The Verbal Section: How to increase your vocabulary?

One of the biggest impediments to doing well on the GRE Verbal section for a large number of people is the size of their vocabularies (or rather the lack of it). In this post I'll be divulging some of the tricks that worked for me. I scored a 710 out of 800 on my GRE Verbal Section in 2001.

1) Spend a few months reading the Barron's Word Lists
This is what most GRE test takers try to do, albeit unsuccessfully. It is hard to remember words this way. Very soon you find yourself confusing the meanings of various words. But Barron's does serve as a good starting point.

2) Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis
This is a great book for learning a wide variety of words. This book stresses on figuring out the meaning of words based on their roots. For instance: the words loquacious, elocution, both relate to speaking and both use the root loci meaning to speak. The book goes through various subjects, from personality types to doctors, and from insults to actions. This book is necessary reading for anyone serious about doing well on the GRE Verbal section.

3) Verbal Tutor
I haven't looked for Vocabulary test software lately, but I frequently used VTutor back in the day. The software throws a word at you, with the choice of 10 meanings. Training for an hour a day for a couple of months can do wonders to your GRE Verbal score.

4) Reading voraciously
Or even reading a little more voraciously than you currently do. It is a good habit, regardless of what exam you are appearing for. It makes you an interesting person, with fun facts to share, with a lot of handy information. (My wife says it also serves to impress the girls. It did work for me.:))The New York Times is my personal favorite. The Web2.0 style - Most Emailed, Most Blogged sections of the newspaper are always entertaining. Books also serve to reiterate the words that you have already learnt. Also you can read for fun and when a parent annoyingly asks you what you are up to, you can respond "Studying for my GRE Verbal!"

6) Word of the Day Email
There are a lot of services out there to help you learn a word a day. Google's custom Homepage has a "Word of the Day" widget. You can also subscribe to email lists for a word a day. Princeton Review's Word Du Jour is a good way to learn a word, while doing some casual surfing. I like this service from Wordsmith.org as well called AWAD.

7) Reader's Digest Quiz, Crosswords
I used to love solving the vocabulary quiz section of the Reader's Digest. The words are a tad harder though, so it didn't do my confidence any good. Other word games can also help.

8) Free Rice
http://www.freerice.com is a great way to learn some words, while supporting a very worthy cause. Each time you get the meaning of a word right, the site donates 10 grains of rice to the United Nations for the starving people around the globe. You can keep going for as long as you wish, and usually the words get more difficult the more words you identify correctly. How do they do that you ask? Well the campaign is ad-supported. Each time you visit the page, an advertiser like Apple pays FreeRice a few cents. I find this site addictive and fun. It judges your current voacbulary level and asks you the meanings of words at the edge of your abilities, so you keep improving a little.

If you have any tips that you would like to share with others, do post them in the comments section.

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