<p>Was just wondering which vocab list would be the most comphrensive and efficient in improving Critical Reading scores, and was wondering which one you guys thought helped you out the most? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I don't know if this would help you much, but there was a BIG list of vocabulary words that Barron's old prep book offered. Some found the vocabulary words to be useful, while other totally ignored them.</p>
<p>Here are two compilations of words. Before you get overly excited, please note that I consider the rote memorization of words to be one of the worst preparation possible. Even we had analogies, studying list would have been the absolute last thing I would have done. I actually compiled the Barron's list to demonstrate how ineffective and how irrelevant it was to the SAT. The only thing Barron's excels at is to "predict" the words that WERE in past tests. A blindfolded monkey pointing at a few pages of your Webster would probably do better than Barron's by a large margin. </p>
<p>People whose primary language is not English might find some help in READING the lists but I would never recommend to anyone to STUDY the words.</p>
<p>In my opinion, the shorter the list the better. Predicting the words that should show up on future tests is largely an exercise in futility. Every once in a while a blind hog might find an acorn, but repeating the feat is almost impossible. Composing list of words is the easiest space filler an "author" can find. </p>
<p>Hmm, damn, what do u suggest would be the best way to get better at those sentence competions? They killed me in the march SAT. Thanks in advance</p>
<p>I honestly do not know how Xiggi expects people to raise their grade in SC. I am personally learning vocabulary in an atleast semi-effective way. I have seen much improvement.</p>
<ol>
<li>Look up words I don't know on the SAT tests</li>
<li>Learn root words</li>
</ol>
<p>Looking up words while taking practice tests is a very good step in the right direction. Reviewing lists of roots, suffixes, and prefixes will also help you. The more you practice proactively, the more words you will uncover. Not unlike math, a student should look for patterns and keywords that give the direction to the second part of the sentence -words such as although, albeit, etc). </p>
<p>It is obvious that vocabulary plays a role in performing well on the SC. The issue is that the time one would devote to studying 3500 or 5000 words -which probably would NOT appear on YOUR SAT- is better spent on working through past tests and working on polishing the skills to approach the SC with confidence. Also, it is my experience that students who start with the ambition to rote memorize lists such as the 3500 words tend to lose interest and end up not working sufficiently on CR.</p>
<p>"Also, it is my experience that students who start with the ambition to rote memorize lists such as the 3500 words tend to lose interest and end up not working sufficiently on CR."</p>
<p>That's me. Exactly.</p>
<p>does anyone know any helpful work-books that will help you on CR? Thanks</p>
<p>For CR, you should check Grammatix.</p>