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taranminator · 09 May 2005

i want to ask what is the right time for starting the preparation of GRE and put some more light on GATE what are the intial requirements to give it.

nmadnani · 14 Feb 2005

taranminator wrote:

i want to ask what is the right time for starting the preparation of GRE and put some more light on GATE what are the intial requirements to give it.

I started actual preparation for GRE around the 5th Semester and took it in the 6th semester. Can't help you with GATE since I did not take it.

Let me know if you have any other questions. All the best.

Nitin

jaskirat · 11 Feb 2005

GRE Give it 1 month but then the whole month u have to be playing ,eating ,sleeping words n only words
Just do the Barron list n give a lot of tests that way u can revise the list n jot down any new words u find

GATE It depends in which stream U are. Being in Aero my syllabus was the maths FM SM ETD studied in the first year so it didnt require much time but for branches like civil mechanical electronics etc the course is vast so u require a lot of preparation.

nmadnani · 14 Feb 2005

jaskirat wrote:

GRE Give it 1 month but then the whole month u have to be playing ,eating ,sleeping words n only words
Just do the Barron list n give a lot of tests that way u can revise the list n jot down any new words u find
.

I am not really sure I agree with this approach. Instead of cramming words out of a list (which you are more likely to forget), I would recommend that you take a more applied approach - Try and read as much as you can and then lookup all the hard words that you encounter and then at the end of each day, try to write a paragraph that tries to use all the words that you have learned that day. Believe me, actual usage of the words tends to reinforce the meaning much more strongly than just trying to remember them. And start doing this as soon as possible. If you do this for a sufficient period of time, you will start understanding more and more words.

Another thing I would recommend is to learn about the etymology of the word itself. How is it formed - what are the roots of the word and what do they mean? Norman Lewis' book is a great starting point for this activity. Let me give you an example, say you learn the word "euthanasia" - if you learn the roots properly, you will learn that:

1) "eu" is a greek root meaning "good"
2) "thanasia" is derived from the greek "thanatos" who was the God of death.

Therefore, the whole word means "good death" which makes intuitive sense. Now, say you come across the word "thanatology" - since you already know what "thanatos" means you will know, without any help, that this refers to the science of study of death.

If you don't have much time left before you have to take the GRE, make flash cards out of all the difficult words (that you encounter anywhere, not just the Barron's list) and then review them all day and then try and see if you can remember the usage and meaning in the evening by using them in sentences.

I know that this strategy helped me much more than any cramming could ever have. To each his own, I guess.

All the best !