Vocabulary forms the base for several topics of the English section of various competitive exams for different fields at all levels, making it crucial to have a good hold over it. While speaking, particularly of the English section of the Indian Defence exam, it consists of 120 questions with a total weightage of 100 marks. That leaves less than a minute for pondering over any particular question, which could be in the form of the reading comprehension, fills in the blanks, one-word substitutions, close questions, or simply as synonyms and antonyms. To tackle them within seconds, an aspiring candidate needs to have a good hold on all the subject topics, to which vocabulary serves as a backbone.
But then, vocabulary is like a skill; it is not something that an aspirant can master overnight, it requires practice and determination. Even people who are said to have an excellent vocabulary have done the same to get the hold of the language over time, so that it comes to them naturally. But there are a few experimented ways in which you one can work upon any language and vocabulary, especially when it comes to competitive exams. Some of those tips and tricks are mentioned below:
Table of Contents
Reading
To enhance the vocabulary for the Indian Defence Exams or any other exam, start by reading. It may sound boring but reading does help in improving vocabulary by bringing you across new words and their uses and helping you to increase your reading skills and timing giving you an advantage during the comprehensive questions. And reading does not necessarily mean you get into the novel world; even reading online articles, short stories, newspapers, and magazines are excellent sources of this purpose. Only one important thing is that the reading is done from a variety of sources so that one gets exposed to a new set of words by understanding their contextual meanings.
Making notes
Even if you find a new habit of reading, you need to remember what you have read. For that, one can jot down words that they find unfamiliar and try to understand their meanings, be it through a dictionary or Google. Keep it in a notebook or journal to keep them handy to look at, while using them the next time you find them relevant by familiarizing yourself with them after visiting the notebook from time to time.
Learn the origin of the words
Yes, this might seem to be the most difficult tip; not everyone is into researching, and honestly, they also want to prioritize their time on the other important topics. But to learn and keep what you have picked up, this could be the best way to remember. Also, if you can do so, it implies that you can associate that word to any context and explain it to others naturally, alongside using it in a sentence.
Create an idea
It is a general fact that the human mind works constantly, and you keep pondering over thoughts. Similarly, it is also helpful, if you can create an idea around a word that you got familiar with recently, you can remember that word more often. Also, if you can do so, it implies that you can associate that word to any context, and also explain the word to others naturally, alongside using it in a sentence.
Link the word with mnemonics
Mnemonic can be easily understood as the study of systems that improve and aids the memory of an individual. This can help any aspirant to improve their fluency of any language by following some basic steps for it:
- The first step is to connect the word with an image or object that you find the best representation of the word. Or you can associate any person that you know who can be related to that word.
- Then as the next step, just keep repeating the visualization of the above step several times until it becomes a habit to associate that word with that person or the image.
And now, following the above two steps, you can learn any words using Mnemonics by associating any unfamiliar word with a very familiar thing that reminds you of the word that you find difficult to remember the first time.
Practice & enjoy the Learnings
This is very basic and nothing new but is still ignored most of the time. You know ‘Practice makes a man perfect, and how one cannot learn a new thing without practicing it over time. To improve the vocabulary for any competitive exam, you must practice the above methods regularly, time and again. And even though it might not be as easy as it sounds, there is no gain without any pain, so the best way to practice and learn a new thing, especially the vocabulary is to start appreciating your hard work and enjoy your learning by making it fun.
