<p>@ ATLMOM Thanks for your post. I’ve had the same shocked response when a student that attends a good quality high school and has taken a test prep course doesn’t know a word like “malleable” - that one came up just a few days ago. Yikes!</p>
<p>As for Xiggi’s very thoughtful post, I appreciate his position and the experience that led him to it. But I just don’t agree with the supposition that only the outliers benefit. My experience actually leads me to the position that most students need SOME vocab prep, and a smaller percentage need a LOT of vocab prep. As with my above example, I am amazed at the limited range of usable vocabulary many students master. While some are reading everything they can get their hands on, many, many more aren’t. While handing someone a list of words and asking them to memorize it isn’t particularly effective or efficient, there are some very, very good vocab resources out there that make learning as easy as possible (not to mention letting parents/students/teachers monitor progress over time…that’s why I’m such an advocate of Word-Nerd.com, it’s efficient and I know exactly what a student’s been up to, or not!). I know I like being able to point to specific weaknesses with vocabulary to help a student best direct their time and efforts.</p>
<p>As for the time commitment, it can be hardly noticeable if a student starts early. We can certainly all agree that no one should put off prep till the week before the test! When I’m approached by a freshman or sophomore wanting to get started on SAT prep, I generally discourage them to wait for a bit with the exception of getting a jump on vocabulary. I don’t think there’s any doubt that gradual development of vocabulary is desirable, and there’s no reason that this process shouldn’t be spaced over months or even years.</p>
<p>And no one has really touched on the fact that a diverse vocabulary is enormously valuable in life. We’re very focused on school and testing here, of course, but vocabulary (unlike geometry, for example) is a skill that we all will use throughout our lives. Unfortunately, as I noted above, schools are often not doing much to help students with vocabulary, especially those to whom reading doesn’t come naturally. </p>
<p>So, count me firmly on the side of studying vocab, but firmly against word lists. It’s all about how you go about it! Thanks for the thoughtful discussion, everyone.</p>