Mnever Enough Mnemonics
Anyone who’s taken my GRE class can tell you that I’m not a vocab girl. I never took Latin, I pretty much don’t know any roots, and I’m terrible at learning foreign languages. So how did I get a perfect score on the GRE? For vocab, the biggest skill for me is mnemonic devices.
All for the game
I think it’s great that some teachers want to use the GRE as a way to inspire a love of learning in students. You’ll use this vocab all your life! You’ll sound so smart! Start reading the Economist every day! I just really? You’re an adult. You have infinite things you could learn about, and infinite resources to learn about them, and finite time to do it in. If you were passionate about vocab and wanted to learn more of it, you already would be! And who is really ever going to care if you can use puerile or penumbra in a sentence?
For me, studying for the GRE is all about the game, and the game here is getting GRE points. That’s it. I don’t need to know this word for life. I need to know it to get it right on the exam. And I like that mindset, because I feel like it presents me with a defined challenge that I can win. And I like to win.
Making Mnemonics
I’ve posted before about different ways to learn vocab words, and the Manhattan GRE materials present you with a lot of alternatives as well. I think making mnemonic devices, or little tricks to help you remember the words, can be a huge help if it’s done right.
You have to make sure that the mnemonic is easy to remember and that it alone tells you the meaning of the word. It’s good if it sounds like something you already know, uses an expression you already know, plays off the sounds of the words it uses, and/or clarifies an important distinction in meaning about the word.
Twenty Examples
To get you started, here are 20 mnemonics I used to remember GRE vocab words. I’ve put the words that I emphasize when saying these sentences in my head in bold.
(1) Lassitude “ tiredness or lazy indifference. Working in the Bahamas is almost impossible. The heat at this latitude inspires nothing but lassitude.
(2) Proscribe “ prohibit; banish; exile. During your pregnancy, I prescribe rest and proscribe alcohol.
(3) Sedulous “ diligent and persistent. The people who were most persistent always said less and did more.
(4) Adumbrate “ roughly outline; foreshadow; obscure. One sharp witness gave us a sharp, clear picture, but a dumb brute only gave us an adumbration of the scene.
(5) Encomium “ warm praise; formal praise. Bathed in encomium from her bosses, the new attorney was in a coma of happiness.
(6) Distaff “ female; women’s work; a staff that holds wool for spinning. Some of my distaff relatives did staff the president even when that kind of job was almost unheard of for women!
(7) Delimit “ define or mark the boundaries of. I need you to delineate the limits of this property; once you delimit it, we can start mowing.
(8) Cosset “ treat as a pet. pamper. Cosette in Les Miserables has a silly name, because her family doesn’t cosset her at all, instead making her sweep the floors and go hungry.
(9) Canard “ false rumor. I can ˜ardly believe this rumor; what a canard!
(10) August “ majestic; admirable. Harvard is an august institution, and when the freshman first arrive in August, they really feel its majestic nature and are proud of its esteem.
(11) Arrogate “ claim without right or permission. That arrogant man arrogated this land as his own!
(12) Assiduous “ persevering; diligent; constant. Like a stubborn ass, that assiduous donkey keeps climbing slowly even though he’s obviously exhausted.
(13) Pith “core; essence; significance. Arguments, like fruit, have both pith and pit: the meat of the matter, and the wasted words.
(14) Enervate “ weaken. You think it means ˜to make you strong’, but ˜enervate’ always steers you wrong. It means to wear your nerves down so, you’re weak and tired and very slow.
(15) Divest “ deprive of a rank or title; sell off holdings. I want to divest you of the idea that an investment in whole life insurance is a good idea; make a divestment before you take a dive.
(16) Craven “ very cowardly. lacking courage. Master Craven in The Secret Garden is indeed craven; he can’t even face his own sick child.
and the last four, which help me not only to remember the word, but to avoid thinking that it’s definition is tied to the way it is most conventionally used.
(17) Chauvinism “ fanatical patriotism or blind enthusiasm for the military; undue bias toward a particular group. Her female chauvinism was too much to bear where she suggested that only women were smart enough to go to school with no evidence to back up her claims.
(18) Condone “ overlook; tolerate; regard as harmless. The governor did not support the protest, but he condoned it, refusing to send police to disperse the protestors.
(19) Arcane “ known or understood by only a few; obscure; secret. This new research is full of so many arcane details on the arcs of walking canes that almost no one could understand it.
(20) Ambivalent “ uncertain or unable to decide. He cared which medicine he took, but he was ambivalent between Ambien and Lunesta. (And of course, to amble also means to walk around.)
Coming up with and using sentences such as these is a great way to help move your vocab study in the right direction!