I wish this article is some kind of help to people who are undertaking the
tough work on GRE .
This chapter is all about the paper test. Do not apply these trategies to the
computer test because they won't work.If you haven't picked a format yet,
go back and reread chapter 1. You should not read this chapter unless you
know without question that you intend to take the paper test.
Most people approach the GRE with one goal in mind: to finish. In other words,
"I must work on each and every question on this test because if I
Don't, I lose potential points." Well, guess what? This thinking is why most
people do poorly on the GRE.
The first thing you have to realize is that you are in the land of ETS, and
you can't operate in the land of ETS as you do in the real world. In the real
world, the more you do, the better. But in the land of ETS, the more you do,
the worse.
If you read through this book and learn only one thing about the paper
test, it should be: The best way to improve your score is not to finish.
Tather, it is to work on fewer questions and make sure you get those questions
right. Less is actuall more.
ORDER OF DIFFICULTY
How? How can doing less actually get you more? It doesn't make a lot of
sense yntil you understand how ETS constructs the GRE.
Basically, there are three types of questions on the GRE: Easy questions,
medium questions, and hard questions. What makes an easy question
easy? An easy answer.What makes a hard question hard? A hard answer. Well,
how do you know which questions re easy and which questions are hard? It's
incredibly simple. ETS follows rigid order of difficulty on the GRE. On the
verbal sections, the first third of the group of any question type is easy, the
next third is medium, and the last third is hard. In othr words:
Easy sentence completions # 1-2
Medium sentence completions # 3-5
Hard sentence completions # 6-7
Easy analogies #8-10
Medium analoggies #11-13
Hard analogies #14-16
Easy antonyms #28-30
Medium antonyms #31-34
Hard antonyms #35-38
Notice that the one question type not mentioned above is reading
comprehension. For reading comprehension, there is no order of difficulty.
It's the only question type doesn't fit the mold.
NO WORD OF YOUR OWN?
Together the clue and the triggers help you come up with your own word
for the blank. There are times, however, when you won't be able to come up
with your own word--even though you've found the clue and the triggers.
What do you do then?
You can still use the clue and the triggers to help you. Even though
you may not be able to come up with your own word, you can often tell if what
goes in that blank is positive or negative. If you know the owrd is
positive, then you can eliminate any answer choice that contains a negative
word. If you know the word is negative, then you can elminate any answer
choice that contains a positive word.
This technique--Positive/Negative- is very powerful, but a word
of caution:Don't use it as a crutch. It's going to be very tempting to use this
technique instead of coming up with your own word, butyou shhouldn't.
Your first goal is always to come up with your own word. Only if you can't
do thaht should you move on th Positive/Negative. For those times when
you do use Positive/Negative, remember that you still need to find the clue
and triggers. Otherwise you won't know what should go int he blank. Let's try a
applying PositiveNegative, remember that you still need to find the clue
and triggers. Otherwise you won't know what should go in the blank. Let's
trry applying Positive/Negative to a question.
Because he did not want to appear---,
the junior executive refused to dispute
the board's decision, in spite of his belief that the decision
would impair employee morale.
(A)-
(B)-
(C)+
(D)-
(E)+
Let's say that can't come up with your own word, which means you need to
rely on Positive/Negative. What's the clue in the sentence? The most
descriptive part is "refused to dispute." There's also the trigger"Because."
Together, the clue and trigger tell you that a negative word belongs in the
blank.So what can you eliminate?(C) and (E).
This is a good example why Positive?Negative can be a very powerful
technique. You can't figure out exactly what should go i the blank, but
you can still manage to eliminate two answer choices. If you were stuck
after that, who cares? You now have a one-in-three chance of getting
question right.
Here is what the complete choices looks like:
(A)contentious
(B)indecisive
(C)solicitous
(D)overzealous
(E)steadfast
(C) and (E) are gone because they're positive words. You can't eliminate
(A)if you don't know what contentious means.(B)doesn't work because the clue is
"refused to dispute." That doesn't work with indecisive. For the same reason,
(D) doens't work either. SO the best answer is (A). Even though you
might not know contentious,you can still get to the right answer.
ACCURACY, NOT SPEED
Let's use this knowlegde about order of difficulty to find out why less is more.
Here's how a typical test take approaches a given sction-we'll call this
typical test taker "Joe Bloggs." Joe starts the section with the easy questions.
How does he do? ( keep in mind that Joe's primary goal is to finish.)
Joe gets most of the easy questions right. He gets most of the right because
after all, they're easy. However, he also misses some because he's rushing to
finish the section- and that causes Joe to make careless mistakes.
Joe gets to the medium questions. How does he do here?(Again, keep in mind that
Joe's desire is to finish.) So-so, Joe's not stupid, so he gets about half
of the questions right. Why does Joe miss the other half? Because the questions
are getting harder and, more important, because he's still rushing, which
cause him to make careless mistakes.
Joe moves on to the hard questions. On a typical hard question, only 15
percent of the people answering the question get it right. SO how do you
think Joe does? He tanks;he bombs. Joe spends the majority of his time trying
to answer the hard questions, and he gets them all wrong.
To review:Joe misses easy questions , he misses medium questions, and he
misses hard questions. What's wrong with this picture?
Does Joe get more points for answering hard questions than he does for
answering easy questions? No. Remember, every correct answer is worth one
raw score point. Then why should Joe spend all of his time on the
hard questions when he's going to miss them anyway? Why should you spend all of
your time on the hard questions when you're going to miss them anyway?
Joe and you need to focus on what he and you can do, not what he and you can't.
By slowing down and concentrating on the easy and medium questions, your score
is going to improve. Ignore the hard questions. Don't even look at them.
Beating the GRE is all about pacing yourelf correctly.
Accuracy is more important than speed.
Sentence Completion
The Goal: Fill In the Blank
Your job on any given sentence completion is to pick the answer choice that
best completes the sentence by filling in the blank or blanks. Not too hard,
right? Well, not too hard if you know what not to do.
What not to do is "pllug and chug," which (unfortunately) is probably
the most common thing people do when they hit a sentence completion.
Here's a typical question:
In celestial mechanics, scientists are required
to make------calculations because the astronomical
bodies are moving------and many differrent forces
are acting at once.
A. precise...obdurately
B. detailed...auspiciously
C. comprehensible...excessively
D. complicated...concurrently
E. facile...nominally
When you plug and chug, you just take an answer choice and pop it back into the
blank or blanks. How effective is this ? Not very. People tend to plug and chug
because they think it's the fastest way to answer a sentence completion,
but guess what It's not. In fact, it's the slowest way, because when you
plug and chug, every answer choice sounds good. That is, every answer choice
seems as if it could work.
A CLUE
On every single sentence completion , there must be a clue that tells you what
belongs in the blank. Without a clue, there would be no right answer.
So, anytime you 're coming up with your own word for the blank, look for the
clue to help you out. In fact, often you cna repeat the clue itself in the
blank.
Keep in mind that clues can show up anywhere in the sentence: at the
beginning, in the middle, at the end. If you're having trouble finding the
clue, look for the most descriptive part of the sentence.That's usually
where the clue is. Try to identify the clue in the following example"
Though some of her peers---the theoretical
approach she had taken, no one could find
fault with her conclusions: not only---but
also profound.
(A) disregarded...original
(B) applauded...seminal
(C) exhausted...penetrating
(D) criticized...insightful
(E) ridiculed...mundane
Let's start with the first blank. What word comes to mind after reading the
sentence? The clue is "no one could find fault with her conclusions."
Everybody liked her conclusions, but did everybody feel that way about her
theoretical approach? Nope. Let's repeat the clue in the blank. Some of
her peers found fault with her theoretical approach. Does (A)work? Not really.
They had problems with approach;they diddn't ignore it. (B)definitely doesn't
work, and (C)just doesn't make sense.What about (D)and (E)?They both couldbe
matches for found fault with, so leave the both in.
Let's look at the second blank now. Her conclusions were something
and profound. The clue for this blank is "profound."Well, for your own word,
let's just repeat thee clue again. Her conclusions were profound and
profound. Is it okey to do this?Sure. The word won't be profound exactly,
but it'll be something pretty close to it. You already eliminated (A),(B),and
(C),so let's move on to (D). Does insightful match profound?Yes--it could
work. What about (E)? Does mundane match profound? No--mundane means
boring. So the best answer is (D).
TRIGGERS
Besides the clue, there are other parts of the sentence that tell you what
should go in the blank. THese other parts of the sentence are what we call
triggers.
Triggers are, for the most part, small words. They're important, though,
because they usually give structure to the sentence: They either keep the
sentence going in the same direction, or they change the durection of the
sentence.
Let's take a look at two classic triggers:and and but.Fill in the blank for
each of the sentences below.
*I don't want to go to the party, and ____
*I don't want to go to thee party,but___
For the first sentence, you might have come up with something like:"I
don't want to go to the party, and you can't make me go." For the second
sentence, you might have had something aong the lines of "I don't want to
go to the party, but I'll go anyway."
Notice the function of and in the first sentence. It continues the flow of
the sentence. In contrast, but in the second sentence changes the flow--it
takes the sentence in the opposite direction.
Let's take a look at a question you've already seen to get an idea of how
triggers work.
The acttress, though portrayed by
the media as an arrogaant prima donna,
was,in fact, both charming and ---
(A)improvident
(B)gracious
(C)enthusiastic
(D)exceptional
(E)lithesome
First, let's stop and look for the clue. The most descriptive part of the
sentence is "portrayed by the media as an arrogant prima donna."Now let's look
for triggers. Do you see any?
There are not one, but two,triggers in this sentence. The first is the word
"though" and the second is the word"and". The "though" tells you te sentence
is going to change in direction. Therefore, what goies in the blank should be
the opposite of "an arrogant prima donna." What about the second trigger?
The "and" tells you the sentence is going to continue in the same direction.
So what goes in the blank should be similar to "charming".
MORE TRIGGERS
Not all sentences have triggers, but the majority do. The chart below shows
some of the most common triggers.
Same-Direction Triggers Changing-Direction Triggers
and but,yet
since though,although,even though
because however
so despite,in spite of
not only...but also rather,instead
thus whereas
therefore while
consequently notwithstanding
hence ironically
; however
:
Triggers aren't always words. Note that the last two triggers in the same-
direction column are punctuation marks.ETS loves to use the colon(:)and
semicolon(;), so always be on the watch for them. Take a look at an example:
Born of the blood of Uranus,the mythic Furies
are---creatures: they punish those who
have wronged blood relatives,regardless of
the perpetrators' motivations.
(A) vehement
(B) unforgiving
(C) gloomy
(D) quarrelsome
(E) caustic
The clue is evverything that comes after the colon;the trigger is the colon
itself. Therefore, you know that whatever goes in the blank should continue
the direction of "they punish those who have wronged their blood relatives,
regardless of the perpertrators' motivation."
given the clue and the trigger, a good word for the blank is vengeful. You
can elimiate (A)since vehement isn't a good match.(B) looks okey,but let's
go through the rest of the answer choices just to make sure. (C)definitely
isn't right, and neither is (D). (E)doesn't fiit since caustic means sarcastic,
so you're left with (B). It's te best answer.
TWO BLANKS
So foa the majority of sentence completions we've looked at have been
one-blank questions. However, not all sentence completions have only one
blank. Some have two.
For those of you who hate sentence completions, you should thank your
lucky stars that at least some have two blanks. Two-blank sentence completions
are often easier than one-blank sentence completions because two-blank
sentence completions tend to have more clues. After all,each blank in
a sentence completion has to have a clue.(It is possible, hhowever, for two
blanks to share a clue.)
The key to two-blank sentence completions is to focus on one blank at a
time. Two-blank questions are only hard when you try to do too much at
once__i.e.,try to work on both blanks at the same time. To make two -blank
questions easy, focus on one blank and then focus on the other.
Which blank should you do first? It doesn't matter. Whichever one is easier.
We will say,however, that you shouldn't always tackle the first blank first
blank first. The second blank can be easier at times because by the time you
get to the second blank, you've got more information about the sentence.
Let's try one:
Though the statement released by the press
secretayr was deliberately---in neutral
languagee, many people were----by its implications.
(A)framed...bemused
(B)discounted...enervated
(C)couched...perturbed
(D)phrased...nonplussed
(E)confounded...incensed
Let's start with the second blank. The clue for the second blank is "neutral
language" and the trigger is "Though." The statement had neutral language,
but how did people respond? Not in a positive way, so a good word for the
blank might be angry. (A) doesn't make sense if you know that bemused
means confused. (B) doesn't make sense either if you know that enervated
means weaakened. (C) might work since perturbed could match angry,but(D)
doesn'twork because nonplussed means perplexed. Incensed means very
angry, so (E) might owrk,too. You're left, then,with (C) and (E).
Now you can move on to the first blank. Remember, there's no need to
lood at (A),(B) and (D) because once one part of an answer choice is wrong,
the entire answer choice is wrong. A good word for the first blank is
expressed.(C) can still work,but (E) can't because confounded means baffled.
The best answer, then, is (C).
It's really important that, for every two-blank sentence completion, you
focus on one blank at a time. Dont' get confused by tying to do too much at
once.Once you figure out what should go in one blank, use POE right away.
If you know one word in an answer choice is wrong, you know the entire answer
choice is wrong. Don't even look at that anssswer choice when you
come around to look at what should go in the second blank.
ANALOGIES
We can divide analogies into two groups:
* Ananlgies where you know both of the stem words
* Analogies where you don't know one or both of the stem words
Let's start off with the first group: you know both of the stem words. if
you know both of the stem words, make a sentence.
Now, "make a sentence" may sound easy,but don't get too confident
yet. When we say "make a sentence,"we mean make a sentence that defines
one of the stem words in terms of the other. For example, let's think about
what might be a good sentence for this stem pair:
KENNEL: DOG ::
What do you think of this sentence:When I go on vacation, a KENNEL is
where I leave my DOG.
If you don't like this sentence, give yourself a pat on the back. This
sentence does use both stem words, which is good, but it doesn't define one
word in terms of the other, which is bad.
How about this sentence: a KENNEL is a house for a DOG.
Not bad,right? In fact, quite good. What's nice about this sentence is
that it's concise and to the point. You don't want to write a novel when you
make a sentence with a stem pair. Instead, "KISS".--"Keep It Short and Simple"
Let's try to make a snetence with another stem pair:
PEBBLE: BOULDER ::
If you thought of something like :A PEBBLE is a little BOULDER,"
you are on the rightt track. Again, this sentence is good because it's short
and simple. Now, you may be thinking,"But a PEBBLE isn't exactly a little
BOULDER." True. However, the point of an analogy is to convey the relationship
between the words. Does "lettle" get across the relationship
between PEBBLE and BOULDER? Yes.
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