GRE Verbal section Tips

1) Learn words. Barron's word list can be found online (http://www.wordhacker.com/en/article/Barron_gre_list_a.htm). Its 3500 words but you'll be surprised how many you might already know. Just remember that you don't really need to KNOW the words, you only have to have a vague idea of what they mean to get it right for hte most part.

2) Read. Alot. It will allow you to pick up words, and also help you with the reading comprehension section.

3) AWA: practice. Start off watching the news, point out the assumptions they make when they make a claim, and critique them. If they say something you don't necessarily agree with, think about why and maybe write about it. Come up with a counter argument and defend it. This is the essence of the AWA in my opinion.

4) Books: I've used Princeton's Cracking the GRE, and the GRE for Dummies with good success on the verbal, but this forum seems to swear by Barron's. Also, find a book of practice tests, or go through the archives of this forum and expose yourself to every question and odd word you can. Some of the questions on this site are very difficult but you'll be much more confident when you start getting them right.

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Reprobate Meaning and Usage

Meaning:

noun.
- a morally unprincipled person.
- one who is predestined to damnation.

adjective
- morally unprincipled; shameless.
- rejected by God and without hope of salvation.

verb
- to rebuke, admonish, condemn, to disapprove of;

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Derivatives:

reprobation - noun
reprobative - adjective
reprobateness - noun
reprobator - noun

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Synonyms:

Noun
debauchee, degenerate, deviant, deviate, drunkard, guzzler, libertine, miscreant, offender, outcast, pariah, pervert , rake, rascal, rogue, scamp, scapegrace, scoundrel, seducer, sinner, sneak, sot, toper, tramp, transgressor, varmint, viper, wastrel, wretch, wrongdoer.

Verb
blame, censure, condemn, decry, denounce, deplore, doom, excoriate, objurgate, rebuke, reject, reprehend, reprove, sentence.

Adjective
accursed, amoral, bad, base, black, blasphemous, corrupt, cursed, damned, degraded, demoralized, depraved, despicable, diabolical, disreputable, dissolute, evil, immoral, iniquitous, lewd, malevolent, peccant, perverse, perverted, profligate, repellent, sinful, unprincipled, unregenerate, vicious, vile, vitiated, wicked, worthless, wrong.


Antonyms:

adjective
principled, upright, virtuous, good, honest, moral

verb
commend, praise

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Use reprobate in a sentence:

1. The teacher will reprobate the actions of the delinquent student.

2. His assertions were reprobated as inappropriate.

3. She fell in love with a reprobate laundry man who took her to the cleaners.

4. A reprobate and a drunkard in his youth, Mike underwent a spiritual rebirth this year.

5. The old reprobate hung around the waterfront looking for drugs to buy.

6. Some thought that the murderer was a reprobate who deserved to die.

7. He was officially reprobated by his company for taking kickbacks under the table.

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Do you know:

In Middle English reprobate was taken as simply "condemned" or "reproved". It derived from the Latin word reprobtus, which is one of the verb forms (past participle) of reprobre, which means to reprove.

Reprove is basically to admonish someone because you disapprove of what they have done (the opposite would be to praise or approve).

Nowadays, a reprobate is taken to mean someone without moral principles. In a Christian context, it would be used to describe someone who is damned to go to Hell (even God has given up on them), because of their innate inability to adhere to any moral standards.

Reprobate is related to the words probation & probationer. Both words refer to the idea of a person in a state where they have to prove themselves to be able to conform to certain moral standards.