GRE
Except for those who use English everyday, most of us will find mastering the GRE 3000-4000 word list an intimidating task. There are three main reasons :
1- It is very boring.
2- You just cant remember that much.
3- It is frustrating, that the words you learned keep falling out of your head the next days.
Given that it is may be as miserable that it seems to be, your accomplishment if you succeed is very rewarding. Imagine you sitting in an GRE exam, and you know ALL the single words on the testbook! How great could that be ?
In my case, studying wordlist is fun, and in the real exam, there are only 2 words that I dont know, and they are NOT in the wordlist. And it is much more than just about the exam. With those thousands of new word firmly implanted in my memory, I earn much more from reading English articles than ever before. But it is on another topic, and will not be covered within the scope of this blog.
I will next introduce to you a simple trick that guarantees you memorizing all the words in your wordlist at the speed 50 words/day, while also reducing considerably the dullness of the task . However, since we are dealing with memory, let's first take a brief look at how it works
Our memory works by two structurically and functionally different mechanisms : short-term memory and long-term memory. When you first encouter a new word and try to remember it, you are using your short-term memory . In order to memorize the word forever, you have to transfer it to your long-term memory , and that is done by successive reviewings and recitations. The more you review, the less likely you will forget, hence the time interval between consecutive review sessions should be increasing. But how much increase should there be, to have an optimal study plan, i.e you spend less time but still learn the material well enough?
Research has shown that the most productive study-review pattern will be, approximately : 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 6 months, and so on... That is to say, you learn the material, and then review the next day, and then the next 2 days, and then the next week ... So, the question is, how will that apply to our current situation, i.e., learning wordlist ? Does this mean that you have to take note of the day you learn the words, and the days that you will return to review them ? That seems to be an awful lot of work too. Fortunately, you dont have to do that. I will now introduce a mathematical trick that will help you organize, and stay organized in the whole process of your word-study plan without having to use any pen, or computer. All you need is you yourself and your wordlist .
Let's say you want to study 3000 words in 2 months, so it is 50 words per day. So lest break your wordlist into 60 lists, each consists of 50, and number them. Now in order to follow the productive reviewing pattern, all you have to do is , whenever you first learn the word list number A, you need to review the word list number A-1, A-2 , A-7, A-14,A-30,A-60. It is a simple math exercise to check that this plan will conincide with the pattern.
One of the best part of this plan is that you can do your learning whenver and wherever you want, as long as you have the wordlist beside you. Just try to make sure that you dont miss any wordlist each day. Because if you do, you practically schrew up the entire rhythm, and it will take days to recover. Remeber that you dont have to seriously sit on your desk to learn, you can just as well lying like a lazy cat in your bed while studying wordlist. That means there is no excuse for messing up.
1- It is very boring.
2- You just cant remember that much.
3- It is frustrating, that the words you learned keep falling out of your head the next days.
Given that it is may be as miserable that it seems to be, your accomplishment if you succeed is very rewarding. Imagine you sitting in an GRE exam, and you know ALL the single words on the testbook! How great could that be ?
In my case, studying wordlist is fun, and in the real exam, there are only 2 words that I dont know, and they are NOT in the wordlist. And it is much more than just about the exam. With those thousands of new word firmly implanted in my memory, I earn much more from reading English articles than ever before. But it is on another topic, and will not be covered within the scope of this blog.
I will next introduce to you a simple trick that guarantees you memorizing all the words in your wordlist at the speed 50 words/day, while also reducing considerably the dullness of the task . However, since we are dealing with memory, let's first take a brief look at how it works
Our memory works by two structurically and functionally different mechanisms : short-term memory and long-term memory. When you first encouter a new word and try to remember it, you are using your short-term memory . In order to memorize the word forever, you have to transfer it to your long-term memory , and that is done by successive reviewings and recitations. The more you review, the less likely you will forget, hence the time interval between consecutive review sessions should be increasing. But how much increase should there be, to have an optimal study plan, i.e you spend less time but still learn the material well enough?
Research has shown that the most productive study-review pattern will be, approximately : 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 6 months, and so on... That is to say, you learn the material, and then review the next day, and then the next 2 days, and then the next week ... So, the question is, how will that apply to our current situation, i.e., learning wordlist ? Does this mean that you have to take note of the day you learn the words, and the days that you will return to review them ? That seems to be an awful lot of work too. Fortunately, you dont have to do that. I will now introduce a mathematical trick that will help you organize, and stay organized in the whole process of your word-study plan without having to use any pen, or computer. All you need is you yourself and your wordlist .
Let's say you want to study 3000 words in 2 months, so it is 50 words per day. So lest break your wordlist into 60 lists, each consists of 50, and number them. Now in order to follow the productive reviewing pattern, all you have to do is , whenever you first learn the word list number A, you need to review the word list number A-1, A-2 , A-7, A-14,A-30,A-60. It is a simple math exercise to check that this plan will conincide with the pattern.
One of the best part of this plan is that you can do your learning whenver and wherever you want, as long as you have the wordlist beside you. Just try to make sure that you dont miss any wordlist each day. Because if you do, you practically schrew up the entire rhythm, and it will take days to recover. Remeber that you dont have to seriously sit on your desk to learn, you can just as well lying like a lazy cat in your bed while studying wordlist. That means there is no excuse for messing up.