<p>Theoretically, you should not be able to study vocabularly for the SAT. It should be entirely relationship-based and rely on intuition. But with words, it simply cannot happen. As you probably have noticed, the relationship between words on analogies are never complex; they simply use harder words. And these words appear FREQUENTLY. There is really no denying that the SAT recycles words, so you might as well know what they mean. There are a lot of words in the english language, but luckily the SAT uses a very small, and predictable, portion of them.</p>
<p>Come On, More Info Will Be Helpful</p>
<p>Mention Anything That Helped You Guys Out!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>yea i need some tips also</p>
<p>Don't do Barron's wordlist unless you have at least a month in hand. 3500 words in 3 days is suicidal. I skimmed over the questions in the critical reading first, then looked for the answers in the passage. It worked really well, but maybe thats just me.
Read newspaper editorial pages and magazines; some of the passages are very similar in tone to the ones you'll get in the real thing. And make the tests in the 10 Real SAT's your best friends. They're the closest you will get to the real test and solving lots of questions usually gives you a better grasp of how to tackle the slightly tricky ones. And Barrons practice tests are too hard, PR's are too easy (though their prep is really good) I liked sparknotes for SAT 2 writing but i didnt use it for the SAT. Anyway I got an 800 withou too much sweat and I am not a native english speaker so there's hope for evry1.</p>
<p>Personally, I didn't memorize any vocabulary at all (that's no way to live), which I suppose was a risky move, since I, like sucharita, am not a native English speaker. However, I think good reading habits is the key to doing well. Get used to reading broadly and critically, and use logic and process of elimination-- the SAT IS a reasoning test, after all. Although, being a 770er, I wonder if some vocabulary prep could have helped me get that extra 30 points.</p>
<p>for math do as much math sections of the 10 Real SATs as u can. It helps, cuz after a few tests u'll see the pattern.</p>
<p>Instant 800 verbal!
Just do the following:</p>
<p>Join AP lang/lit (Pump up critical reading)
Get that Ti-dictionary pogram for your TI w/e (9000+ words!)
Take the test at IVC (Stupid proctors)</p>
<p>Works wonders.</p>
<p>ok...i don't like people who got a 770 Verbal who aren't native speakers. That makes me angry.</p>
<p>"ok...i don't like people who got a 770 Verbal who aren't native speakers. That makes me angry."</p>
<p>...excuse me?</p>
<p>I brought my verbal from 610 to 770 in a few months (I was 1 question away from a perfect score, d'oh!)</p>
<p>This is what I did:
I went through an old Kaplan Verbal workbook and did all of the excersizes... This didn't really help.
I learned about 80% of the vocab list in "up my score".
I read the grammatix (grammatix.com) guides (these helped a LOT).
and most importantly, I bought a ton of tests and did them all. I must have done 15 or so REAL SAT tests.</p>
<p>I got all the critical reading right, whereas before I really struggled with it. I didn't read a single passage either -- I just read the lines the questions said to do. This is a very effective strategy since you aren't SO BORED by reading the passages, it saves time, etc.</p>
<p>For analoges I realized that there has to be a <em>STRONG</em> and <em>DEFINITE</em> connection between words. I also learned that when there are hard words, there is an easy root.</p>
<p>For sent. completion, I learned to try putting my words first.</p>
<p>I really think the biggest thing is concentration. If you don't get bored and can concentrate throughout the whole 3+hrs then I think you'll be set. You get better at concentrating my practicing.</p>
<p>Good luck! :) </p>
<p>PS - sorry for incoherentness... real tired :/</p>
<p>Here's my advice, for what it's worth:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you have 3 or more months before the exam, do a TON (at least 30 minutes per day) of outside reading. By this, I mean periodicals such as New York Times, Time, New Yorker, Scientific American, Wall Street Journal, Economist, etc. Also, read random articles (the long ones) from Encyclopedia Britannica. For challenging reads, pick up works from dead German philosophers. For fiction, the ones you read in English class should be sufficient. If you want more, consult the list in Barron's. Look to read critically, and find the main idea and/or thesis (if there is one) of each piece of work (for fiction pieces, focus on the character interactions). </p></li>
<li><p>Learn about 1000 vocab words. I have my top students work through almost 1100 words, and my students consistently score in the 700s (one scored 790 on the October exam).</p></li>
<li><p>Read the questions first on Critical Reading, and read the passage as necessary. If you want a more detailed discussion of this method, consult a Princeton Review book.</p></li>
<li><p>Do TONS of SC and Analogies drills from various books, including Barron's SAT Verbal Workbook, Kaplan SAT Verbal Workbook, 10 Real SATs, etc. Look up ALL the words you didn't know afterwards, and review the explanations. Your ultimate goal is to consistently score 100% on the drills.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If you need the vocab lists, e-mail me.</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Julsie-I wasn't being rude, I was just saying as a Native Speaker of English (760), I'm incredibly impressed by non-native speakers who score very highly. Nothing mean, a compliment!</p>
<p>like Xiggi used to say, learning vocabulary is a waste.
But for non native speakers (like myself) i would suggest that they do the Barron's flash cards. those words are the basic words u will need. </p>
<p>for example this nov on my test there were around 10 words i didnt know, and those words werent even there on the Barron's 3500 list. Its better spending all your time on practice, and when you come across a difficult word, take out ur dictionary and look up the derivation of the word coz the SAT doesnt require you to know the precise meaning of each word, just a general idea.</p>
<p>So for example you come across ambivalent, you look it up in the dictionary.it says ambi- : combining from around, both.</p>
<p>with this you get the general idea of the following words:
ambidextrous
ambiguous
ambivalent
ambient</p>
<p>similarly, nov,neo : new
so you get words like
novice
neophyte
neoplasm
novitiate</p>
<p>best of luck</p>
<p>My (recentered) score from a long time ago: 790. My son's score from May 04: 790.</p>
<p>Since hello invoked Xiggi's name, I will follow up. When you take practice tests, it is very important to review your answers - especially wrong answers and right ones that were guesses. If you understand why you made an error, it will help you understand the logic of the system. If you have anyone to work with on this - parent, friend, etc. - it can really help. Discussing a question may help give you more insight into a question than staring at a book in your room.</p>
<p>Other advice - take practice tests under test-like conditions (including time of day, breakfast, etc.). </p>
<p>If you are not in gym class or play a sport, work some activity into your schedule. The SAT is a long test, and having a little physical resiliency is important. </p>
<p>Finally, GET ENOUGH SLEEP for at least the 3 nights before the test. Sleep deprivation will hurt your ability to think and focus.</p>
<p>Don't listen to hello's advice. He doesn't know what he's talking about. An 800 scorer (or somewhere up there) does not necessarily know how to lead others to score 800s as well. Hello sounds like he had a naturally strong vocabulary before he started prepping for the exam. For those are who are not as secure with vocabulary, learning vocab words DOES help.</p>
<p>I have helped dozens of students succeed on the verbal section, and I can tell you from experience that vocabulary CAN help (as long as you know the strategies and approaches for handling the various question types). It's important to know WHICH words to study, however, and my students have the right word lists. One good point hello did make was studying roots and breaking down words to decode them and/or to learn them -- these are important as well.</p>
<p>" I can tell you from experience that vocabulary CAN help" yeah but the point is how much. If you want go check for yourself, check the old forums for the official SAT Verbal discussion and u'll see none of the difficult words are on these word lists. most of them are new (ok some are repeated, but i found the Barrons flash cards sufficient). You are better off taking more practice tests (under timed conditions), whereby you will learn more word roots and strategies and will eventually ace the test.</p>
<p>By practice you will learn vocab and word roots in context, which is by far more easier to retain for the test day. </p>
<p>btw i am a non native speaker, just did the barrons flash cards and missed none on SC and 2 on the Analogies May 2004 (only these two sections require vocab)</p>
<p>Hello,</p>
<p>ETS will ALWAYS throw new words on the exam, and no list (not Barron's, or any other lists I have seen, including mine) can EXHAUSTIVELY predict every word you might see on the exam. That does not take away from the value of learning vocab words, however, because it is STILL a STANDARDIZED exam, meaning that it MUST conform to certain predictable characteristics, including the types of words it tests! You also missed my point that it's not SOLELY learning vocabulary; you must combine it with knowing the strategies for the questions and PLENTY of practice, as you correctly point out. You do not necessarily pick up all the good words from practice, and it does not hurt to learn from GOOD vocabulary lists as a supplement.</p>
<p>My one and only piece of advice:
Memorize vocabulary from SAT VOCAB BOOKS. It's a pain but it works.</p>
<p>Really, come on. You guys say you love learning, but you take so much time out of your life to learn how to take a test. Instead of learning the tricks to getting an 800, research something that interests you. Unless you enjoy learning how to take a SAT test, in the long run, you are actually hurting yourself.</p>
<p>When hard questions come at the end of an analogy set, use your mind. Try to find pairs with definite relationships and eliminate others. if answer choices contain unfamiliar words also, don't panic. Be careful of eye-catchers. When a choice has similar conntation to the words in the stem pair for a hard question, say, they both deal with "MIND", the choice often goes wrong. It's very effective. But you have to master and test them through practice. For critical reading, one effective way is to repeat exercising on questions from 10 REAL. Only after that can you know, intrinsically, how ETS try to confuse you with distractors.</p>