> Because I'm a native speaker of a Romance language, those are precisely the words that I reach for naturally, because they're familiar. My Spanish girl frien

> Because I'm a native speaker of a Romance language, those are precisely the words that I reach for naturally, because they're familiar. My Spanish girl friend at the time was among the first batches to take the computer-adaptive version of the GRE (which increases difficulty as you get questions right, and vice versa). While preparing for the verbal part, she noted that the "difficult" words being explained were often words she knew (to lament, intransigent), while the "simple" explanation involved words she had to learn (to mourn, unyielding). This could then lead to a positive feedback cycle for native Spanish speakers taking the test - get the first few questions right, get "harder" questions with long Latin words (easy!), or get the first few questions wrong, and get "easier" questions with short Germanic words (oh no). Her test score was indeed many standard deviations away from the paper based practice tests she had taken - but only on the verbal part.