<p>Xiggi wrote the following post (number 24) on a thread entitled "Which book performed best on the October 09 SAT": "Just as it was easily established years ago on this site, the exercise of seeking a magical list of words remains one of utter futility. While one does learn a LITTLE bit by locating and reading any of the lists on the market, working on other parts of the SAT will pay much larger dividends."</p>
<p>Is Xiggi right? Are all vocabulary lists marginally effective? Is studying a vocabulary list a waste of valuable time? Are there other parts of the SAT that will reward students with "larger dividends?" I believe that Xiggi needs to revise his thinking in light of new information about the distribution of points on the current SAT and new vocabulary materials that are now available. </p>
<p>How important is vocabulary on the Critical Reading portion of the PSAT/SAT? The answer is that it all depends on your goal. If your goal is a score of 460 then all you have to do is correctly answer the level 1 and 2 questions. These questions contain very little if any difficult vocabulary. If your goal is a 580 then you have to correctly answer the level 3 questions. These questions require some moderately challenging vocabulary. If your goal is a score above a 600, you must correctly answer level 4 and 5 vocabulary questions. Challenging vocabulary is the hallmark of level 4 and 5 questions. An analysis of released SAT and PSAT exams produces one inescapable conclusion: Students striving for a CR score above 600 must have a strong vocabulary.</p>
<p>What are the best vocabulary sources for high-aspiring students? I believe that everyone would agree that life-long readers will achieve high CR scores. It would be great if students would read the New York Times, Time Magazine, and the Economist. Unfortunately, few (including me) do. So what is the alternative? For most students the alternative is to take a shortcut by studying a vocabulary list. I agree with Xiggi that many of the vocabulary lists currently on the market are overrated - usually by themselves. For over a year I have put these lists to the test by comparing how they perform on actual PSATs and SATs. Most have done a poor job. However, over a year ago, I discovered Direct Hits. It has repeatedly been the top performing vocabulary book. So lets once again put DH to the test and see how it performed on the Saturday 08 PSAT. </p>
<p>The SATURDAY 09 PSAT contained 12 key level 3 - 5 words plus such trigger words as DENOUNCED, MAVERICK and ANTITHESIS. All 15 of these key words are defined, discussed, and illustrated in Direct Hits. No other vocabulary list equalled this performance. Students who studied DH clearly reaped an impressive reward. Knowing such words as ORACLE, PRATTLE, and DIRGE enabled students to breach the 600 barrier and achieve very high CR scores. So Xiggi is wrong. Studying vocabulary is clearly important and some vocabulary books are a valuable use of time.</p>
<p>“Just as it was easily established years ago on this site, the exercise of seeking a magical list of words remains one of utter futility. While one does learn a LITTLE bit by locating and reading any of the lists on the market, working on other parts of the SAT will pay much larger dividends.”</p>
<p>Looking at it from an average test takers perspective (about 500 each section), it is much easier to study grammar/math concepts, do problems of that type, understand patterns, and make significant gains in those areas. Studying vocabulary for the same amount of time will lead to getting a few more SC questions correct, but 2-3 more questions correct gets you to about a 550-560 in CR. Xiggi advocates spending all that time on other concepts that could raise one’s score by 100-200 points instead of the minimal gains that come from vocabulary.</p>
<p>In the upper levels, I believe studying vocab helps to get a 750 CR closer to 800. At that point there is really nothing else left to study, so vocab is the natural outlet to review to improve one’s score.</p>
<p>That was well said, An0maly. Studying vocabulary is essential for those hopeful to score in the 99th percentile but improving other skills is much more time-effective for a student with more average scores.</p>
<p>Vocabulary is not limited to students who want to score in the top 99th percentile. The Level 4 and 5 Critical Reading vocabulary is typically worth 200 or more points. This a lot of points to sacrifice. What other skills are more rewarding for students attempting to achieve a critical reading score above a 600?</p>
<p>Aren’t those vocabulary words useful for not only SC questions but also for passage-based ones?
I missed a lot of questions because I didn’t know the keywords on which the answers to passage-based questions depended.
I also don’t consider reading DH very time consuming activity which requires hard work. You simply read through the book twice and you learn basically all the vocabulary needed to do well on any CR question dependent on vocabulary knowledge.</p>
<p>I never stated that studying vocabulary is exclusively an interest of those hoping to score very highly but one that is absolutely essential for a student who hopes to maximize his or her score. You can never ensure that the words that you study are going to be on the test or whether that study was the sole attribute to answering a particular question correctly. Vocabulary study is not as time-efficient as learning the patterns and types of questions on other sections of the test which is the ultimate point. Vocabulary is absoutely essential for a high score, but for students who have a limited amount of time to study, pouring their energy into a practice test will be much more beneficial than superficially browsing a word list that may yield no results, particularly when identifying word-relationships within a SC question is a skill that actually exceeds the importance of amassing an extensive vocabulary.</p>
<p>I believe that xiggi is right when it comes to using the time studying vocabulary to study something else and improve it.</p>
<p>However, for people who don’t read much, still want to get a perfect score and have a good amount of time, it is asinine to not study vocabulary. This would undoubtedly greatly increase your chances of getting a perfect score.</p>
<p>bold #1: Is Xiggi’s guide made for students who are cramming or for students who are setting up a study plan for themselves? I think it is pretty clear that this thread is talking about students who HAVE TIME to study.</p>
<p>bold #2: It has been almost been proven that Direct Hits yields results. Personally, I “superficially browsed” through both books and I went from getting 5 SC wrong in March to ZERO wrong in October.</p>
<p>bold #3: no matter how good one is at identifying word-relationships, one must know the words’ meanings to begin with. What is the point of identifying a relationship between things that are unknown?</p>
<p>This is an interesting thread. I hear the argument that you shouldn’t waste time studying vocab all the time from my students and their parents. This message is certainly being preached by most of the test prep companies, and I know that many schools are giving vocab short shrift, too. Many students may be exposed to a word once, quizzed on it once, then left to forget all about it.</p>
<p>Now, of course, if someone starts prepping a week before the test, then they shouldn’t waste time on vocab! But those students aren’t serious about getting the best possible score, and they don’t make up the core CC readership. But even if your baseline CR is 500, you can still benefit from vocab prep if you just commit the time. SC’s are points that so many people leave on the table either because they’re lazy (that can’t be helped), or they’ve bought into the “don’t waste time” argument. It’s insane to think that if you’re disciplined enough to start prepping for the SAT months ahead of time that you shouldn’t spend time on something that accounts for 1/3 of your CR score! I also find it ludicrous that people aren’t willing to spend a little time and money on vocab prep, when a few extra points on the test can mean extra scholarship money (I just had a student offered a scholarship based solely on her SAT).</p>
<p>The point is that yes, you should study vocab, but you should do it in the right way. Start EARLY, so that it really takes only a few moments a day, and do it efficiently with high quality prep materials. It will pay off on test day, help with your essays, and possibly win points on your interview. I conduct alumni interviews for my top 10 alma mater, and I know a well placed “level 5” word makes an impression with me!</p>
<p>i agree with the dark knight. It’s efficient and only took me one day to do direct hits. Of course, some people may not require as much time, others might need longer. You can study math, grammar, but why not vocab? Points are points. It’s free points if you know the words.</p>
<p>Look at the terms in post #4. I believe they are fairly indicative of the words typically present on the (P)SAT. You should not need to memorize vocab lists to know these terms (or at least other words useful in their derivation). I’m sorry, but it might be more worthwhile to read something other than the side of a cereal box each day and actually build your vocabulary through contextual reading. We aren’t talking about crazy Spelling-Bee-type vocab here…</p>
<p>Vocab helps. Simple as that - memorizing words are necessary for me at least; aiming for 2200+. If the dude said its not, then he is wrong in my opinion.</p>
<p>^But that’s a bit more tedious. You have to memorize the roots in order to know the words, whereas in the direct approach of reading from vocabulary lists, you know the words.</p>