{"id":9197,"date":"2016-07-12T21:39:11","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T21:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/?p=9197"},"modified":"2019-08-30T16:39:08","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:39:08","slug":"why-isnt-my-vocabulary-knowledge-helping-me-on-the-gre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/why-isnt-my-vocabulary-knowledge-helping-me-on-the-gre\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Isn’t My Vocabulary Knowledge Helping Me on the GRE?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ManhattanDid 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>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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You’re up to your ears in flashcards. You know the meanings of ‘nostrum’, ‘pelf’, and ‘maculated’. Maybe you’ve even used the spaced retrieval technique; here’s a piece that I wrote on this technique<\/a>, and here’s another<\/a> from my colleague, C\u00e9ilidh Erickson. But when you take practice tests, your hard work with vocabulary doesn’t seem to be paying off. Why are you still missing GRE Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence problems? \u00a0<\/strong>There are plenty of SEq and TC problems that you can solve with minimal vocabulary. There aren’t<\/em> any that you can solve without careful reading. If you don’t get the right read on the sentence initially — if you make a wrong judgment on what sort<\/em> of word belongs in the blank — no amount of vocabulary know-how will help you. Here’s one example from the 5lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The music of the late ’70s is often described as _____________, despite the notable exception of a few innovators in the budding punk and hip-hop scenes.<\/em><\/p>\n