best verbal prep book

[mnykr]

whats a good source to improve verbal scores?

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[Julianne]

whats a good source to improve verbal scores?

There's a link in the FAQ that might help with vocabulary skills...

 

[Leb]

whats a good source to improve verbal scores?

English is not my first language, and i have not gotten my scores yet. However i can tell you this: I found that the best way to improve your verbal skills is to study the GRE Barron's verbal section. It helped me tremendously in both the GRE and the PCAT hopefully. Pretty much, i was familiar with 90% of the verbal section on the last PCAT because i was familiar with the vocabulary thanks to Barron's GRE book. I think that Barron's PCAT book dos have the same verbal section, but iam not sure.
Anyways, i think there wont be much emphasis on the vocabulary any longer, bcs of the new changes that will be implemented in June.

 

[dreamangel17s]

English is definately not a strong point for me either. The people from Kaplan who comes to my campus to review test takers for the PCAT encouraged them to read science articles and journals daily.

 

[mnykr]

is the verbal section mostly science reading and science vocab?

 

[silverhalo]

To improve at your Verbal score, I highly recommend that you do A LOT of practice questions, out of a book like the "PCAT Flashcards" book by REA (check Amazon.com, where I got it for under $10). This will get you really use to the types of questions asked on the PCAT!

Also:

*Memorize as much of the GRE Top 200 as you can!! THIS IS CRUCIAL because so many of the words on the analogies and sentence completions are "scholarly," uncommon words... like sanguine and abstemious and dyspeptic - oh, my!

*Be familiar with the different types of analogies so that you can assess the question EVEN when you don't recognize a word! This website is very useful for this purpose: GRE Verbal Analogy Types


I really hope this helps! Best of luck!!

 

[silverhalo]

is the verbal section mostly science reading and science vocab?

Nope, definitely not! While there is some science lingo, I personally felt that the verbal section mostly featured the standard, scholarly vocab words you'd see in the GRE Top 200. (Google for a list and memorize as much vocab as you can!)

That is to say, someone without a science background could rock the PCAT verbal section if they were just really good at analogies and sentence completions.

For the reading comprehension, just do lots of practice tests to prepare. I personally thought NONE of the articles required a background knowledge in science. (Even if they were about scientific studies, they'd be written in layman's terms.) Get good at speed reading, and be sure to PACE YOURSELF. You've got about 7 minutes per section on the actual exam.. it's much faster than you think!

 

[TribalPatrol]

Would you say that top 200 words change from year to year?
I found a book on amazon from 1999 that gives the top 200 should I get it or look for something from 2006-2007?

Also is this the top 200?
http://emoney.al.ru/english/gre_words.htm

 

[silverhalo]

Would you say that top 200 words change from year to year?
I found a book on amazon from 1999 that gives the top 200 should I get it or look for something from 2006-2007?

Also is this the top 200?
http://emoney.al.ru/english/gre_words.htm

Yes, that list is absolutely perfect for this purpose.

Here's the thing: it doesn't really matter exactly which GRE Top 200 List you use, because the english language couldn't have changed that much in just a few years to make the list obsolete. The purpose is to learn a bunch of words that almost nobody knows (unless they read Shakespeare and Poe all day) so you do better on the Verbal section.

I recommend that you work on this in the 3-4 weeks before the exam -- do it for just 15 minutes each night, 10 words per night, and quiz yourself on all the words you've memorized at the end of each week. That's 70 words a week; it's a very manageable goal.

For an analogy or sentence completion, remember that all you need to know is the *basic* meaning of the word to get the question right. All you need to know is that 'loquacious' means talkative; you don't need to know how 'loquacious' is different from 'garrulous' in a subtle way. So don't ever use dictionary definitions; use short definitions you can memorize in a second. The website you have is perfect for that!

Good luck. This strategy really worked for me (got a 95 on the verbal), so I hope they work for you too!

 

[TribalPatrol]

^^^Thanks for good advice