<p>ok so i need to raise my score by 250 points at least by june SAT, and my critical spot on CR is the vocab. so far ive got the 1000 most common SAT list but idk if thats the best source i could use to study. i dont want anything too crazy like 5000 words or 3500 becuase i only have a little over a month to study. any suggestions?</p>
<p>direct hits</p>
<p>Ok here what do we know:
Neither of vocabulary lists is reliable. The Direct Hits 2011 itself isn’t enough. However, along with other lists–especially Barron’s HF–the DH can make wonders. That is exactly what I am experiecing right now. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that “barron’s 3500 is useless”. It is useful but it requires some adjustments. Which ones? Well, first of all you need to realize which words do appear on the SAT. There is no point in memorizing for example, names of different birds, tools, or so. The “need” words are those which do express various feelings, relationships, or states of being.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ready for the usual (and amazingly) poor advice? Get as many lists of words as you can find, spend all your time organizing them, and then attempt to memorizing the words in one month? Could that help you grab a few rare points? Possibly? Could you do better? Absolutely.</p>
<p>Most people who believe that a lack of vocabulary holds them back also believe in the existence of a magic crutch, namely the Holy Grail of secret words. A decade ago it was the Barrons 3500, then the uber-secret TestMaster’s list, then the Direct Hits, and we are bound to see some magical iPad list in the future. Just snake oil!</p>
<p>Here’s the deal. Scoring higher on the CR is a matter of proper technique. The proper technique comes from taking the time to analyze the patterns in the test and recognize how ETS writes the tests. Bad scores usually come from over-thinking and from faulty inferences. Simply stated, the correct answers --just like in the math section-- are provided in the four corners of the document. Your job is to find them by applying simple rules. </p>
<p>More concretely, get a stack of OFFICIAL tests from the many available sources, and READ all the tests AND the answers with a dictionary. Try to understand WHY the correct answer is correct and WHY the 4 wrong ones are wrong. Do that for 5, 7, 10 tests and then jump onto a few ones and try it for yourself. Pick the strategy that works for you. It could be read the entire text or read the questions first. There is NOT a better strategy. </p>
<p>If you do a dozen past tests in EARNEST, you will pick up all the type of vocabulary you need. Pay attention to roots and prefixes as you increase YOUR database of words. On the real test, you might miss a few Level 4 or Level 5 words, but chances are that the context and type of questions will give you a fair chance to answer correctly. Fwiw, this is WHY the statistics that made DH a “darling” here are so darn misleading. At the end, you can count on one hand the TOTAL of words that were NEEDED and came from memorizing extensive lists. </p>
<p>Your call!</p>
<p>thanks xiggi, hopefully i can achieve my goals by june 
this is off topic but what would you suggest for me to do to at least get 10 on my essay? i have done 4 paragraphs the past 2 times cause of poor time management and received 8 both times. should i write more paragraphs?</p>