How to Ace the GRE Verbal Section

Intro to the GRE Verbal Scale

The GRE is a little different from the SAT or the ACT. The scale, from 130-170 in one-point increments (since 2011), is based around the theory that smaller differences in score will be viewed by colleges as what they are: small. This way, the test-makers reason, people won’t go so nuts. Of course, ETS would also encourage colleges and universities to not use any score as a “cut-off score…for denying admission.” These are two points in a five-point “should and should not” list that the test-makers published in what can only be seen as an attempt to control the normative standards surrounding the GRE.  Fortunately or unfortunately, their five “shoulds” are already largely ignored, as seen in point 4: “Test scores should not be added together.”

However, even if the way the test scores are applied does not abide by the approved logic, there is some logic to the verbal section. Take a look at this table, from ETS, that correlates verbal scores with one’s intended graduate major. It’s from the old scale (200-800), but it does show that those looking to get a graduate degree in the humanities have the highest mean score (and business and education…yikes!).

The test-makers have also attempted to set the verbal mean at 150 with a standard deviation of 8.75.  If you have two months to study, you can expect to increase your score by one or two standard deviations.  But drastic improvement in such short time, on the verbal section at any rate, probably ain’t gonna happen.

What is needed for drastic improvement on the verbal section?

1. 1. 4 Months to 1 Year
   2. Books and Periodical Subscriptions
   3. Moxie and Motivation

Steps:

1. 1. Take A and set up a plan.  Sign up for the test.  Sign up for mock test sessions with CATES.  Fill your calendar(s) with group study sessions, private study sessions, study dates, quiz dates, one-on-one lessons, group lessons.  Heck, get a tutor! Put your money in the test somehow, anyhow, multiple hows.

 

1. One way to use that money is to buy B.  Get books.  Hard ones, with difficult, GRE-style words in them.  Charles Dickens and James Joyce.  Or, for even more bang for your buck, take up poetry.  Hart Crane’s oeuvre is replete with fascinating words.  Modern poet Heather Thomas’ short poem “Aberration” contains 11 “official” GRE vocabulary words.Get a subscription to one of the following periodicals now:
   • • The Wall Street Journal
     • The Economist
     • The New Yorker
     • Scientific American
     • The New York Times-or religiously check out www.aldaily.com

    

2. Keep a notebook. Write all words you encounter and do not know in the notebook and USE THOSE WORDS IN CONVERSATION.  If you don’t buy a notebook, then do get a flashcard system of some sort, whether paper-based or using an online service. Some of the latter even have pre-made cards for the GRE. For the GRE, there are different words and different learning tools than those you might remember for the SAT, but the importance of repetitive study for memorization is just the same.