<p>I thought the purpose of the test is to test your ability to reason. But apparently, they have made it so that it seems like they are testing your ability being a walking dictionary.</p>
<p>yeah i agree.
they say that you cant "study" for the SAT, but you definitely can!
i never studied vocab but managed to pull a 730 in cr by lucky guessing haha. those last two vocabs on every section i really had no idea.</p>
<p>Of course SAT vocab is unreasonable. How many of us can honestly say that we use words like "truculent" and "sanguine" in our everyday conversation? SAT Verbal used to be worse though since there weren't as many passage questions.</p>
<p>. . . they don't actually expect you to know those words. Undoubtedly people do know some of the last few all the time, but CB makes it so you "have" to use roots and/or elimination of unlikely choices along with the context of the sentence to figure out the answer.</p>
<p>If you're going to read complex material and write competently about it in college, you need a decent vocabulary. The SAT may test words that you don't use all that often in everyday speech, but they're the kinds of words that you need to be familiar with to be successful in a whole lot of college courses, so I don't see any problem with testing them.</p>
<p>Besides, there's no expectation that you'll know all of the words. Clearly you can miss some and still get a good score. What's wrong with putting some really challenging things on to allow people with exceptional knowledge to demonstrate it? The SAT isn't a school test, where you're expected to know everything.</p>
<p>what jp2249 said...</p>
<p>It depends. Personally, I can't remember finding any of the vocabulary on the SAT difficult, but I do have a bit of a reputation for being a walking dictionary! ;) It's really all about how much reading you've done -- if you know enough, it's possible to guess the meaning of a word you don't understand by its context and sound.</p>
<p>I never studied vocab, took the SAT in sophomore year, and got a 740 on the CR section. So all you need to do to get a decent score is to be a good reader!</p>
<p>
[quote]
How many of us can honestly say that we use words like "truculent" and "sanguine" in our everyday conversation?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You think those are bad? I've seen those in plenty of literature. Try getting "crose."</p>
<p>I guessed 3 questions just by feeling how they sound. 800 CR. Whatever Murasaki said, and use similar/familiar words and whatnot.</p>
<p>Having vocab on the SAT isn't necessary at all. Passage-based reading questions are a much better indicator of intelligence IMO. One needs reading skills to get these questions right since he/she needs to find out the answer based on the content of a passage. You can't really study for this. </p>
<p>Anyone can cram for a test and do well. It takes real intelligence to be able to answer questions based on a passage you've never seen before. All you have going for you is your inate intelliectual ability.</p>