Is it fair for the GRE test makers to place such great emphasis on rote vocabulary?
Not entirely. This has been one of the main criticisms of the General GRE, and this undue emphasis on vocabulary is behind the testing service’s decision to significantly revise the Verbal section of the GRE. Anyone testing on or after August 1, 2011 will take the GRE Revised General Test, which contains no Analogy or Antonym questions. The revised Verbal section will measure vocabulary instead through in-context Text Completion questions.
