These are the easiest questions in GRE verbal sections. Here you are asked to pick up the most nearest word opposite in meaning to the given one.

Most of these questions depends highly on your vocabulary power. So if you know meaning of all words in the question you can answer it right away.. But the problems comes when you face a question with words you don't know.

READ ALL ANSWERS BEFORE JUMPING TO A CONCLUSION

Take any example of below question

RELUCTANT:

• relaxed
• eager
• tiresome
• brave
• unwilling

GRE verbal isn't that easy that you will get marks just by picking up an antonym.
the answer for above question is eager...

Relucatant means unwillingly doing or joining without interest
At first glance unwilling might pop into your mind but it is not the nearest opposite of the given words.

The right answer is eager which means doing something with interest where as reluctant means doing or participate without interest.

All gre questions will be like this.

There are many tricks up under their sleeves.

Some times they include synonyms in the answers. You have to remember that you are looking for ANTONYMS NOT SYNONYMS.

Some times there are questions that target the secondary meaning and uncommon use of the word.


AFFECTED:

• Disturbed
• Maladroit
• Solid
• Unadulterated
• Genuine

AFFECTED:- which means

• Influenced in a harmful way; impaired, harmed, or attacked, as by climate or disease.
• acted upon; influenced.

But when you see unadulterated just comes in your mind but it lacks some thing. Also none of the answers seems to be right antonym. Unadulterated means pure or without any impurities. But the right answer for above question is GENUINE. Affected gives meaning of an insincere or fake expression. So Genuine (original ) is the right answer here. These types of question are difficult to answer even if you know the meaning of all words in the question.

There are other ways to attack or tackle the GRE Antonym questions when you don't know the meaning.

Stripping off any prefixes or suffixes like "-ing," "un-," "pre-," "-in", "-able" and so forth you arrive at the root meaning of the word. Take example of the word like predisposition.


remove the pre suffix and you will end up with disposition.

pre- gives the meaning of before and the suffix -tion suggests that we are dealing with a noun. So just look of nouns in the answers so that you can eliminate other forms like verbs and adjectives.

disposition means dispose some thing.. or making your position before or previous inclination etc...

Now search for a noun that means not inclined in the answers.

One of the most effective way to know meaning of unknown words is etymology. Which means divining words into two or breaking into two

Ex: ominpotent..

omni + potent

omni is like in the word omniscient --- which means every where..

potent means --> potency or strength...

Together the word means strong everywhere or strong among all.

Word that starts with "De," "Dis," or "Anti" will almost certainly be negative
so look for words that seem to have positive meaning..

There are also word that have rythm going up like Elevate, Ascendancy, Lofty and these will be certainly positive and others have tone going down like Decline, Subjugate, Suborn, etc. and these words have negative meaning.

Also if you don't recognize the meaning of the word then put the word in context.
Try to think of a sentence or context which you have heard the word in and you can guess the meaning from that.

But before looking for an opposite word, think of an opposite meaning for the capitalized word. This can be useful and you can filter the choices quickly.

if you want more knowledge on etymology use Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis.

Anyway all the best for your exam.

Other Suggested Reading

How to tackle verbal antonyms
Gre Tips

Toefl is popular. You have many useful reading resources & books available for preparation of TOEFL IBT.

Kaplan's Toefl IBT prep Course
This course inlcludes
Includes:

• 4 practice tests on CD-ROM in iBT format
• Audio CD and transcripts of authentic-language conversations for listening comprehension
• 8 comprehensive chapters of reading, writing, listening, and speaking practice
• Hundreds of strategies for answering integrated skills questions

I found it very useful. You can record your answers for sample questions and listen to them later. Kaplan is one of the best recommended courses.




Barron's Toefl IBT Prep

We have other publisher BARRON's whose text books are popular. I found this particularly useful. The audio cd of barron has about 8 practice test. All of them are very good. I highly recommend buying this book.



The tips and hints given in this book are really good.

There are other resources which are by the ETS itself and some other institutes.

This section test your ability to read and understand /comprehend university level text or literature.
The reading section tests your skills like

• Reading to find information
• Basic comprehension
• Reading to learn

You have to read about 3-5 passages each 700 words long. Total time for this section is 60 to 100 minutes. In the Reading section, test takers can also click on Back at any time to return to the
previous question. You have to concentrate while reading these question (even though it is boring to read 3 or 5 lengthy passages). Don't Read all of the passage. Just scan for main points or gist. It is recommended that you first read the question and then look for answers in the passage. We are not going to increase our knowledge by reading these passages. We are there to answer questions. Remember that, so start reading the questions first and look for answers in the passage. There are other methods to get more score in reading section. Increasing your reading speed. Just search in google to increase your reading speed, you will be able to get a lot of material. Read novels & other materials you will improve your Vocab along with your reading speed.

Here are the items you have to take for your visa interview.

• I20
• Appointment letter
• Application
• Financial Statements
• College Transcripts & all academic documents
  
• Passport
• Financial affidavit
• SEVIS Receipt
• Pink application fee receipt
• Annual Income Certificates like (form 16 or tax forms of your parents)
• Property evaluation documents
• TOEFL and GRE score records
• Experience letter & offer letter of your Employers

Just check the site of American embassy(or the other countries embassy website ) for other information. Some embassies might require you to submit the documents 5 days before the appointment. Just follow their rules. Be confident and always maintain eye contact.

Toefl - Test of English as Foreign Language.
There are 4 sections in teofl IBT
Reading, Listening, Speaking and writing. Almost all of them are boring (honestly i was never tortured much any where). You have to sit there almost for about 5 hrs listening, reading more than 10 paragraphs and listening to more than 2 hrs of lectures. The scoring is on a scale of 0-120. More than 100 is considered a good score. Some universities requirement of toefl to get admission or require you to complete addition courses in english after admitting you. Sometimes reading may contain listening and other sections also contain integrated tasks which might require other skills. So the new toefl ibt is tougher the TOEFL CBT.

Take TOEFL IBT Overview Here

Section	Description	Testing Time	Questions	Score Scale
Reading	3-5 passages from academic texts; approximately 700 words long; 12-14 questions per passage.	60-100 minutes	36-70 questions	0-30
Listening	4-6 lectures, some with classroom discussion; each 3-5 minutes long; 6 questions each. 2-3 conversations; each 3 minutes long; 5 questions each.	60-90 minutes	34-51 questions	0-30
Break	-	10 minutes	-	-
Speaking	2 tasks to express an opinion on a familiar topic; 4 tasks to speak based on what is read and listened to.	20 minutes	6 tasks	0-4 points converted to 0-30 score scale
Writing	1 task to write based on what is read and listened to; 1 task to support an opinion on a topic.	50 minutes	2 tasks	0-5 points converted to 0-30 score scale
Total score	-	-	-	0-120

Vocabulary is the important  part of your GRE. Infact your performance in gre depends on your vocabulary. GRE exam has very difficult vocabulary reasoning section and is becoming more harder and harder. This articles gives you good tips on how to build your vocabulary. One sure hit way is to read more and more challenging material. If you read more challenging material you will encounter hard words & you will try to learn the meaning and remember the meaning since you will be using them in proper context. Reading word in their proper context is the most important thing. When you read a novel or a more challenging work the words are used in appropriate context and the vocabulary is difficult. I recommend reading works of Salman Rushdie. His works are wonderful and hard (difficult vocabulary for an international student). But start with "Word power made easy" by Norman Levis. It is a good start. You will enjoy this book. It has humor and nice concept to learn words. This book is based on etymology, which deals with origins of words. Barron's word list is a crash course. It is effective but i may not help you in getting 800/800 in verbal section. Use it if your GRE exam is in 2 or 3 months from today. Conclusion read more & more challenging material to improve your vocabulary (like practice makes man perfect)

Is the ranking really that important in determining which school to apply? Ranking is a game. A game for fame. If MIT has 9.8/10 and Harvad has 9.7/10 in US News ranking that does mean Harvard is inferior or low in standards when compared to MIT? How much you should consider school ranking for applying for university? There is a good article on how to choose or access the quality of the college. You must choose people than colleges or labs. People are who you will be interacting with and doing projects with. See their profiles carefully and their publications. How you research is being pursued in the university. Here are some stats by a Chinese university about worldwide ranking of universities. Here is the US News Grad School Ranking for year 1997.
Visit PHDS.org which is a very helpful site. At phds.org you can set your own criteria and get informations about schools and rank them.  This website also have very good resources on career develpment and advice for prospective graduate students on how to apply for unviersities.

Here is  a good description of how GPA is calcualted. So people can compare their local percentages with the gpa of US Education system here. Some universities use a different scaling system. Normally they mention how to convert them to GPA system in transcripts. But most of the students from India get into problems when sending the transcripts since the universities donot accept transcripts send directly by the applicant. In such case i would suggest, get your transcripts signed and sealed on the cover by assistant registrar of registrar or head of your under-graduate section and send them to the university.

Here is the list of items that you have to send to unversities while applying for Graduate programs.

• Letters of Recommendation (3 or 2 depending on university)
• Statement Of Purpose
  
• Application (if offline. Send print out if it is online. Depends on university)
• Degree Transcripts (all degrees from college. B.S or B-tech , B.E etc)  sealed and attested properly
  
• Official Gre Score Reports (sent by ETS)
• Official TOEFL Score Reports (sent by ETS)
• CV (Curriculum Vitae or Resume`)
• Photo copies of GRE & TOEFL Score Reports (Till the official ones reaches, they will consider these).
• Application for Graduate Student Assistantship (if there is one for ur university)
• Financial Affidavit form (for international students)
• Other Related documents (Photo copies only. These documents like awards, published papers, training certificates, etc..)
• Photo copy of you passport (if necessary)

Read the application instructions carefully. All universities give clear information on what documents need to be sent to them. Don't send any unnecessary documents which piss them off and waste their time. Don't send them mark sheet of your 10th class or 12th.
Most of the universities provides a checklist of items to be sent. So get a printout and use it. Even if any one of the items is missing your application will be incomplete and you will be in trouble. Double check every paper or document you are sending .

Filter or choose which universities you are gonna apply (1 month approximately)

| | | \/

Take the tests GRE & TOEFL (2 -3 months approximately)

| | | \/

Write the SOP,Request for Letters of Recommendation (1 month approximately)

| | | \/

Fill all the applcations and send all the Materials (1 week approx)

| | | \/

After receiving admissions choose one of the universites & reject others (depends on your senses)

| | | \/

Pay SEVIS FEE @ www.fmjfee.com (For ppl who applied in USA)

| | | \/

Apply for visa

| | | \/

Book flight Ticket as soon as you have received your visa (1 day)

| | | \/

Take flight and land at your dream place

Gre Vocabulary is tough. The verbal section is very hard. You need to have good grip on english meanings. Here is a good article on how to improve your vocabulary .You have to atleast master all the important meanings given in Barrons Gre Guide books. There are thousands of words in english. No one asks you to learn all of them. Most frequently appearing GRE words are listed in Barron's GRE book. I highly recommend all to use this. I just costs you few dollars. But it is very useful.
There is another way to improve you vocabulary. Use flash cards. This is realistic option to memorize words. Start reading the word lists in barrons. Write down the word which you often forget or find difficult to on flash cards with meanings on the back side. This is very very userful. This way you can remember all the difficult words you are forgetting. Revise these flash cards when ever you find time. But practice is also very important. I have listed some of online gre vocabulary practice resources in my blog post. GRE PREP Materials. Some experts say use mnemonics. Which mean they ask you to remember a picture for each word (i too think this is the easiest way to remember things). But this is only short time. If you want you vocabulary to come in handy during long time , read more and more challenging materials. This is the only way you can improve yourself and remember vocab for Long time. I suggest you read Norma Levis's Books "Word Power Made Easy". This is the best book for getting solid foundation in vocabulary. It is an entertaining book. I highly recommend this before jumping into Barrons.

There are many factors that come into  when selecting your university. Here are some of the common factors i consider in selecting a university

Research Area.
                    This is the obvious thing by which you choose your university. You should choose an university where there is good emphasis on your research area. Read the papers of some of the professor to get to know what they are doing. It would be best if your research area and research interests of the professor match. This is one of the criteria how Grad Students are selected for Unversities.

No of Professors in your research area.
                  This is one of the important factor that graduate students forget to think about. Some of them don't even see the no of professors. It is better to have more than 3 or 4 professors in your field of study. Don't go to a University just you want to work under a single professor. If that single professor turns out to be a jack ass? or if he is not interested in doing research or he does his own research without any funding? or if he has all positions filled already he is guiding a large no of students. You will be in big trouble. There will be no funding for you. This is a dangerous situation. So don't choose a university just because you like a single professor's profile.Always keep a spare.


Percentage of income from Research to that institute.
            This is also a very important factor. IF the universities major source of income is tuition fee then drop it there itself. Because you might not get any funding from that university. Ofcourse it depends on the professor also, but most of the time fresh graduates students gets Teaching assistant ship. So its better that you choose a university which has more income from resources other than tuition fees.

Tution Fees
              This goes without saying, IF you cannot afford for paying tuition fee of this university even for one year then avoid applying for that university. This is just a waste of your time and money. Generally private schools are expensive in comparison with public schools

No of people graduating every year from that university.
              If this number is low then avoid it all costs if you don't want to waste your money.

Labs in your research area.
              This is important if you are planning to do a research in you research area. The university must contain a lab associated with your field of interest. IF there is no lab then there is no emphasis or no research going on your Research Field.

You can find a large number of free gre testing tools or gre test on web. These websites helps you a lot in gre preparation. All of these gre courses listed here are free.Some of them even offer gre classes. Some of these gre test prep tools are made of javascript and some of them are made in flash. You can prepare for gre online without paying much .
Here are the gre practice resources online.


Test Preview
This website has are large no of assesment modules. It contains 20 questions on each of Analogies,Algebra, Averages and Rounding, Arithmetic, Commas, Estimation and Sequences, exponents, Fractions and Square Roots, Geometry,  Grammar, Graphs, Math, Comparison Math Questions, Measurement, Nouns, Percents and Ratios, Basic Reading Comprehension, Reading for the Main Idea, Advanced Reading Comprehension, Reading Vocabulary, Sentence Correction, Sentence Flow, Usage Tests, Verbs, Writing Section 1 and Writing Section 2

Gre Guide
This site has four practice test on each of following topics

• Reading Comprehension
  
• Sentence Completion
  
• Analogies
  
• Math Problem Solving
  
• GRE Math Comparison

Syvium Gre
This site has 64 gre tests on specific parts. It covers all basics & has very handful tips on each of the three sections of GRE.

GRE Verbal Practice @ Graduateshotline
This is a never ending practice. Practice till you die!! You have to select closest synonym here. This is free!!.

Number2.com
This is also a good site with tips on how to attack a specific section of gre. It does have some practice questions but limited. But the tutorials provided  here are very good.

Free Full Length Practice Test at Princeton Review
This is a single full length practice test at princeton review site.

Another Free test at Micro EDU
I found only verbal section here. You might find more...

English Test .com
This site has really good javascript. YOu can improve your english vocabulary very well here.

My GRE Tutor
This site has lots of information and very good practice tests. Down side you have to login or register though it is free

The computer based gre contains three sections. Analytical writing, Quantitative reasoning, Verbal Reasoning. The unscored & Research sections can be skipped. The most frustrating is that you have to write before you can give the Verbal exam which you will be very anxious ( i bet).

Section	Number of Questions	Time
Analytical Writing	1 Issue Task*	45 minutes
Analytical Writing	1 Argument Task*	30 minutes
Verbal	30	30 minutes
Quantitative	28	45 minutes
Unscored**	Varies	Varies
Research***	Varies	Varies

Its better to check the official GRE page at ETS.
Here are the cost accoring to that page on 23-august-08. The fees are subjected to change any time. So be careful.Also you can give the exam only once in a month and 5 fives in a calendar year. Also all INDIANS must need an passport for attending the exam. So don't register for GRE unless you have a passport. I faced huge problem with this. I actually received my passport  on the day before the exam.

$140	General Test—U.S., U.S. Territories, and Puerto Rico
$195	General Test—China (including Hong Kong), Korea, and Taiwan. See Bulletin Supplement (PDF).
$170	General Test—All Other Locations
$ 25	Late Registration Fee
$ 50	Standby Testing (paper-based test only)
$ 50	Rescheduling Fee
$ 50	Changing Your Test Center
$ 12	Scores by phone
$ 20	Additional score report (ASR) requests–per recipient
$ 50	Question-and-Answer Review Service—Verbal & Quantitative Sections
$ 55	Score Review for Analytical Writing Measure
$ 30	Paper-Based Test Hand Scoring
$ 30	Score Reinstatement Fee

                                    SOP (Statement of Purpose) is very important in your University application packet. It is the only part of your application on which you have full control. A badly written SOP can break your university application and a good one can make you stand above others. The SOP should not have any grammar or spelling errors. Also one needs to read the application instruction for each university. Some universities limit the SOP’s length and spacing between lines. Some of them ask the applicants to mentions some parts like what they are going to do after completing their graduation.

                                  Don’t write you SOP as a resume -written in paragraphs. SOP may concentrate only on your under –graduate life and other parts which are relevant only. Most of the portion must speak on how you have developed interest in you prospective field of interest and how you have achieved various goals. Share the ideas which you want to research with the committee. A badly written SOP can indicate your negligence and disinterest in applying for that university and eventually leads to rejection of your application. By the way your SOP cannot make up for low GRADES (academic background). If you hire professional SOP writers to write, the professors can tell who has written that. The SOP is well written and if your verbal scores are low in GRE and TOEFL. This speaks who has written the SOP. It takes considerable amount of time before you can get to a good piece of essay. My statement of purpose took about one month of proof reading and rewriting. Ask your close friends to proof-read for you. Absolutely no negative remarks on yourself or any other person should be written in the SOP. The sop must project a positive image of YOU. Try to something different and don’t go overboard. Write about your research experience, it is what they want. Start writing the SOP once you have given all of your tests (GRE, TOEFL etc...), because you have to concentrate on these tests. Don’t make one fit for all type of essay. Write different essays for different universities. Spell check it zillion times. Note that writing a personal essay takes lot of effort and time. So be careful while writing you application essay.

Here are some very good Resources on SOP

SOP (Statement of Purpose) is the single most important part of your application procedure which you have in your hands. Here are some good articles which give you information on how to write an SOP.

Statement of Purpose Website


WRITING A WINNING STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Writing Your Statement of Purpose for Grad School

 Statement of Purpose Advice

 General Statement of Purpose Guidelines

 How to Write a Statement of Purpose

The Statement of Purpose/Letter of Intent/Graduate School Essay 

  How to Write a Great Statement of Purpose

These are the approximate costs you have to bear if you apply for higher studies.

Items	Cost	Remarks
Internet	0.5$/hr	Depends on how much you use
Gre	170$	For Indians (for other countries depends on where you live)
Toefl	150$	For Indians (for other countries depends on where you live)
Additional Score Reports for GRE	20$/report	You will get 4 score reports free with exam registration
Additional Score Reports for Toefl	17$/report	You will get 4 score reports free with exam registration
Application fee for each university	30$ to 100$	depends on which university you are applying
postal charges	25$/packet	this is for DHL with university application fee concession

Word	Meaning	Sentence
abscond	to go away suddenly (to avoid arrest)	The dog has absonded the bone piece. The cashier has absconded large amount of cash f
abstruse	difficult to comprehend or understand, obscure	his explanations are so abstruse that I cannot understand at the end of class
abut	to be adjacent, border on	This piece of land abuts on a lake
abysmal	bottomless, extreme	His reponse to my questions was abysmal. Due to starvation, his state was abysmal
acarpous	effete , no longer fertile or worn out	The flooding conditions in the Midwest will create a plethora of acarpous crops
acclaimed	welcomed with shouts and approval	he was acclaimed the most succesful industrialist of the year
accolade	award or praise approval	he received many accolades
accretion	Growth or increase in size by gradual external addition, fusion, or inclusion,the growing of separate things into one	the accretions of paint that had buried the door's details like snow
accrue	accumulate	he accrued so much wealth
adamant	kind of stone inflexible	he is adamant about following rules and procedures

Word	Descritption	Sample Sentence
abate	to lessen or to subside	We have to wait till the storm abated.
abdicate	giving up control authority	King Edward abdicated the British throne in order to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson
aberration	abnormality, straying away from normality	He has abberant habits. The abberant results shows that there is something wrong with the experiment.
abet	help somebody in doing (crime)	nina abetted him in stealing questions papers
abeyance	suspended action	The costruction of buildig is in abeyance till the we recieve the JUDICIAL clearance
abhor	to detest or to hate	i abhor his way of managing things
abide	to be faithful to endure , to hold	All citizens have to abide by the law of the State.
abjure	to giveup on oath or belief	She abjured her beliefs, For nearly 21 years after his resignation as Prime Minister in 1963, he abjured all titles, preferring to remain just plain 'Mr.'
abraded	to rub off or worn away by friction	The tyre was abraded by constant usage.
abrogate	to put aside; put an end to	The government decided to abrogate sati

TOEFL (Test for English as Foreign Language) is a test conducted by ETS to measure an individual’s English skills. Students other than English speaking countries are required to take TOEFL as a proof of their language skills. The TOEFL IBT (Internet Based Test) has four sections and is very long (approximately 4 to 5 hours). You have to eat properly and attempt the test. Unlike GRE TOEFL is very easy. Foreigners may feel difficulty in speaking section. Most of the exam is very easy and you can enjoy it.
It has four sections
• Reading
• Writing
• Listening
• Speaking

All of these sections contain integrated questions like in the listening section, you will read a paragraph on a topic and then you will listen to a lecture on that topic. Then you will answer a question based on both.
By the way keep a good eye on the TOEFL requirements of the Universities. If you don’ts meet the requirement and got admission into that university you may have to give TOEFL again or need to take some English lessons which will cost you good amount of money (Usually these English classes are a noise your graduate life). So prepare well in TOEFL to avoid future tortures of unwanted English classes.

GRE – Graduate Record Exam. This is a standard exam conducted by ETS a non-profit organization. This exam is used by almost all Universities in USA and Europe as a standard of student’s analytical and language skills. You have to take GRE as all universities recommend it and use it as a scale or qualification for admission and GSA (Graduate Student Assistantships) are awarded based on these. GRE consists of three sections, Verbal, Quantitative and Analytical Writing. To complete analytical writing sections successfully you need to have good typing speed since you will be typing a lot during this section.
If you have poor typing speed, I suggest you work on this as this will save you a lot of time during exam. The other sections verbal and quant require a good amount of work. It is not easy to get 800/800 in verbal. Verbal section of GRE is generally very tough compare to SAT. Quantitative section is easy compared to SAT. GRE is a computer adaptive test. If you get the question wrong then next question will be an easy one and if your answer is right then the next question will be harder. So if you are getting a lot of harder question then it means that you are doing well in you exam. If you are getting easy questions then you are doing badly. The harder the question is the more marks you get for that one and vice-versa. Visit ETS’s website for more and updated information on GRE.

It depends on your English skills. I would recommend an Indian at least 3 months of study (3-4 hours daily) before attempting the exam. Generally we have poor vocabulary. So it takes lot of time before you before you attain a decent vocabulary. But remember GRE is not the only criteria where the universities select you. It is just considered as a qualifying exam. If you have excellent academic record, GRE wouldn’t matter much. If you have a low academic profile, I suggest you work hard on scores of GRE & TOEFL. Since you cannot change your academic profile, you need to get high scores. Generally applications for fall semester start at October to November range. So it is better to give all the tests by this time. It is generally recommended to give all tests by September End. Because if you get any low score, you can rewrite the exam and there is enough time for the scores to come. So start preparing for GRE in JULY. Take as many practice tests as you can. Don’t ignore quant part of GRE. The maths questions are easy but without practice you will be losing questions which are under your nose. The quant questions of GRE are of O level. They are actually very simple, but made tough by wording. Practice makes man perfect!! Don’t attempt the exam unprepared. You will lose money and time by that way. So prepare well. All the best.

Here is another word list from mst.edu proffessor. Good collection of important words

wordlist-mst edu - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: wordlist-mst edu

Here are some most popular GRE word lists.
Barron's Gre Word List

33new txt - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: 33new txt

I will post links to graduate resources in this blog.
I hope this helps atleast some of the graduate students......