Novall Khan
Novall Yasmin Khan (born on September 2, 1987) is an American author of test-preparation books. She is the author of Conquering Vocab: The Most Effective Way to Learn GRE Vocabulary in the Shortest Amount of Time. Her book is designed to provide GRE-test-takers with the most effective way to learn vocabulary, to improve Graduate Record Examination verbal scores.
Background
Khan was born in Syracuse, NY, where she attended school in the Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District. After graduating high school, she attended college at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. Khan worked as a Resident Advisor, Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, and at the UR libraries. She acknowledges her library staff as her inspiration for loving books. Khan graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
Career
Shortly after graduating college, Khan began writing books to help students maximize their testing performance. Her work is based on cognitive science research in language and memory, to help students learn material, not memorize it. An example of her approach is presenting high-frequency GRE vocabulary words in familiar contexts. "...reading AbOUT familiar ICONS increases the likelihood that the amygdala, the structure in the brain involved in emotion and evaluation of stimuli, is activated. Buchanon & Adolphs (2004) demonstrated that the amygdala is involved in helping people remember emotional events, so simply by learning vocabulary in a familiar context should boost memory performance."
Conquering Vocab utilizes research in the cognitive sciences to provide the GRE-test-taker with the most efficient and effective way to learn vocabulary. This method involves reading hundreds of vocabulary words in absurd, but humorous contexts within one dozen short stories. Each short story provides brief, easy-to-understand definitions corresponding to every targeted GRE word bolded within the story. Conquering Vocab is unlike any other GRE book in that memorization, and allotting a significant amount of time to study, is simply not necessary. --Barnes & Noble, 1