GRE Word Roots: Gaining PERspective

English is funny, isn’t it? And in a lot of ways. Like, why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways? How in the world can inflammable and flammable mean the same thing? And why does no food soar skyward when we eat something up?

Today, we’re focusing on that last question. Sure, English is funny sometimes, but it’s not unique.That up is a particle that serves to intensify the verb. It doesn't actually mean “up”; it means something more like “completely.” Intensive particles are used in many, many (I hesitate to say “all,” but would bet money it’s darn near close) languages, and it’s their presence in Latin that will help us on Test Day.

We’ve discussed several times that word roots are the quickest way to a giant vocabulary with which to destroy the GRE Verbal section, but I’m sure you’ve noticed during the course of your studies that sometimes everything doesn’t quite add up. Let’s start with what we PERCEIVE.

Or, rather, let’s start with our PERCEPTION. The trained eye will be able to separate this into two roots, PER, meaning “through,” and CEPT, meaning “receive” or “catch,” as in capture. (Sometimes vowels get self-conscious between consonants and need to change their clothes.) So, I guess, root wise, this word means “catch through”? Through what? How can we apply direction to catching? Exactly. We don’t. This is the intensive PER, so PERCEPTION is what you’ve “caught completely.” Totally got it, yeah?

How about PERFECT. We see PER, and we see FECT. Applying the same vowel change in PERCEPTION, we realize that this is actually FACT as in factory, meaning “make.” And “make through” doesn’t really make sense, but “make through and through; make completely” does! No problem.

Here’s a tough one: PERTINACIOUS.

What’ve we got? PER, which you’ve probably guessed by now, is intensive in this instance, and TINAC? Is that a root? Let’s take a breath and realize that -CIOUS is an ending in itself (DELICIOUS, EFFICACIOUS, MENDACIOUS), so how about TINA? Not quite, but could the vowel have changed like above?

Yes!

If we figure it to be TEN, meaning “hold, keep,” then we end up with “keep complete hold of.” And a PERTINACIOUS person gets something in his head and sticks to it.

Here’s one hard word and one possibly unexpected word to look up for homework:

PERFUNCTORY

PERMANENT

Last one: Let’s use what we learned back in Word Roots, Part II: Double Vision to crack 

PELLUCID.

Of course, it looks weird at first because PEL doesn’t seem to be a friendly root, but if we figure it used to be an R that really liked L’s style, then we’ve got PER-lucid, or “totally clear.” And LUCID, by the way is from our old friend LUX, possessive LUCIS, “light.”

More on other intensive prefixes to come!

And P.S. – because driving used to be a real treat, parkways used to be very nicely landscaped.Like parks. Two mysteries for the price of one.

(Written by: Beau Henson-Kaplan test prep)

GRE Word Roots, Part II: Double Vision

Word roots can be sneaky. Like, really sneaky. Like PLAIN. SIGHT. SNEAKY.

Now that I either have your attention or have lost it forever, let me direct your attention to the word attention. Double t. Huh. Okay, pause that.

I know that sometimes the vocabulary the GRE employs can be a source of suffering for — hold on. Double f? Pause on that, too.

What I’m trying to say is that it can be tough to acclimate to the — gee whiz! Double c? What is going on?

Take a look at attention. How can we break this up? Where does on root end and another begin? Is it just one piece? Let me ask you this: have you ever seen a word in ANY language outside of Star Trek that starts with a double t? You haven’t. But you HAVE found the seam in this word.

See, our mouths don’t work as fast as our brains, and sometimes we struggle to get all the sounds out even when we don’t realize it. This is how The Black Eyed Peas can release a song called “Imma Be” and have everyone understand what they mean. For another example, try saying “going to” without saying “gonna.” See how much work that is?!

Since our mouths have always been abacuses (abacuses, abaci — whatever suits your fancy) attached to supercomputers, this natural slurring inevitably creeps into the language. At this point let me introduce you to our root friend AD. AD can mean a lot of things — near, to, at, about — but all of these carry a general meaning of “motion toward.” Let’s put AD in front of TENT, which means “stretch” or “aim.” After we add -ION to show it’s a noun, we’re left with ADTENTION, and, since that’s hard to say, we end up after a century or so with ATTENTION. Phew.

Take SUB (”under”) and FER (”bear, carry”) and make SUBFER (”undertake”). Tough on the tongue, huh? Well, SUFFER isn’t!

AD and CLIM (”region”), after we make them easier, give us ACCLIMATE (”to approach [one's comfort] region”).

This process is called ASSMILIATION, itself an assimilated form of AD and SIMILAR. Neat, huh? “Turtles all the way down,” as they say (look it up).

One of the most important skills in word dissection (after building your database of roots, of course) is the ability to see where one root ends and another begins. Knowing about assimilation will save you valuable seconds by keeping you from asking what ACC- or ALL- mean. And, for that matter, it will reduce the temptation to see the ALL- in ALLITERATION as the English/Germanic word all. Of course, mixing languages in one word is mostly a no-no, anyway, but that’s a topic for another day.

(Written by: Beau Henson-Kaplan test prep) 

The GRE® Analytical Writing Section

At a Glance

• Time:      75 minutes
• Format:  One 45-minute essay, one 30-minute essay
• Tests:     Grammar, writing ability, data interpretation, and analytical reasoning

The Basics of the Analytical Writing Section

The goal of the GRE's Analytical Writing Section is to gauge how well you can provide cogent, written responses to complex ideas and issues. It tests the kind of high-level thinking and writing skills that viewed as essential for success in most graduate school programs.

Two Types of GRE Essays

The Analytical Writing Section consists of two analytical writing tasks.

1. A 45-minute "Present Your Perspective on an Issue" task. The "issue" task states an opinion on an issue of broad interest and asks you to address the issue from any perspective.
2. A 30-minute "Analyze an Argument" task. The "argument" task requires you to critique an argument by discussing how well reasoned you find it.

Each essay will be scored from 0-6, though students will only receive a single score for both essays; individual essay scores are not reported.

The GRE® Quantitative Section

At a Glance

• Time:      45 minutes
• Format:   28 questions
• Tests:      Basic math, mathematical concepts, quantitative reasoning

The Basics of the GRE Quantitative Section

There is one scored math section on the GRE consisting of 14 quantitative comparisons and 14 problem-solving questions, of which 3 or 4 will be graph questions. If your experimental section is also quantitative, you will have two quantitative sections, only one of which will be scored.

Quantitative Comparisons

Quantitative comparisons do not require you to solve for a particular value; rather, they ask you to compare two quantities and try to determine which, if either, is larger. Each quantitative comparison displays two mathematical expressions in boxes—one in Column A and one in Column B. Sometimes additional information is provided.

Problem Solving

Problem solving questions test various math concepts, including percentages, simultaneous equations, symbolism, special triangles, multiple and odd-ball figures, mean, median, mode, range, and probability. Several problem solving questions test your ability to read graphs, interpret data, and solve math problems.

GRE Word Roots, Part I

Remember Legos, fellow GRE-nauts?  More specifically, remember when a set of Legos was just a mass of blocks in different sizes, with nary a specialized “windshield” or “leg” piece to be found?  Sure, you might not have been able to exactly build the Millennium Falcon, but that was made up for by the fact that you weren’t held back by any specialization.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do that with words on your GRE Antonyms and Analogies?

Of course it would.  And you can!  We can break words down into their component parts, called “roots,” and roots, my friends, are totally radical (from RADIX, possessive RADICIS, meaning “[tree] root”).  With a good, strong knowledge of word roots, you never have to be afraid of big – or small, for that matter – words again.  Say we’re in the middle of the analogies section and get this:

SYNCHRONICTY : SIMULTANEOUS

OK.  Synchronicity.  A seminal album by The Police.  What’s that got to do with SIMULTANEOUS?  They all worked together on it, I suppose, though, with recording that’s not a “must”….  If we know our word roots, this is no problem.

SYN, we know, is a Greek root for “together” or “with” and also appears in words like SYMPATHY, and SYNTHESIS.

CHRON means time, because we remember the CHRONOMETERS from when we used to wear wristwatches.

And ICITY just makes a word a noun (which we could also guess from the answer choices).

So SYNCHRONICITY is time-together-ness, which is a noun synonym (SYN again!) for SIMULTANEOUS (from SIMUL, meaning “at the same time,” in case you were wondering), and we’re off to the races.

Remember, on the GRE Verbal section, the quickest way to the answer is just to know the word, and building words from the ground up with roots is like a “Buy One Word, Get 200 Words Free” Sale.  Pay attention to etymologies, ask yourself which words look similar and why, and you’re on your way to an 800.

(Written by: Beau Henson-Kaplan test prep)

USAID awards $3 million to Georgia State for joint master's program with Indonesian university

Georgia State University has received a $3 million grant from  the USAID-Indonesia to train Indonesia's next generation of fiscal policy experts.   Up to 30 staff members of the Fiscal Policy Office at the Ministry of Finance will earn dual master's degrees in applied economics at Georgia State University and Gadjah Mada University in the province of Yogyakarta on Java Island.

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Indonesia's next generation of fiscal policy experts will earn dual master's degrees in applied economics at Georgia State University and Gadjah Mada University in the province of Yogyakarta on Java Island.

Georgia State was awarded $3 million by the United States Agency for International Development-Indonesia toward the program, which will begin this year.

"As many as 30 staff members of the Fiscal Policy Office at the Ministry of Finance of Indonesia - the country's fiscal policy think tank - will earn dual masters of science degrees under the cost-sharing agreement in a program developed by Georgia State's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies' International Studies program," Georgia State University informed.

Prior to their arrival in Atlanta, Indonesian students will attend a rigorous one-year English language-intensive master's program at Gadjah Mada designed by the Andrew Young School in conjunction with one of its alumna, Artidiatun Adji. Adji directs the graduate program in economics and business at Gadjah Mada and she will lead the new program.

"Our school has been involved in Indonesia since its 1999 transition to democracy, and involved in its fiscal reforms since it decentralized its government in 2001," says Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, International Studies program director and a Regents Professor in the Andrew Young School at Georgia State.

Andrew Young School Dean W. Bartley Hildreth said, "This program highlights the global reach of the Andrew Young School and the draw of its world-class faculty. Our experience confirms that these partnerships advance a new group of leaders into roles that help build the policy infrastructure in their own country."

In 2002, the Andrew Young School started its first USAID-funded Indonesian masters program, awarding degrees in applied economics to 55 Indonesian students, including civil servants. They returned to work in Indonesia, building the country's fiscal capacity and enhancing its economic performance.

Seven remained at Georgia State to earn doctoral degrees in economics, including Adji. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia's Minister of Finance, was an Andrew Young School visiting scholar in 2002.

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Read the complete article at The Financial.

GRE® Verbal Section

At a Glance

• Time:      30 minutes
• Format:  30 multiple-choice questions
• Tests:     Reading, analytical reasoning, and vocabulary

The Basics of the GRE Verbal Section

There is one scored verbal section on the GRE with approximately 7 sentence completions, 7 analogies, 8 antonyms, and 8 reading comprehension questions. If the experimental section is also verbal, you will see two sections, but only one will be scored.

GRE Sentence Completions

Sentence completion questions test how well you can determine the logic of a sentence. You are always shown a sentence with either one or two words missing. Your job is to pick the answer choice with the word or words that best fill the blanks. You won't need any outside knowledge to answer these questions. All the information you need will be in the sentence itself.

GRE Analogies

Analogies on the GRE test your vocabulary and understanding of word relationships. You'll see a pair of words in capital letters that are related in some way. For instance: AIRPLANE : HANGAR. These are referred to as the "stem words." There are five answer choices, each consisting of another word pair. Your task is to identify the answer choice with the word pair that is related in the same way as the stem words.

Try to establish the relationship between the stem words before looking at the answer choices. For instance, an AIRPLANE is stored in a HANGAR. Likewise, money is stored in a vault. A choice likepropeller : flight would not be correct, since the relationship is different—even though the words are related to the general subject of planes and flying.

GRE Antonyms

Antonyms present you with a single word followed by five answer choices containing words or short phrases. Your task is to find the answer choice that's most nearly opposite in meaning to the original word. These questions test vocabulary, so for your maximum score, you will need to maximize your vocabulary.

GRE Reading Comprehension

You've probably seen reading comprehension questions before—especially on tests like the SAT. Expect GRE passages to be tougher. The passages are taken from social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. "Reading Comp" tests your ability to understand written material and make some quick conclusions about it. You'll see questions about the main idea of a passage, its inferences, arguments, tone, or about specific details in the passage.