Part of the grad school application process includes taking the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), the scores of which schools use to identify your academic aptitude for Masters and Doctoral programs. Similar to the SAT's, the GRE tests verbal and math skills, as well as analytical writing ability. Suffice to say, it behooves the applicant (that would be me) to prepare for this exam in some capacity; I chose the self-study method utilizing 2 different GRE Test Prep books and 1 book geared just toward math. I have less than 1 month to prepare so this weekend I got crackin'.
I invite you to study along with me.
One style of question in the verbal section requires you to choose the antonym of a word from a list of four additional words. Should you not know even the initial word, the books suggest the following: "Consider Secondary Meanings of the Capitalized Word as well as its Primary Meeting"
One example is as follows:
Choose the antonym for IMPRECISE:
A) direct
B) resolute
C) voluminous
D) nice
E) perceptible
This is where you get to play along. Which letter would you choose to be the best possible antonym for the word IMPRECISE?
You have 1 minute.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Ready? Ok. Warning: According to the book few examinees tested on this question would it answer it correctly so let's break this down. IMPRECISE means inexact, approximate, vague. Thus, its antonym means exact & precise. If you are like me, you may have chosen A) direct. If so, then like me, you would be WRONG
Um.......What the......?!?
Shall we take bets now on what I score? I promise I won't be offended if you guess only 400 out of 800.
Monday, September 10, 2007
"Consider Secondary Meanings"
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6 comments:
Are you sure that book you are using is right? That sounds like a load of garbage to me!
SERIOUSLY. It's the Barron's book, which claims to be "Students #1 Choice!" and "The Leader in Test Preparation!" There were no Kaplan or Princeton Review book options at Borders when I went and I didn't want to wait any longer to order them online. That question, though, (or rather, the answer) is asinine.
I did, of course, have to look up that definition of nice and unfortunately dictionary.com confirms this secondary meaning:
nice /naɪs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[nahys] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective, nic·er, nic·est.
1.pleasing; agreeable; delightful: a nice visit.
2.amiably pleasant; kind: They are always nice to strangers.
3.characterized by, showing, or requiring great accuracy, precision, skill, tact, care, or delicacy: nice workmanship; a nice shot; a nice handling of a crisis.
4.showing or indicating very small differences; minutely accurate, as instruments: a job that requires nice measurements.
5.minute, fine, or subtle: a nice distinction.
6.having or showing delicate, accurate perception: a nice sense of color.
But still...could they have chosen a more random secondary meaning?!
I got it wrong too....I'm SO glad you are doing this and not me. hug.
PS my soap was lavender oatmeal. :)
Kelly... I passed with a pretty good score a few years back... I actually got a better score on the math than verbal... I would highly reccomend making sure you know how to do all the old math stuff... AND certainly studying the vocab like you would for sat's ... however... I'm sure you'll do well on verbal... with a little studying... you've got a love for vocab...
keep up the hard work!
hey one more thought... I think I recall a GRE site... where you can take practice tests... they were really helpful for me...
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