<p>TWO WORDS: Mnemonic Devices.</p>
<p>Yes they do work. I have one of the best photographic memories but mnemonic devices are 10x better. Photographic memorizing (such as by flash cards or by simply staring at a list of vocabulary words 10minutes before your test) DOES NOT WORK. The only case to use photographic memorizing is if you forgot to study for a low-stakes english class vocabulary test.</p>
<p>But SAT is not the case. SATs are high-stakes and you have ages to prepare for them. If you use photographic techniques then you will panic if the words appear out of context (i.e. using third definitions of words) or if you studied the night before, you will only remember the words by the order in which you memorized them (e.g. since you know the word before was "laconic" you can 'remember' what licentious means). </p>
<p>The real trick to learning vocabulary is to memorize a crazy definition of a word. The sparknotes site has an very well thought out outline of what you SHOULD be doing to memorize words:</p>