Book excerpt: GRE Vocabulary: 501 Essential Words Vocabulary is a critical element of the GRE test, and it helps to devote sufficient time to it, as it takes a long time to build an effective vocabulary. This book contains over 500 Essentials words that appear frequently in the GRE, and uses some of the following techniques to help you remember these words faster and better! - Word Roots; Since many English words are derived from Greek & Latin roots, it makes sense to be aware of these. - Prefixes/Suffixes; Pay attention to the tone of the words, whether soft or hard, harsh or mind, negative or positive. This could help you guess when in doubt. Prefixes/Suffixes can often help you with identifying the meaning of a word, when in doubt. - Usage of the Word; Perhaps the Best way to increase your vocabulary is to read, read and read. There is absolutely no substitute for that! Reading helps you learn new words from the context in which they are used, thereby making it easy to remember the new words and more importantly, how and when it is used. This book provides you with multiple examples of how a word is used in different contexts. - Synonyms/Antonyms Being familiar with related words, increases the number and variety of your mental associations. This helps you retain the meaning of the word more easily. - Related Words In order to 'deeply' understand the meaning of a word, it is helpful to study related words at the same time. e.g. The word ameliorate means, to "make better" while alleviate means "make less severe". - Pronunciations Each word has a pronunciation key that helps you say the word out correctly, thereby aiding retention. - Practice makes perfect! Finally, this book has over a thousand exercises to make sure that you remember the meanings of the newly learnt words 'forever'! Many ingenious methods, scientifically correct, have been devised to aid in the remembering of particular facts. These methods are based wholly on the principle that that is most easily recalled which is associated in our minds with the most complex and elaborate groupings of related ideas. All of the above methods are designed to create a word network in your mind, thereby helping you develop a lasting understanding of the word in the GRE relevant context.