{"id":9038,"date":"2016-05-25T18:51:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T18:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/?p=9038"},"modified":"2019-08-30T16:39:12","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:39:12","slug":"hack-the-gre-vocab-use-spaced-repetition-to-get-maximum-results-with-minimum-time-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/hack-the-gre-vocab-use-spaced-repetition-to-get-maximum-results-with-minimum-time-investment\/","title":{"rendered":"Hack GRE Vocab: Use Spaced Repetition to Get Maximum Results with Minimum Time Investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Manhattan<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE\u00a0courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Your time is a limited commodity. Studying GRE vocab can be tedious and time-consuming, and worst of all\u2026inefficient.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re like most students, you flip through flashcards (either pre-made or hand-made) and quickly try to remember what was on the back. After a few dozen repetitions over a few weeks you probably remember many of them. But\u2026you don\u2019t retain that information for long, and you might not recognize the words when used in a slightly different context.<\/p>\n

Vocabulary is a significant component of GRE Verbal, but it\u2019s not actually something that you should invest a significant portion of your time into studying! That\u2019s because there\u2019s no way to determine which words you\u2019ll see on test day\u2014you might see a dozen of the words you studied, or you might not see any at all.<\/p>\n

So, you want to learn as many GRE vocab words as you reasonably can between now and test day with the minimum time spent studying!<\/p>\n

The Power of Forgetting<\/strong><\/h4>\n

It\u2019s a waste of time to study the same GRE vocab word every single day. That word will still be there in your short-term memory from the day before, but you can\u2019t be sure that you\u2019ve actually converted it into a long-term memory.<\/p>\n

Letting yourself almost<\/em> forget something before you recall it\u2014the \u201cit\u2019s on the tip of my tongue!\u201d feeling\u2014actually strengthens<\/em> neural connections. As Gabriel Wyner, author of Fluent<\/em> Forever<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>explains:<\/p>\n

Memory tests are most effective when they\u2019re challenging. The closer you get to forgetting a word, the more ingrained it will become when you finally remember it.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, don\u2019t study that same GRE vocab word every day. You want to space out<\/strong> how often you see it to maximize your ability to ultimately remember it.<\/p>\n

Without any review, we forget most of what we learn:<\/p>\n

\"Manhattan<\/p>\n

But if we review at spaced intervals\u2014just <\/em>before we would have forgotten\u2014we change that curve completely:<\/p>\n

\"Manhattan<\/p>\n

How to Space Out Your Studying<\/strong><\/h4>\n

First, get organized. Create a set of 5 index card boxes (or piles, or folders, or whatever works for you).<\/p>\n

\"Manhattan<\/p>\n

Directions:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. Make a memorable flashcard, then place it in Deck 1.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Quiz yourself on Deck 1 words every day.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. If you get a word right, move it to Deck 2.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. When you quiz yourself on Deck 2, any that you get right move to Deck 3.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. Any that you get wrong\u2014from any deck\u2014you move back to Deck 1.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
              \n
            1. If you\u2019ve moved a card back to Deck 1 more than once, you have to improve your definition: Add a new personalized sentence, rhyme, picture, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                \n
              1. Once you get a word right in Deck 5, you\u2019ll (ideally) remember it forever!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                Create a Study Calendar<\/strong><\/h4>\n

                You\u2019ll need to stay organized to know which GRE Vocab decks to study on which days. Here is an example:<\/p>\n

                \"Manhattan<\/p>\n

                Can I Do This Online?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

                Yes! If you\u2019re too tech-savvy for the pen-and-paper method, there are websites & apps with algorithms that create this same spacing effect. Here are some free ones that I recommend:<\/p>\n

                Anki<\/a><\/p>\n

                Mnemosyne<\/a><\/p>\n

                The principles will be the same whether you use an app or make your own physical study toolbox.<\/p>\n

                How This Helps<\/strong><\/h4>\n

                Okay, yes. It takes extra time to organize all of this, and to keep track of what you\u2019re reviewing when. But after that initial investment of a little bit of extra time, you\u2019ll save yourself a lot of time in the long run. After you\u2019ve reviewed a card 5 times (or maybe a few extras if you have to return it to Deck 1), you\u2019ll know it forever! Rote memorization, on the other hand, usually takes twice as many repetitions.<\/p>\n

                More importantly, though, spacing out your study is more effective at convert short-term memories into long-term memories. This will do more to ensure that you actually remember the GRE vocab words on test day.<\/p>\n

                And bonus\u2014you just might retain an impressive vocabulary for the rest of your life!\u00a0?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

                \n

                Want more guidance from our GRE gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE\u00a0courses absolutely free! We\u2019re not kidding.\u00a0Check out our upcoming courses here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

                \n

                \"ceilidh-erickson-Manhattan-Prep-GMAT-Instructor\"<\/a>C\u00e9ilidh Erickson<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based on New York City.<\/strong>\u00a0When she tells people that her name is\u00a0pronounced \u201ckay-lee,\u201d she often gets puzzled looks.\u00a0C\u00e9ilidh is a graduate of Princeton University, where she majored in comparative literature. After graduation, tutoring was always the job that bought her the greatest joy and challenge, so she decided to make it her full-time job. Check out C\u00e9ilidh\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses<\/a>\u00a0(she scored a 760, so you\u2019re in great hands).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE\u00a0courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. Your time is a limited commodity. Studying GRE vocab can be tedious and time-consuming, and worst of all\u2026inefficient.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,474284,921840,6,7,449765,449766,733445,12,13],"tags":[192,449777],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenge-problems","category-current-studiers","category-gre-prep-2","category-gre-strategies","category-how-to-study","category-learning-science","category-spaced-repetition","category-study-tips-2","category-verbal","category-vocabulary","tag-gre-vocabulary","tag-memorization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9038"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10925,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9038\/revisions\/10925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9038"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}