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!

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!

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.

Earlier this month, a student asked me about dashes. “What about dashes? Are they too informal for use in a GRE essay?”

So I turned to my grammar and style bible, the flagged and bookmarked 1974 edition of Words Into Type, and looked up the appropriate use of the em dash. (That’s the proper name for the dash–like  this, with or without spaces–that we use to express an interruption of thought within a sentence. They are different from the smaller en dash and hyphen, which are always used to join words.)

Dashes can’t really be classified as formal or informal, but they can be classified as correct or incorrect.  There is a relatively short list of appropriate ways to use an em dash:

• To set off an appositive where a comma might be misread. The book, which is actually a collection of short stories–The Gift of the Magi, The Ransom of Red Chief, and The Last Leaf–was a gift from the author. The dashes keep the list separate from the appositional phrase. (For those who have forgotten, an appositive is a noun or phrase that renames another noun or phrase.)
• To set off a parenthetical expression that includes commas. My example for the appositive above fits here, too, as does this non-appositional example: George Washington–leader, fighter, sage–had no children of his own. Or, Although the group members were active–easily agitated, ready to fight, but nonetheless reliable–their services were not needed.
• To split a quotation. “You can’t be serious”–her voice began to rise–”That isn’t true, and you know it.”
• To indicate an unfinished thought or sentence. “How can we–” he began to ask, before changing his mind.

Fortunately for all of us, these situations seldom arise on the GRE. You don’t want to have any unfinished thoughts or broken, dramatic quotations in your essays. The appositional or parenthetical phrases may pop into your writing from time to time, but usually you can restructure the sentence to avoid having to bring in punctuation you are unsure of–unless you just really want those dashes.

(Last point, exemplified by that last statement: Em dashes always appear in pairs when used to set off phrases UNLESS the phrase concludes with a period. Either another dash or a period must follow the initial dash in these cases.)

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!

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.

A few weeks ago [SEPT 14] I blogged about the usefulness of knowing word roots.  I’m sure I will write more about them in the future as well — understanding where words come from helps you to understand what they might mean (and what other words they are related to). Today I’m going to talk about the prefixes we add to those roots.

Many words have commonly used cousins with very different meanings. For example, disinterested doesn’t mean uninterested, much like accept does not mean except. The differences between such pairs of words are found in their prefixes.

• ANTE- (This means before or preceding. It does NOT mean against; that’s anti-. )
• DIS- or DE- (Apart from ; removed or reversed from)
• IN-, IM- or UN- (Not)
• IN- or IM- (In or into)
• EX-, EXTRA- (Outside of, beyond, and sometimes former. Extraordinary means, literally, “beyond the ordinary.”)

The last one for today requires its own paragraph: A- (adopt, asymptomatic). When attached to most adjectives, a- means “without” or “not”; someone who is amoral is without morals. But what about afoot or ashore? Those don’t mean “without foot” or “without shore,” respectively. The prefix here means “on.” The verb aver means “to state as true.” Here a- is what makes the word a verb.

Words with these prefixes are commonly used on the GRE. As you know, sometimes the same letters tacked onto two different roots can have vastly different meanings. Think improbable versus immigrate, or inactive versus innate.

To learn the differences between them, make yourself some flashcards with related words that share the same prefix, and group them by meaning. Come up with a system that works for you. You may want to note the words that look like they might have the same meaning but don’t, like disinterested and uninterested, and note WHY they don’t mean the same thing.

Here are some to get you started:

antechamber, antebellum
antithetical, antibiotic
aplenty, afoot, aground
atypical, asexual, asymmetrical
avow, abut, aver
decamp, deplane
discord, disconnect, disavow, dissimilar, disinterested
exculpate, extraterrestrial
indeterminate, imperturbable,  unadulterated, uninterested
innate, imbue, inflame

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!