<p>I've been looking for good ways to boost my vocabulary. I have "Hot Words for the SAT" and I'm looking into Direct Hits. What is the most useful way to learn vocab? Also, how much is it really worth it to spend such a large portion of your prep time on vocabulary? I mean, what are the REALISTIC chances that even a fourth of the words on the test you take will be from your memory bank of hundreds of words you spend hours studying? How much is too much? </p>
<p>Also, how big of a role does practice play?</p>
<p>Direct Hits won’t take too much time off your hands. It takes around 1 month tops if effort is put forth to have all the words retained. Possibly 2 weeks with flashcards. Practice plays a large role on the reading passages. I do a full test on weekends. It helps a lot. You start to get familiarized on how the questions will come out. It’s just like taking the SAT again but answering to a different prompt. Questions become repetitive. For vocabulary you can easily eliminate answers when the questions are more towards the end because you know those questions are much more difficult that the first say 2 or 3. Eliminate the obvious answer choices then start plugging in words to see what makes sense. If you don’t know the words just try to figure out the word by using roots or by trying to find out if it’s a positive word or a negative word.</p>
<p>I’ve talked to some adults, yale grads actually, and showed them some of the vocab I’ve been studying. They knew all of it and they never studied a word list in their lives.</p>
<p>Does anyone know where I can get a used copy of Direct Hits? How good is the “Hot Words for the SAT” book?</p>