The verbal section is one of the toughest sections to handle, because it's based on whether you know the definitions of words or not. But there are little tricks that can help you out. First and foremost, practice these questions over and over. You can get your hands on practice GREs at bookstores, so buy the book and practice. Sometimes the same words (or variants of them) pop up on multiple tests. Study vocabulary words that commonly appear on the GRE. Many preparation booklets have lists of these words.
For the analogies: The most important thing to do with analogy questions is to turn the relationship between the two words into a sentence. Write that sentence down on your scratch paper so you don't forget it. Some of the most common relationships to look for are: part to whole, cause to effect, person to occupation, word to definition, and synonyms.
For the Antonyms: Antonyms can be tough because you have no context to work from; either you know the word or you don't. If you get a word you don't know, first try to pick the word apart. If part of the word looks familiar (for instance, it starts with "bio"), then use that information to try to guess at an answer ("bio" means "life," so the right answer will have something to do with "lack of life"). Second, try to get a sense of the mood of the word. Even if you don't know what the word means, you can often tell if it's "good" or "bad." So if you have a gut feeling that the word, whatever it means, is a "good" thing, then it's opposite should sound "bad."
For the sentence completions: Before you look at the possible answers, try to fill in the sentence with your own word. It'll make it easier to go through the answers. Use the context of the sentence. If the sentence implies that you're looking for a "good" word, then your answer should be a "good" word. The context can tell you tons about the sentence. For instance, you should look for buzzwords like "nevertheless," "although," and "moreover," which can give you clues. If the sentence has two blanks, then make sure that both words fit well.
For the reading comprehension: Read the passage as carefully as you can, no matter how boring it is. They make it boring on purpose, to get you off your rhythm. Read all of the choices before you pick an answer. The best way to prepare for the reading comprehension section is pure practice.
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Comments
amius47 said
on 10/11/2009 Another site for free GRE practice exams is catprep.com