Verbal Hard Reset

GRE General
1

Hey everyone, hope you’re doing well.

I’m doing a hard reset on my verbal prep and focusing on isolation practice for all the verbal strategies in TC, SE, and RC. I wanted your advice on a few things:

  1. I understand that this isolation practice should be done untimed, but what should I do if I come across a word I don’t know in a sentence or passage? Should I Google the meaning, or try solving it without fully understanding the exact meaning?
  2. For TC, if I encounter support/contrast words I’m not familiar with, should I pause and check if they’re support or contrast from Greg’s Google Sheet before moving on, or should I just guess and continue?
  3. In RC function questions (e.g., primary purpose or sentence function), if there are certain function words (like qualify, assert, analyze) I don’t know, should I stop and check their meanings from Greg’s Google Sheet, or continue with the question?
  4. Is it a problem if I find myself going back to Greg’s Google Sheet often while doing isolation practice? Or is it fine as long as I’m improving?

Thanks for your help!

2

When you are building up your skills in this way, the most important thing is for you to have a full understanding of the sentence/passage you are working through.

So, I would definitely encourage you to refer to a dictionary or the support/contrast list when needed.

That said, make sure that when you look something up, you incorporate it as a learning opportunity.

This can look like:

  • Keeping a log of new words, their definitions, and the exact sentences they appeared in.
  • For each new support/contrast word you look up, make a flashcard with the word on one side, and whether it’s a support/contrast along with a short sentence you made up.
  • After looking up an unknown word, rewrite the original sentence in your own words, keeping the same meaning.

Throughout this, you should also set aside the occasional study session where you’re not allowed to look things up, since we want to prevent an over reliance/expectation on this. Over time, increase the ratio of “no referencing allowed” sessions until you can reliably make it through sessions without needing that crutch.

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