An important aspect of Business-school admissions, GMAT is a qualifying test required by most universities abroad, specifically in countries like the USA and UK. Get access to all the GMAT vocabulary you require to crack the exam.

This exam is a multiple-choice, computer-based and computer-adaptive standardized exam. Along with your educational qualifications and work experience, Business schools also ask for an excellent GMAT score. The exam evaluates your grasp over areas of algebra, geometry, basic arithmetic, multi-source data analysis, grammar and has four sections. The four sections that form the GMAT exam paper are:

• Analytical Writing Assessment
• Integrated Reasoning
• Quantitative
• Verbal

Giving equal attention to each section of the GMAT is necessary to attain a good score. The candidates have a choice to choose the order in which they attempt each of these sections and this can be done at the exam centre itself just before the exam begins.

The focus of this article will be on the Verbal reasoning section of the test and English vocabulary in specific. The verbal reasoning section has a scaled score of 0–60. It is important to ace this section maintain a good overall score in your GMAT exam. The mean score of Verbal is 27 and MBA programmes weigh the scores of this section very heavily along with Quantitative at the time of admissions.

Why is GMAT Vocabulary important?

• GMAT vocabulary is essential for the verbal section as the entire verbal section would be based on GMAT vocabulary. It will also be used in other sections of the test.
• Strong hold on the GMAT vocabulary will enable you to confidently attempt the verbal section and promise you a good score.
• GMAT vocabulary questions will be both direct and indirect. Questions such as those of Sentence Correction, Reading Comprehension, and Critical Reasoning would require a strong GMAT vocabulary for you to be able to answer them.
• Hence, GMAT vocabulary is an important element to be taken care of while preparing for GMAT.

Strategies to Strengthen your GMAT Vocabulary

Preparing GMAT vocabulary and GMAT vocabulary questions can be a tricky task at times. If you’re not a native English speaker, you need to put in extra effort to become comfortable with GMAT vocabulary questions. The vocabulary will come in handy while reading comprehensions, understanding them and then answering related GMAT vocabulary questions.

Here is a list of a few strategies that you can keep in mind while preparing for GMAT vocabulary:

1. Previous-year/Mock papers
2. Going through the previous year/mock papers will be your gateway to GMAT vocabulary. Go through these papers carefully and read the passages mentioned in them.
3. This will make you understand the type of vocabulary you need for GMAT vocabulary questions. You can then go online and look for relevant material. You can even create a GMAT vocabulary list 2021 pdf or use those available online.
4. Read newspapers and magazines
5. Reading a variety of newspapers and magazines will surely help in improving your vocabulary for the test but reading specific newspapers and magazines that use GMAT vocabulary will be the most beneficial for candidates.
6. You can read magazines, newspapers, articles, research papers that use GMAT vocabulary.
7. The most common topics that are repeated in the GMAT exam are American History, Astronomy, Biology, Economics, Environmental Science, European History, Humanities, Human Resource Management and Physics.
8. You can read relevant material on the topics mentioned above while preparing for the GMAT. You can refer to publications such as Scientific American, Financial Times, The Economist, and Bloomberg Businessweek etc for an insight into business/GMAT vocabulary.

Prepare a GMAT vocabulary list 2021 pdf

• While you’re going through the material keep noting down the new words that you come across along with their definitions. This will help you create a list of new words that you can refer to.
• While doing this, you will realise that these words are not only used in the verbal section but will also come in handy while solving questions of other sections. You can add to the list that you have created from the GMAT vocabulary list 2021 pdf that is available on the web.

• Get familiar with the new words through flashcards and quizzes
• Using flashcards is a highly suggested method to prepare a strong GMAT vocabulary. Take a few small card pieces and on one side write the new word from the GMAT vocabulary list 2021 pdf that you found online or have created and on the other side write its definition.
• You can ask a friend or family member to test you and keep eliminating the cards with words that you have learnt by heart. Keep creating new cards as you come across new words in the GMAT vocabulary list 2021 pdf. You can even test yourself using various quizzes available online.
• There are several apps available that help you with the same as well.

• Practice!
• As the saying goes, practice is the key to success; practice is also the key to ace the GMAT. Solve as many mock papers as you possibly can and follow the trends.
• Time yourself, test and then check your progress. Keep tracking your progress. Practising will allow you to use the words that you have learnt and in turn help you know their uses. Identify the words which you found difficult to understand and work on them.

Here is a list of a few commonly used words in the GMAT exam. Refer to the list, look for their definitions, understand and then memorise them.

1. Abstain
2. Analyse
3. Annul
4. Assertion
5. Assumption
6. Chronic
7. Claim
8. Contention
9. Cite
10. Corroborate
11. Efficient
12. Faction
13. Faulty
14. Imply
15. Inference
16. Mitigate
17. Maintain
18. Paradox
19. Premise
20. Posit
21. Redundancy
22. Sufficient
23. Undermine
24. Validate
25. Warranted

Hope this article is helpful to you.

Best of luck!

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