GRE Verbal Not Just a Vocabulary Test

The GRE verbal section is more than a vocabulary test. Like the name suggests, the verbal section tests your verbal skills. Albeit, there's a lot of vocabulary involved, but there's also a lot of critical reading there, which is why I strongly suggest that you READ to improve your GRE verbal score.

I just read a post in a popular GRE forum. Someone was asking, "If I memorize this many words, is it possible to get a score of 650+ ??" Sure, it's possible, but if your reading skills are horrible, then no, you're not going to get a good verbal score. How well can you possibly memorize 3000 words from the Barrons GRE vocabulary list?

Here is my suggestion. Vocabulary prep is all well and good, which I still think you should do; however, instead of 2 hours of vocabulary prep a day, try 1.5 hours of reading from the New York Times and a half hour of vocabulary. Don't just read like it's some Saturday afternoon though. Read like you mean it. Read to understand. If you don't understand what you read, go back and read again. Don't know a word? Look it up! This method will be especially helpful to those taking the GRE under the new format, which will be longer and have more READING.

Sorry for the rant, but after reading that forum post, I just had to vent. Seriously though, reading over vocab is the way to go.

Until next time, let the studybeans grow.