Knowing the emotional connotation of a word

This post is part of the Sunday Series for Compelling GRE Workshops.

On the verbal section, quantity trumps quality.  It is more important to be familiar with a large mass of words on a limited basis than to know a smaller number of words verbatim. 

There are a couple of reasons for this conclusion.  The first is that ETS, the company which makes the GRE, does not publish formal definitions for every word in the English language.  They readily admit that there exists some leeway and personal interpretation in language as language is something that evolves over time. 

If you look at two different dictionaries, they will have very similar definitions for a word but they rarely match exactly.  The same word in two different dictionaries will have definitions that only match about 90-95% of the details and words.  Of course, the words used to define a word have their own meanings, which also match only 90-95% of the words used to define them.

Knowing verbatim definitions is simply a waste of time.

The GRE also doesn't test for exact definitions anyways.  It asks for the word that is the "best fit" for the sentence or it tests for an antonym, asking for which word is the opposite. 

There is more interpretation for which word is the "opposite" of another word because that then depends on two definitions. 

The first word can only be defined and interpreted widely with say 90% certainty.  When we look for its antonym, each of the possible words can only be defined with a certain amount precision, as different dictionaries will have slightly different definitions.  The second word has a definition that is 90% .  The more words involved, the more the error is compounded and passed forward. 

Do not memorize verbatim definitions because the definition you memorize will be different than the one the GRE is using. 

My advice is to learn a great number of words to a lesser degree than to memorize of a lot of words very precisely.

Make it a great day!
-Daniel