5800 Exercises to help you on the verbal section of the world's most important tests, including the GRE, GMAT, SAT, and ACT - Talia Swinton 2021

Introduction

There are many different vocabulary building exercises that you can use to improve your English proficiency, whether for test prep purposes or to assimilate more quickly in a new geography, or for professional purposes. Here are some of the popular ones:

- Flash cards: These are a great way to start, and to build up a strong word power base. However, the lack of measurable achievement and gamification can make it difficult to keep score, and can reduce the motivation to keep trying at later stages. It also does not directly help to prepare for a test environment.

- Simple questions and answers about word meanings: These are like flash cards, but with an option to keep score. This is probably the most common format that you will see in other books, but the format can get tiresome after a while, because you see it everywhere. In addition, the density of information is not very high; you learn exactly one word per question.

- The format of most of the questions in this book: The gamified synonym format in this book is a great way to learn a large number of words quickly, and to be entertained while you're doing it! In each of the questions in this book, you will be given a word, and you will need to match that word with a second word that is closest in meaning to the first word from among a pool of five words.

Here are the advantages of the synonym based exercises that you will encounter in this book:

1. High density of learning: Each question ensures that you will learn at least two new words / consolidate your knowledge of at least two words (the two whose meanings you are trying to match). In addition, if you are stuck on a question, and need to look up the meanings of the other words in the options to make a guess by elimination, you could learn up to 6 new words per question. This is 500% higher than the average question in other test prep books.

2. Interesting format: The freshness of this format ensures that you will never be bored, and that it will never feel like a chore. Many of the questions feel closer to puzzles than to exam questions, and this will help you out in more work per session than you could otherwise. This, in turn, will translate to higher test scores and a larger, richer English vocabulary, acquired in a shorter time than everyone else.

3. Flexibility in attempting the questions in this book: If you want to dip into this book a few times a week, it will last you an entire year. If you want to spend a few hours every day attempting the exercises, it will last you an entire month on the first read through, and you can always do a second read through to check if you know the meanings of the additional thousands of words in the other options. You can also attempt it initially with the aid of a dictionary or thesaurus, and slowly fly solo; this is a great way to level up and feel good about your increasing proficiency in English.

Have a groundbreaking, positive, memorable, successful, ineffable, awesome time!