<p>I plan on taking the SAT's this spring as a sophmore. I'm doing well on the Math and I'm not too worried about that, but the Critical Reading and my vocabulary needs some work. Right now, for my vocabulary I have the list of 1000 Most Common SAT Words and for each definition, I write a few sentences to learn the word. Is this a good approach? I also heard that reading would help too? Should I read newspaper/articles or story books?</p>
<p>You have good amount of time before big SATs. So pick up a very difficult reading book like ones by Dickens, Austen, etc. Read those books and make your own vocab book. This'll be the best way to learn vocabulary without making yourself painful (I personally find learning off the list to be boring).</p>
<p>Ohh, that sounds very interesting and fun. I'm definately going to do that. And by vocab list, you mean get down all the words that I don't know and get the definition, right?</p>
<p>I don't know if this will help, but I after I made my own flashcards from that list, I found out that Barnes and Noble sells pre-made flashcards of vocab from that very list. -_-. You might want to look into that.</p>
<p>I agree that reading difficult books will help you greatly on both sections.</p>
<p>I don't just mean by reading off the list from number 1 to 50. That's not how brain works and you don't want to do that way.</p>
<p>What you want to do is find a way that can really stick to your memory. If you love to listen to music and learn at the same time, try Flocabulary. If you go to Barnes and Nobles, you can find a book by Flocabulary. You can find more about them in their website, and I heard it's pretty good (didn't use it for myself).</p>
<p>If you're into flashcards, use what previous poster suggested. Sparknotes produce its own 1000 word vocabulary and I'm using it now. It's decent and I like it and definitely saves your time. You can make your own flashcard through internet. There's a site called Flashcard Exchange Online (something similar to that title). So you might want to look into that.</p>
<p>Memorizing vocabulary has its limits. I'm not naturally gifted in memorization but then most people are not either. The most effective way is by reading, reading, and reading.</p>