GRE Vocabulary Preparation

The GRE is the most vocabulary-intensive major standardized test in existence: about half of the Verbal Reasoning questions — every Text Completion and every Sentence Equivalence item — are decided by whether you know the word, precisely. Sentence Equivalence literally asks you to pick the two words that produce the same sentence meaning, which is a synonym test with a timer on it.

Most GRE word lists hand you a thousand words in alphabetical order. This course drills them the way the exam tests them.

What the course covers

Nearly 1,200 exercises across 10 lessons:

  • Three graded tiers — Foundation, Core, and Advanced Words — so you climb from words you half-know to the genuinely hard tier (perspicacious, mordant, sedulous) in order.
  • Synonym Clusters in two lessons, organized by tone (positive/neutral vs. negative/critical) — the exact discrimination Sentence Equivalence rewards.
  • Commonly Confused Pairs — the lookalikes the exam plants as wrong answers.
  • Secondary Meanings — common words in the uncommon senses the GRE loves.
  • Word Roots & Prefixes — for decoding words you never studied.
  • Sentence Completion Practice and a high-frequency Mixed Review to put it all back into exam-shaped sentences.

Every card is typed recall with audio and an example sentence, scheduled by spaced repetition — words return exactly when you're about to forget them.

Start the GRE Verbal course — free

No sign-up needed to start. Every lesson is free.

What this deliberately does not do

This is the vocabulary layer, not a mock exam: no timed sections, no adaptive question formats, no essay scoring. Pair the course with the official practice tests for format drill — and bring to those tests a vocabulary that no longer needs looking up.

Start the GRE Verbal course — free

No sign-up needed to start. Every lesson is free.

Frequently asked questions

How much of the GRE Verbal score is vocabulary?

Roughly half. Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions — about half of the Verbal questions — turn directly on precise word knowledge, and Sentence Equivalence is explicitly a synonym test. No other major standardized test rewards vocabulary study this directly.

How many words do I need?

The established prep lists run 800–1,500 words. This course drills nearly 1,200 exercises across ten lessons, from foundation words through the advanced tier, organized the way the exam tests them — synonym clusters, confused pairs, secondary meanings — rather than as a flat list.

What are "secondary meanings"?

The GRE's favorite trap — common words tested in their less common senses, like habit as a monk's garment, afford as "to provide," or cleave as "to cling." The course has a dedicated lesson for exactly these.

Is the course really free?

Yes. Every lesson and exercise is free and you can start without an account.

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