Author Topic: It's good to be a geek... (Read 5979 times)

phaedrusxy · « **on:** November 04, 2012, 09:43:10 PM »

I'm going to be retaking the GRE soon, and I've been studying for the verbal section and... it's amazing how many obscure words I've picked up from D&D sources.

Edit: Incidentally, if anyone else is planning to take this or another standardized test anytime soon this seems like a great webpage for studying. I especially like that the example questions are supposed to scale with your success rate (getting harder if you're getting them right, and easier if not), and it also gives you a percentile score of how you compare to other people who've taken them.

Unbeliever · « **Reply #1 on:** November 04, 2012, 10:58:10 PM »

I have a friend who developed a non-trivial amount of vocabulary from White Wolf games.

phaedrusxy · « **Reply #2 on:** November 04, 2012, 11:07:53 PM »

I'm somewhat of a bibliophile, and so when I see a word presented in a context that is interesting at all, I tend to remember it, and gaming material definitely qualifies for me.

So yeah, I'd say I've definitely learned a non-trivial amount of vocabulary from gaming material as well, though I must admit it isn't entirely all D&D material. I too played White Wolf at one time (as well as several other systems).

SneeR · « **Reply #3 on:** November 04, 2012, 11:42:27 PM »

I remember an assignment where we had to cite where we had read a certain word from a list. We got extra credit for more words.

I found a citation for every word on the list, and well over half of the citations were the PHB

That confused my teacher incredibly.

sirpercival · « **Reply #4 on:** November 05, 2012, 08:11:43 AM »

Oh my god, I can't tell you how many times I've won trivia games due to obscure D&D references. Of course, my mind soaks up trivia like crazy...

phaedrusxy · « **Reply #5 on:** November 07, 2012, 12:48:39 AM »

Got 169 on the verbal, and 157 on the quantitative. I am so damned slow at doing math... there were like 6 questions that I either didn't answer or guessed on, just due to running out of time.

RobbyPants · « **Reply #6 on:** November 07, 2012, 02:16:01 PM »

Quote from: sirpercival on November 05, 2012, 08:11:43 AM

Oh my god, I can't tell you how many times I've won trivia games due to obscure D&D references. Of course, my mind soaks up trivia like crazy...

I know it's helped me more than once.

Tshern · « **Reply #7 on:** November 07, 2012, 04:03:02 PM »

When I first started learning English as a wee lad, I got most of the vocabulary and grammar from Monkey Island.

brujon · « **Reply #8 on:** November 07, 2012, 04:10:31 PM »

Quote from: Tshern on November 07, 2012, 04:03:02 PM

When I first started learning English as a wee lad, I got most of the vocabulary and grammar from Monkey Island.

To me, it was Final Fantasy, and other JRPG's... Walls of Text that helped build my english to a useful degree. I'm mostly self-taught, picking up from movies, books, etc... Only ever did the compulsory english classes in school, which frankly, aren't much.

Quillwraith · « **Reply #9 on:** November 07, 2012, 06:51:42 PM »

Very true.
Celerity; telepathic; swift; disjunction.

phaedrusxy · « **Reply #10 on:** November 07, 2012, 08:18:12 PM »

Quote from: Quillwraith on November 07, 2012, 06:51:42 PM

Very true.
Celerity; telepathic; swift; disjunction.

Yep, got that one in a question.

SneeR · « **Reply #11 on:** November 07, 2012, 09:04:08 PM »

Enervate, abjure, fortitude, factotum.
Heck, even "rogue" and "cleric."

Jackinthegreen · « **Reply #12 on:** November 07, 2012, 09:08:58 PM »

Factotum was my most memorable.

phaedrusxy · « **Reply #13 on:** November 07, 2012, 09:32:36 PM »

Quote from: SneeR on November 07, 2012, 09:04:08 PM

Enervate, abjure, fortitude, factotum.
Heck, even "rogue" and "cleric."

Oh yeah, I saw abjure or abjuration either when studying or on the test, I forget which.

Halinn · « **Reply #14 on:** November 08, 2012, 07:52:26 AM »

Quote from: Tshern on November 07, 2012, 04:03:02 PM

When I first started learning English as a wee lad, I got most of the vocabulary and grammar from Monkey Island.

I remember Starcraft being quite helpful in that regard, myself.

Unbeliever · « **Reply #15 on:** November 08, 2012, 09:37:43 AM »

^ that's awesome, that wouldn't have occurred to me.

btw, if you're looking for fantasy novels heavy on the obscure vocabulary, Donaldson's Covenant series -- which isn't for everyone it seems -- is good for that. He liberally sprinkles in words like incarnadine and avaunt.

brujon · « **Reply #16 on:** November 09, 2012, 10:17:23 AM »

Quote from: Unbeliever on November 08, 2012, 09:37:43 AM

^ that's awesome, that wouldn't have occurred to me.

btw, if you're looking for fantasy novels heavy on the obscure vocabulary, Donaldson's Covenant series -- which isn't for everyone it seems -- is good for that. He liberally sprinkles in words like incarnadine and avaunt.

I'd recommend Edgar Allan Poe. When i first started reading him, i couldn't understand more than a third of what he was saying. Also, H.P Lovecraft and Tolkien. If you read them all, you should be pretty much set on vocabulary for a while!

awaken_D_M_golem · « **Reply #17 on:** November 10, 2012, 12:57:40 PM »

Isn't GRE math basically Algebra 2 / Pre-Trigonometry ?

( ... which I haven't used in like forever ... )

phaedrusxy · « **Reply #18 on:** November 10, 2012, 11:39:24 PM »

Quote from: awaken_D_M_golem on November 10, 2012, 12:57:40 PM

Isn't GRE math basically Algebra 2 / Pre-Trigonometry ?

( ... which I haven't used in like forever ... )

yes

awaken_D_M_golem · « **Reply #19 on:** November 12, 2012, 06:33:51 PM »

Your response is opaque.

Could you disambiguate your perspicacious proclamation ?

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Author Topic: It's good to be a geek... (Read 5979 times)