Where the hell do they come up with these words that they expect you to know how to use? I realize that there are alot of words out there that I don’t know the meaning of, but typically I can figure it out by reading it used in a sentence.
What is the purpose of seeing if someone knows that antonym of the word EBULLIENCE?
And then they give you choices that are once-in-a-lifetime use words as the antonym so I can not only not know the question, but not understand the answers either.
Granted I’ve only taken some practice tests to get ready for the real deal but I’m guessing that they are similiar in format and word selection.
I just don’t understand how testing someone on their knowledge of the definitions of obscure words is a useful tool for seeing if someone is ready for grad school.
FTR, I’m an engineer who had a 3.75 GPA in my undergrad. I’m routinely scoring between 690 and 750 on these practice tests for quantitave scores but am boucing around bigtime on verbal scores betweem 320 and 600!
I’m taking my GREs on Monday, and so far, I haven’t done too badly on the practice verbal tests.
I don’t think they actually expect you to know the definitions to all those obscure words. It’s better than that. They expect you to figure it out based on the process of elimination and knowledge of the root, prefixes, and suffixes.
So take heart!
I’m going to get fucked over in the math section. It’s awful because I remember learning all those things 7 years ago in high school–none of it looks foreign to me–but I’ll be damned if I can remember any of the actual steps for solving them.
I took the GREs a few months ago, and I actually surprised myself with my scores. Are you, by any chance, using the Princeton review book and finding the antonym to ebullient is vapid? God, I got so annoyed at that question.
Ebullient/Ebullience are not obscure words. Off the top of my head, I would have picked “glum” or “morose” as antonyms, but I’m assuming this is multi-choice and designed to test your vocabulary. Do you pit all tests you don’t know the answers to? I’d suggest more study, less pitting.
Middlecase, you have clearly never taken the GRE. I knew most of the answers and got a fantastic score, so maybe you’ll believe me when I say that it is a STUPID test.
The math sections are easier than the SAT IMHO. Nothing beyond the most basic algebra. The verbal is supposed to be much harder than the SAT and it is. At least in practice.
I read quite a bit and I don’t recognize 30-35% of the words in the practice exams.
Yes. There is a practice program called GRE PowerPrep (and it looks like it was designed for either Windows 95 or Windows 3.1) available somewhere at www.gre.org. I believe it is somewhere under the test prep section.
Yeah, there really is a bizarre disconnect between the level of difficulty on the two sections. I read a lot and did very well on the SAT verbal yet found myself really floundering on the GRE. The math section was almost trivial…
To answer your question, the purpose of finding out if you know the antonym of ebullience is to see if you are well-read at the college level. It’s a word I’ve encountered several times. It’s somewhat obscure, yes, but far from a once-in-a-lifetime word—unless, that is, you are not reading the sort of material that you really should be reading to get a well-rounded college education. I’ve heard many engineering students complaining bitterly because they are forced to take liberal arts courses. I don’t know if the OP is one of those students, but guess what! This is why.
On the other hand, remember that many other students who are taking the GREs have spent the past four years doing little else besides reading great books and looking up every word they don’t know. You should not expect to place in the high percentiles of the verbal exam, because you can’t compete with these folks; you have been concentrating your effort in a different area. (Right now, they’re freaking about the math portion, if that’s any comfort to you.)
If you’re an engineer, nobody’s going to care about your verbal unless it’s exceptionally high or exceptionally low, anyway. Just thank your lucky stars that they’ve eliminated the Engineering subject test. (Still nauseated at the thought of the Physics GRE)
I took the GRE about 13 or 14 years ago. I was thinking I’d head into a master’s degree in math. I was never a great student in math incollege, I didn’t put a lot of effort into it. I have always read quite a lot, popular fiction, mysteries, sci-fi mostly, nothing very “literary”. Anyway, score-wise, I did better on the quantitative than the verbal, but I did much better percentile wise on the verbal (I don’t remember any of the numbers…isn’t it scored like the SAT? And I never took the SAT either, but I scored 30 on the ACT! I remember that!). And the analytical stuff completely crushed me. Those logic questions with the boxes and the rules and which box has what in it. Ick. Of course, I did absolutely no prep work whatsoever, and I never went to grad school either.
I took the GRE and was accepted into an engineering graduate program. Fear not, they’re not going to care very much about the verbal portion of the GRE. If you do well on the math and logic portion, you’ll be fine.
Be warned though, I saw the stats from when I took the test (1988) and the median scores for people with engineering degrees are in the mid-90th percentile for the math and logic portions and in the mid 70’s for verbal.
Think of the verbal portion as a logic problem. As someone noted, you can eliminate choices based on the word roots for example.
I actually found a lot of the study for my GREs quite helpful. I read a lot, but there were some words that popped up fairly often in my research that I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t studied for the GRE.
Also, the word ebullient isn’t all that obscure - I’ve run into it on several occasions. I guess it just depends on which field or study program you’re in.
Yeah, that’s a real freaking stretch in my opinion. I’m not familiar with any usages of those words that would count as antonyms.
Am I being whooshed here? I haven’t taken an English class since high school, but I knew the word then and now. “Ebullient” certainly doesn’t strike me as obscure.
Ebullient’s not that rare a word, but I’m not sure I’d think of vapid as its opposite.
It does seem a bit ridiculous, though. Assuming the OP is aspiring to a graduate program in engineering, s/he could probably get through the entire master’s or Ph.D. program without once having to use the word ebullient. Unless you’re studying humanities, social science, or perhaps certain other odd fields, the vocabulary part of the test seems a bit pointless. That’s not to say that other parts of the verbal test are without value, for verbal communication is important in any field. But, “ebullient” is the opposite of “vapid”? That’s not so useful.