The high-frequency 300
Three hundred words account for most of the verbal questions you will encounter across cognitive aptitude tests. Published lists are freely available from test prep vendors and GRE preparation resources, which overlap heavily with aptitude test vocabulary.
Learn the 300 in batches of 30 over ten days. Each batch takes about 30 minutes of initial learning and 10 minutes of review the next day. Spaced repetition is the multiplier. A batch learned once and reviewed three times on separate days sticks roughly five times better than a batch learned four times in one session.
Learn in context rather than isolation
Flashcards that show only a word and its definition fail because the brain has no scaffolding to hang the meaning on. Flashcards that show the word in a sentence succeed because context cements meaning and because you will encounter the word in context on the actual test, not in isolation.
When you build or choose a flashcard deck, pick ones that include a natural example sentence on the back. Anki and Quizlet both have aptitude test decks that follow this format.
Root, prefix, and suffix decomposition
Most unfamiliar words can be decoded by their roots. Circumlocution is circum, meaning around, plus locution, meaning speaking. Once you know those two parts, you do not need to memorize the full word because you can derive the meaning.
Learn the 50 most common Latin and Greek roots along with 20 common prefixes and suffixes. This single investment unlocks thousands of derived words. Any decent GRE vocabulary book will have this list in the first chapter.
Daily reading habit
Thirty minutes of dense writing daily grows your passive vocabulary faster than any flashcard app. The Economist, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and long-form features from The New Yorker all use vocabulary at the upper range of aptitude test difficulty.
Reading trains context, tone, and nuance, which matter on verbal reasoning passages where the question often turns on the connotation of a word rather than its dictionary definition. Flashcards alone cannot teach connotation. Reading does.
Synonyms and antonyms as clusters
Most verbal aptitude questions ask you to identify a synonym, antonym, or analogy. Learning words in clusters rather than as individual entries cuts your memorization load dramatically.
Frugal, parsimonious, stingy, thrifty, and penny-pinching are all related words with slightly different connotations. Learn them as a cluster with the connotations noted, not as five separate flashcards. The cognitive anchor of a cluster is stickier than five isolated words.
Dealing with idioms and collocations
Some aptitude tests, especially UK-origin tests like SHL and Watson-Glaser, use phrases rather than single words. Bear in mind, come to terms with, run the gamut, bear fruit. These are collocations that do not follow from word-by-word translation.
Include a dedicated collocation list in your study if your target test is UK-based. A couple of dozen common phrases cover most collocation questions.
Sample progression over four weeks
Week one: 30 words a day plus roots, prefixes, suffixes basics. Week two: 30 words a day plus daily reading. Week three: mixed timed verbal reasoning practice, one passage a day. Week four: full timed verbal sections with review.
This progression takes a candidate with minimal vocabulary prep from below the median on verbal sections to comfortably above the 75th percentile. Candidates starting with stronger vocabulary compress the first two weeks and spend more time on the timed sections.