Gre wordlist vs dawn
 

Seniors guide me regarding the above problem

I am learning 12 words from wordsmart daily, but i find many new words from dawn and so it becomes difficult to learn so many new words. Seniors what should my focus be dawn words or gre

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The vocabulary from DAWN and other newspaper are a good way to increase vocabulary as well as your knowledge.By doing this,you will not sacrifice your reading,although you will waste your time when you cram vocabulary lists.Make your own list from DAWN and other newspaper in MS WORLD.This method will also help you to use words correctly and in correct context

Hey Lonegamer,

Reading Dawn is extremely important, it will build your vocabulary and improve your sentence structure (important for essay and nearly all your other papers). But GRE words are vital for your Precis and Comp paper, specifically the synonym and antonym and pair of words. A lot of the time words are asked which you will simply never learn from Dawn. You need to learn at least 20 GRE words a day.

I can give you advice regarding retention of new words. Whenever you learn a new word look up its meaning on dictionary.com, DO NOT RELY ON THE MEANING GIVEN IN THE GRE LIST YOU ARE USING, doing that alone will not help you retain the word. i like dictionary.com because it has simple sentences which show you how the word is used. Many times the literal meaning and usage of a word are different.

Now this is how you will retain the word in the long run. Revise the words you learnt at the end of the day, revise again the next day, revise again after 7 days, revise again on the 15th day, and revise again on the 30th day. This is going to be a consistent process, but this is the only way that will ensure that you will retain the meaning of the word. It only take 2 minutes to revise 20 words, you just need to do it consistently.

[B]GRE wordlist of course!
[/B]Reading Dawn is important for current affairs but it alone won't cut it. I recommend GRE wordlist app by magoosh, if you own an android phone.It has fun sentences. It was really helpful.There was another app "Painless roots". Magoosh's GRE flashcards are also available online if you (Or anyone else who reads this answer) don't have an android phone.

I didn't do this revise, revise thing because I had so many subjects to prepare and I'm super lazy and too undisciplined to pull this off. I started the wordlist a month before exams.
But still,
Do not, I repeat, Do not make your own wordlist. it's a HUGE time suck.
a)You'll have to find a GRE word from an article. (There aren't many)
b) You'll have to look up the word
c) You'll have to write the word and the meaning, either on your pc or on your notebook.
d) You'll have to learn from it. SNOOZE!
It is a time waster. We can't, under any circumstances, spend an hour reading the newspaper. Especially if you're reading one international and one local.

One more thing read, read whatever interests you. Fiction, non-fiction, old Sherlock Holmes stories. That's the only way to really expand your vocabulary.

[B]Pro Tip[/B]: Only read the headlines of dawn, don't open them and only open editorials and columns, if something is really important, it'll reach there.

Enjoy the prep.

Yeah i was making my own list and reading dawn took more than an hour.i though it was a waste of time beside should i skip the news portion and focus on colums and articles and which international newspaper is good

What Nazish advised is very practical, that is more or less how I am preparing as well. My approach is more geared towards people with very weak English.

I just read Nazish's reply more carefully and have a few thoughts.

While going through a high frequency list like Maghoosh one month before the exam may be doable for someone with good English skills, for people with weak English it will be unlikely to help as they wont retain anything, the best way for people with a weak English language vocabulary is to do a few words a day and revise every now and then over an extended period of time, it does not take too much time. Another problem is that one high frequency list alone is not enough. You have to do the Barons 3500 to be comprehensively prepared. It is time consuming and tedious but the 6-10 marks you gain by doing this could be difference between you passing and failing the whole exam.

Also, a clarification. I do not advise finding GRE words in Dawn. I was trying to say GRE word lists can not be a substitute for reading Dawn. I recommend the Barons 3500, Kaplan 900, Manhattan 1000 (this one is important), and the Barons 800. Though the Barons 3500 alone is sufficient

+1 to the suggestion of only reading headlines and then focusing on editorials, opinion and international.

I don't disagree. But the thing is that Magoosh's wordlist is basic and builds from beginner to advanced.
You are right though, but I assumed everyone going for CSS will have good English skills. I didn't prepare for a month only because I thought I was a genius or something. I just knew that wordlist was going to be a hit and miss. You can do 3500 and still miss words and you can do 800 and still get all right. It wasn't a test of skills. I was just messing around with it.

@Lonegamer I prefer Aljazeera for everyday and the economist for weekly updates. The Atlantic has this section for "A confused person's guide to war in Syria" e.t.c. So use that when you're a "confused person"
But Aljazeera is the best and again go for the analysis section only their app is amazing

You know i thought the same, but then i took a sample of words i did not understand that have been asked in about 9 previous English exams and found that a good deal, about 43/69 of them were present in Barons.

@Nazish Hina: Can you please recommend book(s) for idioms and phrasal verbs?