Vocabulary Development: Patience and Practice Speaks!!

CAT 2017 approaching fast and this is the time when most of the CAT aspirants start analyzing their preparation to combat the challenge. One thing that haunts most of the students in Verbal Ability section is ‘Vocabulary’ something that cannot be done in just few days at all. It’s not that difficult though. Reading Newspapers – The Traditional Vocabulary Development Methods seem not to work the way we expect them to, there has to be a way out, rather an interesting one. Reading is definitely important, not just for vocabulary, but to have a better understanding of your subjects and languages. Right from the day one keep yourself out of the boring methods. Challenge the traditional methods. Devise your own methods, ones which help you remember the words easily. Vocabulary Development would test your patience. If one intends to do that one is advised to follow these Dictaphone A Dictaphone is a device used to record sounds for a later playback. Whenever I came across a word, I recorded its meaning and made a sentence and recorded the same. I made sure that I listened to the recording for 2–3 times a day. Vocabulary Development would want you to have an outstanding and a winning memory. If you take the first step by listening and speaking again and again, then only it would make a difference. Mnemonics A visual Vocabulary or Mnemonics make the word understandable easily and also helps you remember for a longer time. Example: Is Shahrukh Khan sacred for his fans or sacrosanct? If you’re the one who cannot hear anything against SRK then he’s sacrosanct for you. Try finding out the narrow gap between being sacred and being sacrosanct. CAT and various other MBA exams test your understanding of closely related words in various vocabulary based questions. Let’s take another example. CAT may ask you to complete a sentence choosing an appropriate word out of the two: Boorish and Rogue. Suppose you know that roughly both mean the same, yet having the understanding of fine differences between their usages is what CAT looks at. Rogue stands for an unprincipled guy and Boorish refers to an unmannered person. Choose whichever fits in the given case. Multiply Words What one wants while vocabulary development is learning More Words? I have developed a way which would help the CAT Aspirants learn many words at a time. This technique is to multiply that one word by many similar words. Let’s say I learnt a word garner. Now I know its meaning and I even made a sentence to test its usage. Now while I learn that word, I make a note of all the possible synonyms, antonyms, idioms and I learn a few of them. Ultimately I am learning only one word, but multiplying it to many other words that exist. Chances are you end up learning many words and remembering them after the exercise. Root words: Roots make it easier to learn multiple words with related meanings. If you know the meaning of the root, you can guess what this word is talking about. E.g.: ‘gamy = marriage’ than monogamy = one marriage; Bigamy = two spouses; Polygamy = multiple marriage. Review Check CAT aspirants focus on just doing the many of what already exists. They forget that even if they do less and excel the limited part done by them, chances are they would achieve what they want. Learning as many words as is possible is not the point. Remembering whatever you learnt and marking upon the correct option in the exam is the main issue here. After every 5 days of learning such words, go for a mental exercise of recalling what all you did in those 5 days. Start from the Day 1.. Repeat this exercise after every 5 days and increase the span of time as you feel you know the words thoroughly Key Ideas To Follow:

• Make it a habit of reading and make a note of all the new words you have read everyday.
• Read novels whenever you are free. It helps you to learn many new words and also provides you some kind of entertainment.
• Today many of us are smartphone users. Smartphones are the best medium to improve ourself. We have many dictionary apps like Merriam-Webster. It notifies us daily regarding a new word, its meaning and usage.
• To learn any language, watching movies in that particular language helps us to learn the framing of sentences.
• Make a daily note of the words you learn and stick them to your cupboard in your room. It helps you very much in remembering the words.
• Playing some games like word power also helps a lot.

Dedication and concentration are must!! All The Best!!!