About the Categories Spreadsheet

I can't vouch for this as the best way to remember all the words you need to know
for the GRE. I know I found the practice of making this table invaluable, as every
single word passed through my mind in a way that no amount of glancing and rote can
make it, as I tried to understand it, put it in a category, and economise on the
total number of categories I was introducing.

This is only for revision. It serves to remind you of the words you ought to
remember, and each category only suggests why you may want to remember it, or in
what connection, along with which other words, etc.

Please remember that words in the same category are NOT synonyms. They are just
together because they are related in subject and sense. Even the categories are not
very exclusive. They can and do cross over into each other's territories.

Now this clearly isn't a comprehensive list, rather, tabulation. When I started out
making it, I put in even words I knew and remembered all too well, as I thought I
might as well leave this for posterity while I still had the enthusiasm for it. It
was very clear I would never give these words another look after I took my GRE. And
yet, I wanted to contribute to the GRE heritage. As I went on building it, I found
myself introducing categories even for simple words, and my patience took a beating
as the table grew unmanageably large. So I started screening words more by my own
standards, so I didn't waste too much time on simple words and drawing up
categories for them.

In conclusion, I would think that one must not take this table as is. First go
through all wordlists. In the process, you will naturally identify a lot of groups
and families that words fall into. While you revise, build a table in this way,
using this one as a guide. You will find that you remember a lot of difficult words
only because you typed them into that cell yourself, and they thus passed through
your system in that same way I mentioned.

When you believe you're done, print it out and stick it on your wall. Don't just
glance at it everyday. Study it. This isn't a giant table of flash cards. It's a
little more. Learn not by familiarity, but by understanding.

And yes, this isn't something I could help, but American spelling has been used
throughout!

All the best.

--
Rahul Pratap Maddimsetty
August 2003