This post was written by Chris Lele, GRE expert at Magoosh GRE Prep.

I know, I know… I always preach the importance of learning vocabulary slowly and in-context, so the usage of a word really seeps into your brain. But sometimes, you just don’t have the time, and you need to cram as many GRE vocabulary words as you can in a limited amount of time. Maybe you only found out that the application deadline was sooner then you expected. Maybe you had intended to study vocab all these months, but…eh, you never got around to it. Or maybe you just figured vocab wasn’t that important on the GRE Think again! It’s crucial to getting a good score.

No need to despair, at least entirely. You can still cram a large number of words into your head in a one-week period of time. But you are going to have to be intense, and you are going to have to be clever. Simply reading a vocab list or just relying on flashcards is not going to allow you to maximize your potential.

 Don’t bite off more than you can chew

My colleague at Magoosh, Mike, bet me lunch that I could not learn the periodic table of elements in one week (yes, we make silly bets like this all the time). Though chemistry is not my forte (I remember the physical education teacher replaced my actual chemistry teacher at the last minute), I was definitely up for the challenge.

Instead of just staring at the periodic table of elements, which would probably have induced nausea, I learned a few at a time, constantly closing my eyes and rehearsing those that I had learned. I went up and down, left and right, all the time strengthening the connections between the elements.

Likewise, when you learn words, you should learn about a dozen at a time. Make connections, when appropriate. See if you can come up with the word when you just look at the definition. See if you can list a few synonyms.  When you feel you have a strong grasp of the words, build off of them by learning another dozen words. Always come back to the original words, comparing them to new words. Remember, it does not help to cram words for the GRE if they fall out of your head after an hour.

 Quiz yourself frequently and creatively

Researchers who study memory have learned that after 90-minutes what we learn suddenly begins to dissipate rapidly. Instead of studying two hours at a time, study in little bursts, trying to return—even if for a few moments—to your studying within 90 minutes to 2 hours. These little breaks are a good time to let the words incubate; but not enough time so that they disappear completely.

 Brain Barf

This is probably not the most pleasant visual—but I’m sure it is colorful. Joking aside, “brain barfing” can be a powerful way to know what is inside your brain, and just how strong the memory of a word is (are you mixing up letters? are you mistaking one word for another?)

So here’s what you do: Take a blank piece of paper and see how many words, along with their definitions, you can write out. You will often find that the number of words you knew is fewer than expected. Don’t worry, go back and consult your list, especially for those tip-of-the-tongue words. That way you can identify those words that you tend to forget.

Take advantage of those quiet moments

Waiting for a bus? Eyeing that smartphone to kill the time with Angry Birds? Don’t succumb! Instead see if you can think of words that you had been learning. Maybe you can even use them to describe something in your immediate environment (“Where is that dilatory bus?!?”).

Do plenty of practice questions

Don’t just hang out with vocabulary the entire time. Crack open a GRE book or log in to Magoosh on your smartphone and start solving actual questions. You will be exposed to words, many of which you know, and probably many which you don’t. Of the words you do know, working with them in a problem-solving context, will only make the connection your brain has formed with that word that much stronger. For the words you don’t know, make them part of your daily list.

 The flashcards

Don’t forget to use them as part of your all out assault on vocabulary. Grab a friend or family member, and have them quiz you. And remember to see if you can identify words from their definitions (and make sure you actually know what the definitions mean, instead of just saying them in a robot voice).

1. Aggressively following this schedule—making sure to include all six strategies—should help you learn between 500 and 1,000 words. As for the bet, I employed many of the strategies above and was able to memorize all 118 elements—reciting them forwards and backwards, up and down—in 48 hours. The best part was I got a free cheeseburger. Of course even the juiciest burger pales in comparison to a great verbal score, which you can only attain from learning lots of vocabulary words.

Not surprisingly, one of the very best ways to prepare for GMAT Reading Comprehension is simply to read, preferably from a high-quality reading list of GMAT-style material.  If you have only a few weeks between now and the GMAT, you probably should stick to GMAT RC passages for practice.

If, though, you have several months between now and your GMAT, you can afford to invest time in reading for the GMAT.  If you don’t like to read, that is all the more reason why you have to read, to get your mind in shape for the reading you will have to do on the GMAT.

What to Read for the GMAT

First of all, what subject areas would be relevant?  All GMAT Reading Comprehension passages fall into one of four areas

1.  Physical Sciences

2.  Biological Sciences

3.  Social Sciences

4.  Business

A good reading plan for the GMAT should cover all four of these areas, and should all be material written at a high level of English usage.  While reading a Wikipedia article about a science topic you don’t understand might stretch your mind, there’s no guarantee the grammar or the choice of vocabulary will be of the highest quality.

The easiest area for which to make a recommendation is business, and there are more Reading Comprehension passages on this in the Official Guide than on any of the other three categories.  If you are planning to go to Business school, get an MBA, and pursue a corporate career, you already should be reading the Wall Street Journal newspaper every day and the Economist magazine every week.

If you have never taken economics, it would be worthwhile to get either an Economics text book or some other introductory books, such as Yoram Bauman‘s Cartoon Introductions to Micro and Macroeconomics.  Those latter two books may not be at the highest level of English usage, but if you are lacking a strong background in economics, those books would be an excellent way to catch up.

For both the physical and biological sciences, Scientific American is an excellent source.  If you have a relative weak background in the natural sciences in general, pushing yourself through Scientific American articles could be excellent training for wrestling with similar passage on the GMAT.  If you are more ambitious, get your hands on a textbook (borrow from a friend or from the library) and force yourself to read a couple chapters.

For the social sciences, unfortunately most popularly available publications (e.g. Psychology Today) are not nearly academic enough.  Occasionally, the New York Times will cover an academic social science issue; in particular, if the Sunday NYT Book Review reviews a book about social science, that can be good material to read.  Here, unfortunately, there is no analog to the Economist magazine or Scientific American.

If you really want social science reading practice, I have to banish you to the academic journals.  Go to a good academic library, and peruse the highly respected social science journals: yes, this will be very dry and cerebral, but if you can stomach these, then anything the GMAT throws at you will seem easy.  You may also try this open access listing of online academic journals.

 How to Read for the GMAT

You know a question the GMAT Reading Comprehension almost invariably asks is the “main idea” question, so whatever you read, you should constantly be in the habit of summarizing the main idea(s) and the roles of each paragraph.  That’s a bare minimum.

Ideally, you will find a GMAT reading partner.  Then, if both of you struggle through the same article, you can quiz each other on the main idea, you can discuss points of view and tone and details.  If you are very ambitious, you can every start to write full practice GMAT Reading Comprehension for each other.  (If you practice having to create four tempting and credible-sounding wrong answers for each question you write, that process will give you great insight into the patterns that the GMAT uses in crafting its wrong answers.)

This post was written by Mike McGarry, GMAT expert at Magoosh GMAT Prep, and originally posted here.

 This article was written by Mike McGarry, GMAT expert at Magoosh GMAT Prep, and originally posted here.

For the GMAT Verbal section, on Critical Reading and Reading Comprehension, you are not expected to have specialized expertise in the topics they discuss.  Sometimes, though, it is particularly helpful to have general real world knowledge.  If you make a habit of reading regularly– either a good newspaper (the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, etc.) or the Economist magazine– then probably you will have a very good sense of the “push and pull” of real world situations.

If your GMAT is soon, and you don’t have time to get up to speed with everything about the practicalities of business, economics, and politics in the real world, this is the first post in a series of five real-life areas you should be familiar with: knowing these can only help you interpret these verbal questions.

Each article will have hyperlinks to articles with more information, if you find the content new or unfamiliar.  Again, no question will automatically expect you to know any of these inside out, but insofar as you understand these, they will provide germane background,  help you interpret the question, and help you to spot unrealistic incorrect answer choices.

Here’s the full list:

• Economics: Supply and Demand (below)
• Economics: Labor and Wages
• Economics: Inflation, unemployment, and interest rates
• Law: “beyond any reasonable doubt”
• Statistics: Statistical significance

The Law of Supply and Demand

This is a must-know idea if you are heading toward business school.  If you studied business or economics in your undergrad years, supply and demand should definitely be familiar ideas.  When a product or service is for sale in the free market, as a general rule, there are two forces determining how much it will cost.

Demand concerns how much the potential consumers want the product or service — how willing they would be to pay a certain price for it.  High demand means: people would simply line up to buy this product, even at a high price; low demand means that the product is hard to sell, that even lowering the price does little to spur sales of the product.

Supply concerns how easy it is to bring a certain product or service to market: for a given price, how willing/able would producers be to bring this product or service to the market for sale.  High supply means: the producers easily can bring tons of it to the market. Low supply, or short supply means:  it’s harder to produce the product, and producers can’t make as many or as much as consumers would like to buy.

The Law of Supply and Demand says that, in a free competitive marketplace, the price will come to equilibrium at that level at which supply equals demand.  In other words, at this equilibrium price, the producers are willing to make N units, and the consumers are willing to buy N units.

The Law of Supply and Demand implies — as a general rule, if a product or service becomes scarcer, harder to get or provide or make — i.e. supply drops — then usually the price will rise; and if a product or service becomes more plentiful, easier to get or provide or make — i.e. supply rises —- then the price will tend to fall.  For example, when world events threaten the supply of crude oil to the US, then the price of gas in the US rises.

Similarly, when demand is very high, the price typically will be high, and when demand drops, usually the price will as well.  Think of a new CD or DVD — when it’s first released, everyone wants it — it’s the new “hot” thing — and since demand is high, the price it typically high; then wait a while — a few months, or certainly a few years later — inevitably interest in the item drops, and so does the price.

The Law of Supply and Demand is not a universal rule.  There are some rare example of items that do not follow the Law of Supply and Demand, for instance, a Veblan good or a Giffen good.  You do not need to know the technical details about these exceptions, but it’s good to know that there are exceptions.

Summary

Knowledge of any of this is not “required” for the GMAT, but the more familiar you are with these facts, the easier it will be to place arguments in context and identify unrealistic incorrect answer choices.  Furthermore, if you want to demonstrate your competence in business school and beyond, it certainly would be a good idea to understand all of these things well!

This article was written by Chris Lele, GRE expert at Magoosh GRE Prep, and originally posted here.

How long you should study for the GRE is an important consideration. However, there is no one pat answer. You can be a quantum physicist with a penchant for vocab, one who enjoys spending his or her time solving really convoluted math problems (while penning purple poetry). Clearly this person could cram for the GRE by whipping through the 2^ndEdition Official Guide.

On the other hand there are many who take the GRE for whom English is not a first language. There are others for whom the only thing that comes to mind when they hear π is apple (usually the last time they opened up a textbook on math bell-bottom jeans were in). Clearly cramming is not a viable option.

Can I cram for the GRE?

If cramming means two to three weeks then you don’t have to be our aforementioned quantum physicist. For some, they are relatively adept at math and can score well with little preparation. Many of these same people are looking to enter a program that is quant-heavy, so their verbal scores do not need to be very high. A few weeks and they can get the scores they need (and thus focus on other important parts of their applications!).

Regardless of your aptitude you will need to do a couple of practice tests, just to test your mettle. So even if you believe that you are capable of cramming for the GRE, the very nature of the word cramming implies that you are going to sit down and do some serious studying (just not for a very long time).

So yes: you can cram for the GRE, but you better have a pretty good reason: Rhodes scholar, non-competitive programs, major procrastination. Regardless, you should keep in mind the following:

• Magoosh e-books (vocabulary, math formulas, and general)
• On-line, paper-based test
• 2^nd Edition Official Guide
• Powerprep tests (available on CD that comes with the 2^nd Edition).
• For those quasi-cramming: 30-day study plan
• Really cramming: 1-week study plan

That said, I only recommend cramming if you can’t avoid it. And even for the most gifted amongst us, I recommend more than just a lazy Sunday afternoon with the GRE 2^nd edition propped open on your lap.

How long SHOULD I study for the GRE?

Again, the answer to this question depends on a lot of factors. But I can give a range: you should study for the GRE for one to six months. Below are some of the factors to consider.

How long have you been out of school?

If you are fresh out of an undergraduate program, you have been around academic jargon and, presumably, you’ve been studying diligently for four or more years. Your brain is most likely pretty sharp. That of course is not to denigrate those who’ve been out of school for years. However, when the “study part” of your brain has not gotten a workout for a while, it takes some time to get back into learning word lists and math formulas, and reading dense passages.

How much do you read (and what do you read)?

I don’t mean to imply that after graduating people become glaze-eyed zombies incapable of fathoming even basic prose. Much to the contrary our adult brains become more adept at sifting through a morass of words and gleaning the overall meaning…if we continue to read diligently. And I don’t mean the last gossip column.

Read literary works, essays on current events, or even a best-seller (provided it has some challenging words in it). If you have been reading diligently over the years, it is very likely that you’ve developed a strong sense of how vocabulary works in context. And hence, you will need as much time prepping for the GRE.

Are you a math-y person?

If you are the person everybody turns to when it comes time to figure out the tip on a bill, then you likely very good with numbers. You will likely to be able to navigate the GRE math section without too much prep.

Which program do you hope to get into?

There is a big difference between the state college down the road from your house and a Harvard Ph.D. program. Most likely, your choices will fall somewhere in between. The more competitive the school, the more you will have to prep.

Are you “good” at taking tests?

I’ve tutored standardized tests for a while now. Some of my students seem to have a sense of how the tests are put together and how the answers are meant to trick you. Others are simply good at focusing for four hours at a time. None of this is a bad thing. If you are good at taking test, you should not have to study for more than a few months.

Are you a non-native speaker?

Simply put, the GRE verbal is insanely difficult for non-native English speakers. If you fall into this camp, do not despair. You can still do well on the GRE verbal. But you may have to study for six months, or even longer (depending on your answers to the questions above).

***

For more on this subject, visit our section devoted to test prep advice from Stacy Blackman Consulting.

In a recent update to its MBA admissions blog, Stanford Graduate School of Business attempts to ease the concerns of some applicants wondering how the school will view their scores in the GMAT’s brand-new Integrated Reasoning section.

“Rest assured that IR is is new to us, too, and it’s going to take us (and our peer schools) some time before we know how to interpret it as it relates to the Stanford MBA Program,” writes Allison Davis.

According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the GMAT, the new IR section measures test taker’s problem-solving skills when presented with data in different formats and from multiple sources.

The section is scored on a scale of 1 to 8 in single-digit increments. Like the Analytical Writing Assessment score, IR will be reported as an independent score that does not affect the computation of the GMAT Total Score.

While schools will see your IR score if you’ve taken the new GMAT, Stanford GSB says that for this application year, at least, MBA admissions will focus on the verbal, quantitative, AWA and total scores.

Applicants have plenty of things to juggle and worry about throughout their journey to business school, so don’t lose a wink of sleep over the new Integrated Reasoning section. We’ll have a better idea next year of how the scores play in the evaluation process.

Our friends at Magoosh GMAT have just released a free 100+ page eBook on the “Next Generation GMAT”.  It includes detailed information and examples of ways to tackle the various question types and concepts, as well as an overview of the exam format, to give you a thorough introduction to the test.

Whether you’re unsure as to whether the GMAT is for you, or just want a quick refresher before delving in to your prep, be sure to download the eBook to read as a PDF online, or print it out as the first “book” in your GMAT prep collection.