Kaplan Grad Prep Blog http://blog.kaplangradprep.com Wed, 22 May 2013 18:30:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 GRE Reading Comp Logic: the Wrong Rabbit Hole http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2013/03/27/gre-reading-comp-logic-the-wrong-rabbit-hole/ http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2013/03/27/gre-reading-comp-logic-the-wrong-rabbit-hole/#comments Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:28:27 +0000 Boris Dvorkin http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/?p=1510 GRE Reasoning Verbal Down the wrong rabbit holeLast year, I wrote a series of entries about the critical reasoning problems that were recently added to the GRE. Since it’s been a while, let’s revisit that question type — and check out another aspect of critical thinking that confounds many of you.

Here’s a type of problem that’s caused no end of consternation to a lot of my students:

Residents of this state are obligated to renew their driver’s license in two circumstances only: if they accumulate six or more points in moving violations, or if they obtain citizenship in another country. Clarice, who is a citizen of only this country, has been involved in only one accident, which added three points to her license. Therefore, Clarice has no reason to renew her driver’s license at this time.

The argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?

I’m not going to show you the answer choices because the essence of this problem needs to be taken care of long before you ever look at a single choice. When I ask my students for the assumption, I invariably hear answers such as the following:

- “The author assumes that Clarice didn’t receive points from sources other than accidents.”

- “The author assumes that Clarice wasn’t already a citizen of some other place.”

- “The author assumes that Clarice didn’t do something else that would make her have to renew her license.”

All of these wrong answers fall for the same trap: thinking in the way that the test makers want you to think. The test makers say, “Hey! Look at these conditions. Clarice didn’t meet any of them. So, there’s no reason for her to renew her license.” And a lot people look at that line of reasoning and say, “Aha! I bet Clarice DID meet one of those conditions, in some sneaky way.” Then they start drumming up clever ways to force poor Clarice to retake her driver’s exam.

This is what I like to call going down the wrong rabbit hole. The test makers show you a rabbit hole, saying basically, “Hey, you! Think about THIS.” And so you think about whatever “this” is, and you think about it really hard, and the problem is that you shouldn’t have even started thinking along those lines in the first place.

Let’s back up a bit.

Consider this argument:

Boris isn’t obligated to exercise. Therefore, there is no reason for Boris to exercise.

Or how about this one:

There is no law mandating that Boris be kind to his mother. Therefore, he should be a jerk to her.

How do those arguments sound? Terrible, you say?! But why? If I’m not required to do something, doesn’t that mean I have no reason to do it?

Here, again, is the argument about Clarice, but condensed to the essentials:

Clarice isn’t required to renew her driver’s license. Therefore, she has no reason to renew her driver’s license.

It’s tricky to spot the error the first time someone throws you an argument like this, because renewing a driver’s license is boring and lame, so your brain fills in the gap in the argument: “The only reason anyone would ever renew their license was if they had to.” But that’s not necessarily true: that’s an assumption. Maybe Clarice gets a tax credit for renewing her license, or renewing the license will get some of her points taken away, or renewing the license provides some other benefit to something completely unrelated. We don’t know.

Remember this nugget of logical wisdom when you take the GRE: just because a person isn’t required to do something, doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t or they won’t!

]]> http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2013/03/27/gre-reading-comp-logic-the-wrong-rabbit-hole/feed/ 2 GRE Verbal: Use the Clues http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/12/21/gre-verbal-use-the-clues/ http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/12/21/gre-verbal-use-the-clues/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:00:18 +0000 Boris Dvorkin http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/?p=1347 GRE BlogThe #1 mistake you can make on GRE short verbal problems is looking at the choices too soon. When you solve a short verbal problem, whether it’s a text completion or a sentence equivalence, you should figure out what kind of word should go in the blank before you look at the choices.

Think of it this way: the test makers aren’t your friend. They’re not trying to help you out. So they’re not just going to write random wrong answer choices; they’re going to write wrong answers that will influence your thinking. Don’t fall in for that nonsense.

Here’s a relatively easy problem that turns ugly if you look at the choices too soon:

The Leonidas Achievement Award, though ostensibly prestigious, is held in low repute by some scholars who claim that favoritism runs rampant and that the judges are ______.

A) Partisan

B) Incompetent

C) Immoral

D) Stupid

E) Ugly. Like, really, really ugly.

Did you read the choices before solving the problem? You need to break that habit. Focus on the sentence: the judges are [blank], and the only clue you’ve got is that “favoritism runs rampant.” So, you need a word that indicates that the judges are not fair. Now look at the choices: even if you don’t know that partisan means “partial to a specific person,” you can confidently pick it because none of the other words mean “unfair.” Easy problem. Ba-da boom, ba-da done.

If you look at the choices first, though, the story is much uglier. You could argue that the role of a judge is to be impartial, so a judge who plays favorites is bad at her job (B, incompetent). You could argue that people trust judges to be objective, and a judge who betrays that trust is a bad person (C, immoral) or foolish for attaining such a noble responsibility and then shirking it (D, stupid). You could even argue that the judges are ugly, like really really ugly (on the inside).

In short, you could argue a lot of things. And as I wrote last year, any time you find yourself arguing with the GRE, you’re wrong. Look at it this way: either you’re wrong, or the person who literally makes a living writing the test — and can probably score double 170′s in her sleep — is wrong. Let your competition waste their time arguing with the GRE; you have an ego to put aside and points to score.

On the verbal section, that means you need to stop being creative and start using the clues the test makers give you. Don’t argue: use. The sentence says the judges were unfair. So the right answer has to mean “unfair.” Ba-da boom. Ba-da done.

]]> http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/12/21/gre-verbal-use-the-clues/feed/ 0 GRE Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning, Part III: The Perils of Jaywalking http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/09/27/gre-reading-comprehension-and-critical-reasoning-part-iii-the-perils-of-jaywalking/ http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/09/27/gre-reading-comprehension-and-critical-reasoning-part-iii-the-perils-of-jaywalking/#comments Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:10:48 +0000 Boris Dvorkin http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/?p=1195

In this entry and in this one, I discussed two patterns of reasoning that can help you unravel tough problems in GRE reading comprehension. Today our logical journey continues with a look at a classic GRE reasoning flaw of a more quantitative bent: confusing numbers with percentages.

Here’s a silly argument that showcases the flaw nicely:

Common wisdom holds that crossing the street at a corner is safer than jaywalking (that is, crossing in the middle). But annual statistics show that many more pedestrians are hit by cars while crossing at a corner than while jaywalking. Hence, our common intuition is wrong: pedestrians who jaywalk are actually safer than those who don’t.

Are you convinced? I sure hope not, because if so you’ve just dramatically decreased your life expectancy. This argument supports a claim about safety — which is a matter of percentages — with evidence that deals in pure numbers. That’s how the GRE makes such a goofy claim sound so good. The spuriousness (vocab word!) of this reasoning comes to light easily with the help of our old friend, picking numbers. Consider:

Number of corner-crossers: 100
Number of injured corner-crossers: 11

Number of jaywalkers: 10
Number of injured jaywalkers: 10

What’s more dangerous? Jaywalking, clearly — 100% of those people got rammed by cars! Yet the number of law-abiding street-crossers who got injured is greater, simply because there are many more of those people to begin with.

Note that not all GRE arguments use numbers and percentages incorrectly — some do it right. But whenever math comes up in a GRE verbal problem, look closely at the author’s logic to make sure its numeric and proportional crossovers aren’t ridiculous.

]]> http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/09/27/gre-reading-comprehension-and-critical-reasoning-part-iii-the-perils-of-jaywalking/feed/ 0 GRE Vocab-Rich Reading, Now with Movie Tie-Ins! http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/08/13/gre-vocab-rich-reading-now-with-movie-tie-ins/ http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/08/13/gre-vocab-rich-reading-now-with-movie-tie-ins/#comments Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:00:56 +0000 Alexandra Carbone http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/?p=1128 Summer’s not over yet, and we’re all grabbing up our last chances to sit poolside, page-turner in hand, passing a late summer afternoon reading whilst baking in the sun. Reading and summer go together like peanut butter and jelly, and conveniently enough, so do reading and GRE vocab-building.

You just have to choose books that will expand your GRE vocabulary, and there is certainly one for everyone. Below is a range of recommendations sure to keep you rapt. They all have movie adaptations too, so you can engage in that other favorite summer pastime when it just gets too hot outside. Be sure to listen for more GRE vocab in the movie.

Also, keep a notebook nearby to scribble down words you don’t know so you can look them up – although the great thing about reading is that the context will often define the word for you. Conveniently, that’s also how you are tested on vocab on the GRE – Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions require you to use context to choose the correct answers.

Pick up these books and see if you can define the meanings of the words listed. Let us know in the comments what books you are reading this summer, and what vocab words you’ve learned from them!

Life of Pi

by Yann Martel

Page-turning: 5

Vocab level: 4

Yes, but how is the movie?: ?

With a movie version coming out in November 2012, this book is sure to become even more well-known in the near future. An Indian boy is stranded on a boat with a tiger after losing his family in a shipwreck. Definitely suspenseful, and full of great GRE vocab words like:

  • disheveled
  • incredulous
  • deference
  • forestall

Sense and Sensibility

by Jane Austen

Page-turning: 4

Vocab level: 5

Yes, but how is the movie?: 5

Summer is a great time to revisit old favorites, and anything by Austen is going to have at least one great GRE vocab word per page. So get ready for some seriously elevated language, but the romantic plots keep good readers more than engaged. Also adapted into an *excellent* movie by Ang Lee, and starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet in the title roles.

  • affected
  • resolute
  • denote
  • prescience

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

Page turning: 5

Vocab level: 3

Yes, but how is the movie?: 5

Who knew the biggest summer blockbuster could also be a great place to go for new GRE words? You can hunt out zingers such as:

  • despondency
  • irreparable
  • assailant
  • haggard
  • plaintive

Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

by Helen Fielding

Page-turning: 5

Vocab level: 3

Yes but how’s the movie?: 4

A daft lass searches for love in mishap after mishap in these addictively hilarious novels. While her language is not always erudite, British Bridget does throw some fifty-centers your way, such as:

  •  tremulous
  • proportionate
  • impediment
  • idyllic

 

 

]]> http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/08/13/gre-vocab-rich-reading-now-with-movie-tie-ins/feed/ 0 GRE Vocabulary Study Tip: Word Groups http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/03/16/gre-vocabulary-study-tip-word-groups/ http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/03/16/gre-vocabulary-study-tip-word-groups/#comments Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:00:40 +0000 Jennifer Land http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/?p=791 The GRE tests your vocabulary in various ways. To correctly answer Sentence Equivalence and Text Completion questions, you have to know something about all of the words in the answer choices. Students often ask, “How can I increase my vocabulary before Test Day?”

The Kaplan answer to that is simple: Think like a thesaurus, not like a dictionary. Knowing detailed definitions for 100 words is not as useful as knowing approximate synonyms for 200-300. Kaplan offers an inexpensive app for learning vocabulary. Kaplan’s Verbal Workbook has a chapter devoted to vocabulary, and in it are several pages of word groups. For example, grouped under “Difficult to Understand” are 14 related words, including abstruse, cryptic, and enigmatic. If you learn this group you will recognize any of these words on Test Day.

There are different ways to practice learning word groups. I prefer a “reverse flash card” method, and I especially recommend it to my students who are not native English speakers.

  1. First, read the word group.
  2. Then, write the heading on one side of a card.
  3. Then, on the back of the card, write ONLY THE WORDS YOU RECOGNIZE from the list. As you learn the definitions of other words, add them to the card as well.

As an example, looking at words that mean “Antagonize” on page 260 of the Verbal Workbook, you would write Antagonize on the front of the card, then on the back write the words you recognize from this list:

ANTAGONIZE: To annoy or provoke to anger

CLASH
CONFLICT
INCITE
IRRITATE
OPPOSE
PESTER
PROVOKE
VEX

If you don’t know a word, look it up. Once you are comfortable with it, add it to your flash card. In the end you have a stack of cards with word groups you know, so you can flip through them at any time to reinforce vocabulary you have already built.

If you try this method and it works for you, please leave a comment below to let us know!

]]> http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/03/16/gre-vocabulary-study-tip-word-groups/feed/ 4 GRE Vocabulary: Let’s Go to the Movies! Part II http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/03/09/gre-vocabulary-lets-go-to-the-movies-part-ii/ http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/03/09/gre-vocabulary-lets-go-to-the-movies-part-ii/#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:00:09 +0000 Steve Simmons http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/?p=783 As we continue our study of GRE vocabulary by learning words via cinematic context, let’s further mine the abundant vocabulary vein found in the Coen Bros. films by examining O Brother, Where Art Thou.  Perhaps their most peculiarly-written dialogue (which is really saying something given their variety of off-kilter perspectives), O Brother, Where Art Thou is a period-piece comedy set in the rural South during the Great Depression and is based loosely on Homer’s Odyssey.

Although all of the characters are given the opportunity to voice obscure expressions and dialect-heavy lines, George Clooney’s role as Everett McGill is awarded the greatest privilege to riff rich remarks that contain a copious amount of exalted words and phrases.  In fact, viewers must wade carefully through the swirling debris of jargon so as to discern the distinction between actual words and those contrived by the writer’s use of dripping dialect.  To be frank, although I had seen the film several times prior to creating this blog post, my dictionary was getting heavy play in researching the particulars of the script versus the pronunciation of the words as heard in the movie:  Lots of “What did he say?”, “That’s not what he said”, and “Wow – that’s actually a recognized word!” could be heard coming from my media room that day.

Again, however much you might enjoy the movie, remember to use the film as yet another avenue of GRE vocabulary acquisition.  Now more than ever, the GRE is testing your ability to recognize the meanings of words as they are used in context.  Whether it is via framing questions asking you about the use of given highlighted words in the Reading Comprehension passages or via Sentence Equivalence questions that ask you to determine which choice of two different words would arrive at the same meaning within a given sentence, the GRE test-makers are all about context.

As directed in my last post, please watch the film and listen closely.  While I have given you the links to the words’ accepted definitions (in the order of appearance), nothing beats hearing them used by the characters in the film and, as the dialogue is fairly abstruse (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/abstruse), your attention is required – and will be rewarded!

metallurgic - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Metallurgic

fraught - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Fraught

Pregnant (alternate def.) - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pregnant

vouchsafe - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vouchsafe

impediment - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Impediment

coiffure - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Coiffure

transgression - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Transgression

imp - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/imp

bifurcated - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bifurcated

rancor - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rancor

ordnance - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ordnance

rusticate - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rusticate

peckish - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/peckish

gustation - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gustation

sentient - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sentient

cronyism - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cronyism

nepotism - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nepotism

admonish - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/admonish

paterfamilias - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/paterfamilias

progeny - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/progeny

succubus - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/succubus

precept - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/precept

constituency - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/constituency

trussed (as transitive verb) - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trussed

blandishments - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/blandishments

miscegenation - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/miscegenation

rectitude - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rectitude

miscreants - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/miscreants

venerated - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/venerated

remanded - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/remanded

refugium - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/refugium

repose - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/repose

foreordained - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/foreordained

Enjoy, and let me know how your GRE vocabulary has improved after taking on this fun AND productive study break!

]]> http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/03/09/gre-vocabulary-lets-go-to-the-movies-part-ii/feed/ 2 GRE Vocabulary: Let’s Go to the Movies! http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/02/06/gre-vocabulary-lets-go-to-the-movies/ http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/02/06/gre-vocabulary-lets-go-to-the-movies/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:20 +0000 Steve Simmons http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/?p=711 So you want to expand your vocabulary in preparation for the GRE Verbal section. You may have even done a few sessions of flash card review – that was fun, wasn’t it?

As I have asserted in a past blog entry, there are other, less-traditional but more “inspired” avenues to increase one’s GRE word awareness.  In my next few posts, I will help you throw back a few handfuls of lofty GRE words while providing you with an example of their context as found within the scripts of lauded movie-makers, The Coen Brothers.  As many of you are probably aware, The Coen Bros. delight in writing rich, eccentric dialogue; their movies seem to traffic in word choices that juxtapose with the characters that utter such vernacular – often resulting in good times for all!

The first film offering us just such an enjoyable word horde platform:  Raising Arizona

The comedy tells a tale of baby-theft as recounted by a semi-thoughtful jailbird (Nicholas Cage).  The dialogue is as ridiculous as it is heady and it contains, as promised, many words you might not expect to hear from these characters. Although I have given you a link to the accepted definition of these words that are well worth your acquisition, I fully expect you to watch the movie so that you may enjoy their cinematic context while taking in a hilarious film in the process. Learning words in context is one of the best ways to absorb new vocab for the GRE.

Yes, you will be tested on these – or at least words quite similar – on the GRE.  Just check ‘em off and look ‘em up as they come your way:

Camaraderie – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/camaraderie

Wiles – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wiles

Rambunctious – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rambunctious

Incarceration – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/incarceration

Latent – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/latent

Recidivism – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/recidivism

Premonish – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Premonish

Recognizance – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/recognizance

Domicile – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/domicile

Tarry – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tarry

Bipedal – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bipedal

The following words are used in the movie with alternate meanings and/or different parts of speech than the normally recognized definitions/speech part (The GRE is quite fond of using words in this manner):

Appointments (as furnishings) – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/appointments

Tender (transitive verb) – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Tender

Accessory (as used in law) – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/accessory

Posture (verb) – http://www.thefreedictionary.com/posture

Enjoy, and let me know how your GRE vocabulary has improved after taking on this fun AND productive study break!

]]> http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2012/02/06/gre-vocabulary-lets-go-to-the-movies/feed/ 2 Comprehending GRE Reading Comprehension http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2011/12/26/comprehending-gre-reading-comprehension/ http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2011/12/26/comprehending-gre-reading-comprehension/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 10:00:45 +0000 Boris Dvorkin http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/?p=596 One of the biggest bogeymen of the GRE is a shadowy entity I like to call “That Passage.” Students often tell me that they feel fine with reading comp generally, but they’re afraid that when they take the GRE, they’ll get That Passage — you know, one of those murky, dense, and just all-around incomprehensible ones.

My experience with countless students suggests that the fear of reading comprehension arises from a misunderstanding of what “comprehension” really is. Many seem to believe that comprehension is an understanding of things. Then, when GRE students read a passage full of things they don’t understand, they believe they don’t have a shot at understanding the passage.

Let’s do a quick test. What do you think of this sentence, which opens a famously difficult GRE passage:

“Ronald Dworkin argues that judges are in danger of uncritically embracing an erroneous theory known as legal positivism because they think that the only alternative is a theory that they (and Dworkin) see as clearly unacceptable—natural law.”

In my GRE classes, students almost unanimously agree that they’d rather do just about anything else than keep reading. Perhaps you agree. Interestingly, the sentence is actually quite simple. It just looks complicated because it throws out two unfamiliar terms — “natural law” and “legal positivism” — without defining them. Upon seeing unfamiliar words, students freeze up and fear that they’ve already lost the comprehension game.

Not so! Here’s the most valuable idea to take away from this essay: reading comprehension on the GRE isn’t the understanding of things. It’s the understanding of connections between things. What’s legal positivism? Who cares! The only thing that matters is that legal positivism is bad – which almost anyone can tell from the emphatic words “danger,” “uncritically,” and “erroneous.” Natural law must be terrible too, given that it’s “clearly unacceptable.” So all you really need to get out of the sentence is that two ideas are out there, and they both stink.

My favorite way to think of comprehension is to see it as a field of circles with connecting lines. In my mind there’s a “legal positivism” circle and a “bad” circle, and because those two ideas are connected, there’s a line between them. I’ve taught the Dworkin passage several dozen times, and I still don’t really know what’s inside the “legal positivism” circle. Lucky for me, I don’t have to — and neither do you. As long as you see the connecting lines between familiar and unfamiliar terms, you can understand any GRE passage well enough to score its points.

]]> http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2011/12/26/comprehending-gre-reading-comprehension/feed/ 0 Predicting the Passage in GRE Reading Comprehension http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2011/11/23/predicting-the-passage-in-gre-reading-comprehension/ http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2011/11/23/predicting-the-passage-in-gre-reading-comprehension/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:00:00 +0000 Boris Dvorkin http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/?p=566 Perhaps more than any other section of the GRE, reading comprehension is the subject of a lot of mysticism. People seem to think that reading is a “life skill,” and that if you haven’t mastered it by the time you take the GRE, you’re out of luck. Those who have the skill can read the most abstruse of passages and “just get them,” as though struck by divine bolts of understanding. Meanwhile, those less fortunate are doomed to wallow in perpetual ignorance and confusion.

All of this is nonsense. Reading comprehension is a skill, and like all skills, it is statistically impossible that every single person in the world will be equally good at it. The fact that some people are naturally better than others is not a surprise, but a mathematical certainty. Those who are good at reading comprehension aren’t good because heavenly inspiration keeps showering their brains; they’re good because they perform simple, concrete behaviors and notice simple, concrete patterns. Anyone who learns these behaviors and patterns will be just as good at reading comprehension.

In this post, I’d like to share with you the single most important behavior for success in reading comprehension, and offer an easy example to illustrate.

The behavior I’m talking about is prediction. Don’t you hate it when you reach the end of a paragraph and realize, dazedly, that you have no idea what you’ve just read? This happens because you’re reading first, then working backwards to comprehend what you’ve just read. That strategy works fine for Twilight and Harry Potter, but not for serious academic articles. You’ve got to do it backwards: try to understand first, and then read. Once you make a conscious effort to read this way, you’ll be surprised by the extent to which academic writers give away nearly everything they’re about to tell you.

Here’s an easy example. How often have you read passages whose opening lines contain one of these phrases?

 

Philosophers have long held that…

Traditionally, sociologists have argued that…

It has been commonly believed that…

 

Many people read over such a phrase with nary a second thought, which is a shame, because these phrases effectively spill all the author’s beans. What it does mean when the author kicks things off with a “traditional,” “long held,” or “commonly believed” point of view? It means the author will challenge it. If the author thought that the view were current and correct, she wouldn’t bother going out of her way to make sure you knew the view was “traditional” and held by somebody else. She’d just present the view as fact.

Readers who notice this simple pattern know what’s coming next. They’re less likely to be caught off guard and more likely to understand the author’s point. By contrast, readers who gloss over this big clue won’t know what to look for, and will therefore be more likely to miss it.

]]> http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2011/11/23/predicting-the-passage-in-gre-reading-comprehension/feed/ 0 Acquiring New Vocabulary the Old-Fashioned Way – By Reading! http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2011/10/10/acquiring-new-vocabulary-the-old-fashioned-way-by-reading/ http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/2011/10/10/acquiring-new-vocabulary-the-old-fashioned-way-by-reading/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:00:03 +0000 Steve Simmons http://blog.kaplangradprep.com/?p=530 So, you are preparing yourself for the GRE and you need to add some egghead words to your prodigiousand more commonly utilized line-up of text-speak, pop culture jargon, and  4-letter expletives (hey, studying for the GRE can be stressful!) Certainly, you are aware that there are tools for such a task to be found on many websites – Kaplan, of course, includes in our course offerings many effective means to increase and enrich your vocabulary.

Additionally, reading novels and certain newspapers and magazines (the ones that don’t cater to a fifth-grade reading level – all apologies to USA Today and People magazine, which are just fine for their purpose of informing and entertaining) will aid you in realizing heretofore unexplored words. However, perhaps even better fodder for the acquisition of headier, grad-level words can be found by examining trade journals and works of non-fiction. Try delving into the dense prose that can readily be found in such word hordes as The Wall Street Journal or Architectural Digest.  Not into mergers and acquisitions?  Is the study of buttresses not to your liking?  Indeed, if you search with the slightest zest, you can locate a vocabulary-invigorating periodical that may actually speak to your own interests.

Moreover, since the New GRE Verbal section is known to traffic in questions concerning the logical analysis of arguments, your reading and appraising such content in political or economic publications, for instance, can’t help but serve you synchronous benefits.

Acquiring a rich and test-ready vocabulary via contextual clues found within the writing of an intelligent author rather than simply studying the dry drudgery of flashcards or daily list o’ words repetition is much more intuitive, organic, and heaven forbid, fun!

After all, The New GRE now limits its assessment of your word knowledge to sentence equivalence, text completions and words-in-context of reading comp passages.  Since the GRE has retired its tired format of testing words in a vacuum (antonyms and analogies), why not learn them in a similar manner to that in which they are tested?

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