The #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.

Recently a reader asked me to post about strategies for long Reading Comprehension passages and Bolded Statement questions. (Mohamed also asked about vocab strategies, which I will discuss soon. Be sure to see previous vocabulary-related posts from my Kaplan colleagues.)

The Kaplan New GRE Verbal Workbook includes a chapter devoted to Reading Comprehension, as well as sets of practice questions and additional resources. One of these resources is a list of additional tips for tackling the Reading Comprehension section, including Bolded Statements questions. These tips are found on pages 78-80, and I’m going to borrow from them here.

There are differences between real-world reading and reading GRE passages is that on the GRE:

• On Test Day, you don’t care about the facts in the passage — you only care about ideas. A passage might tell you that the character Superman first appeared in 1938. You don’t care what year Superman was introduced, but you care about WHY the author told you that. The passage may then go on to describe how the powers attributed to Superman have changed over time. In that case, knowing that Superman has been around for 70+ years might be important.
• Prior knowledge is not welcome on Test Day. Forget everything you might know about Superman — everything  you need to know will be contained within the passage. Wrong answer choices play on things that test-takers understand to be logically true, but if those facts aren’t mentioned in the passage, you don’t care.
• If a passage tells you Superman has a twin sister, then as far as you are concerned, he has a twin sister. The passage text is TRUE. Period. You may question texts as much as you like in real-world reading, but on the GRE, accept that whatever the passage is telling you is correct.

Bolded Statement questions should be tackled the same way as other Reading Comprehension question types. In these questions, you REALLY don’t care about the facts or details. You ONLY care about the purpose of the statements, and you consider each statement separately. Is it an opinion? An example? An argument? If it is an argument, is it the passage’s primary or secondary argument, or perhaps a counterargument? Is it evidence, and if so, of what? You care about the purpose of each statement in relation to the other sentences in the passage.

Let me repeat that. Just as with other question types, you must consider Bolded Statements in the context of the passage as a whole. Do not skip the un-bold statements; they are your context clues for figuring out the role the Bolded Statements play.

Have a question about grammar, punctuation, usage, or style? Email me at jennifer.land@kaplan.com and put “blog question” in your subject line. Then look for a response here!

My student “Becky” took the GRE last Thursday and reeled in a 640-740 on the verbal section. Dipping well into the 90th percentile, this performance puts her in good standing for the elite English lit programs she has her eyes on. Needless to say, Becky was very excited and her email to me overflowed with capital letters and long strings of exclamation marks.

But I’m not writing this to pat myself on the back or share yet another Kaplan success story. The most interesting feature of Becky’s email is that she didn’t even bother to mention her math score.

This isn’t because she did poorly, or because we didn’t work on the math section. As a matter of fact, Becky told me at our first tutoring session that she wanted to spend all 15 of her tutoring hours on math. She was an English major, so her confidence with the verbal section — and complementary fear of the math section — was hardly surprising. Well, we did spend the first session doing math, since that was what she wanted. I was skeptical, however, that English literature programs were all that interested in her math score.

“Do you know where you’re applying?” I asked her. She rattled off a list. “And have you contacted them to see what they want on the GRE?” Becky, it turned out, had no idea.

I smiled. “Great! That’s your first homework assignment,” I said. “Contact the programs you’re interested in and find out what they want on the math and verbal sections.” Becky did her homework that week, and that was how she discovered that none of her programs cared a rat’s butt about her math score. She also learned that what they did want was an extremely high verbal score — much higher than what she had scored on the diagnostic, even as an English major.

We proceeded to spend the entire remainder her tutoring package working on verbal.

Had we beaten down the math section as Becky initially wanted, the results would have been very hilarious but also very tragic. Since everyone takes the GRE, from French historians to theoretical physicists, there is no universal concept of a “good” performance — “good” varies drastically from program to program.

So now I ask you: have you contacted the schools you’re interested in? Do you know what they actually want you to get on the GRE?

If not, that’s your first homework assignment.

Knowing the correct words and constructions is key to writing successful GRE essays, as well as statements of purpose, cover letters, and any academic and professional communications you will put forth in the future. So let’s brush up on grammar and style.

Recently a reader asked me to explain the appropriate uses of two relative pronouns: in which and when.  (I am adding where to the mix, as well, because it has some of the same issues as when.)

A relative pronoun is one that introduces a subordinate clause.  As with all pronouns, the relationship to the antecedent must be clear. This isn’t usually a problem; the tricky thing about these relatives is determining appropriateness.

The basic rule of thumb for written English is that you should NOT use when or where unless you are referring to a time or a place, respectively. Consider the following fragments:

• The shop where we ordered the invitations…
• The season when trees are bare…
• The episode in which Peter was cast as Benedict Arnold…

Because an episode of a television series is neither a place nor a time, it is not appropriate to use where or when. An episode is a setting in which something is portrayed. Other examples are as follows:

• Situations in which one party is at fault…
• Opportunities for which one is improperly dressed…
• Books in which there is an unnamed narrator…
• Theaters where Macbeth is performed… [in which would be OK here as well]
• Evenings when Macbeth is performed… [on which or during which could be OK here]

Sometimes either construction would work. In the Macbeth examples above, where or when are appropriate because they refer to a specific location or time; using a preposition with which would work, too, but most writers prefer the simple, concise where or when whenever permissible.

Keep in mind that the rules are not as stringent for informal spoken English. Peppering your conversations with “in which” would probably sound strange to your friends. The creators of the television series Friends noted this, and they named the episodes the way viewers would casually describe them: “The One Where They’re Going to a Party.”

Unless you are naming something as creative and hugely popular as episodes of Friends, stick to the formal and appropriate constructions when writing. GRE essay graders don’t award points for humor or creativity, but they do reward correct usage. Graduate and professional programs do, too!

Have a question about grammar, punctuation, usage, or style? Email me at jennifer.land@kaplan.com and put “blog question” in your subject line. Then look for a response here!

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?