reading to form strong connections for the words.
• Reading different solutions to a tough problem might bring you lots of insight.

Learn by writing Read more

I’m a terrible photographer because I don’t zoom in a reasonable manner. I try to zoom in on things that really can’t be appreciated without context. I try to zoom out and capture a whole panorama when the scene is too busy for any viewer to appreciate it. I suppose I could practice, but instead I’ve just stopped taking pictures and let other people do it for me.

But when it comes to the quantitative section of the GRE, I know exactly how to zoom, and I try to make sure my students know how to do the same. If you took all your photos with the camera on its factory setting, they would all be okay, but none of them would be really great. You want to get closer and more into the minutiae sometimes, and take a broader view other times, skipping all the details. The same is true when studying for (and taking) the GRE.

Zooming Out

Consider the following problem:

If x is the median of all the even multiples of 7 from 15 to 100, and y is the mean of all the even multiples of 7 from 16 to 104, what is the value of x –  y?

With your mental math camera on the regular setting, your approach might sound something like, “Okay, I know how to find the median. I’ll list out all the terms, and choose the middle one. After I’ve done that, I can find the mean by average out the first and last terms, because this is an evenly spaced set. Once I find both those numbers, I’ll subtract to find the difference.”

This approach is okay, and it will get you to the right answer. But zooming out a little allows you to look at the problem collectively, as a whole, and think something like, “Hey, both these sets of numbers are the same, since they both start at 21 and end at 98. And in an evenly spaced set, the mean and median are the same. So their difference is zero.”

Zooming out lets you pick up patterns in the exam and take advantage of the fact that you’ve studied them and notice them. It allows you to notice trends in the exam, which helps you know quickly what issues to consider and can also help you make an educated guess. Let’s take a look at another sample problem.

What is the average (arithmetic mean) of all the multiples of ten from 10 to 290 inclusive?

1. 140
2. 145
3. 150
4. 190
5. 200

On a regular setting, I’m looking at this and thinking, “Great, I know how to find the mean. I’ll list all the multiples of ten, add them up, and divide by the number of terms.” By zooming out, I can realize, “Hey, I know the GRE doesn’t want me to do that. This test rewards me for reasoning; is there a faster way? Yeah, this is an evenly spaced set of terms, so the middle one is the mean. And I can find that by just taking the mean of 10 and 290.

Making a Plan

The purpose of zooming out (or zooming in, as we’ll see in a second) is to make a plan. Each question should cause you to clarify what information you’re being given (“What are they telling me?”) and what you’re being asked to find from it (“What are they asking me?). Then, make a plan. Read more