<p>I read the Barron's "tactics", which mentions "signal words" such as contrast, support, cause and effect, etc. After taking practice tests, I've noticed that the "signal words" method comes to me like common sense. However, I still miss those problems because I don't know what many of the words mean. Basically, I'm lacking vocab.</p>
<p>I was wondering if the Barron's list of vocab is reliable? Because I've heard Barron's tends to be over-preparing. Then again, it might be better to be on the safe side. I've also seen some people recommend Flip-O-Matics by Kaplan, but then Kaplan is said to have some errors here and there? I would prefer flashcards over a big list, but I want to be sure that it is reliable and will not waste my time on unnecessary information. Any recommendations or criticism? :)</p>
<p>Hey. You should try the Barron's books and the Princeton Review books. I found that the Princeton Review books were quite accurate in terms of practice tests. As for flashcards, if you purchase those gigantic Barron's books, you get a set of about 200 flashcards. Personally, I found these very helpful. I went thru these the day before the SAT and it was great since about 5 of those words appeared in the reading section. I think it bumped up my reading score considerably. Hope this helped! and good luck!</p>
<p>-before wordsmart: usually somewhere around 12/19.</p>
<p>these are results from PR&barron's practice tests. not sure how accurate they are though.
-after: always 17+/19. usually 19/19. sometimes 18/19. </p>
<p>to make sure i get a 19/19, im doing barron's list. im currently on word list 43.</p>
<p>Yeah he went through all of them, most likely. The Barron's list has like 3500 words, and I think he's planning to go through all of them too :P</p>
<p>Thanks for the recommendation! Coincidentally, my friend recommended the same one yesterday :]</p>
<p>i like the barrons fill in the blank section. i think that the tactics for that is meant for those who have some range of knowledge of the high level vocab. plus the 3500 word list is really good cuz its more than double of wordsmart. just use flashcards and ull do fine</p>
<p>hmmm ... well, from my perspective --writer, editor, parent of high achievers -- reading books (novels, sci fi, natural science, biography, whatever floats your boat) is a far better use of your time and will ultimately get you a functional vocabulary (and, of course, SAT verbal and writing scores to match).</p>
<p>go to this wonderful website. It has practically UNLIMITED FREE access to all kinds of vocab lists from MANY different companies- Princeton, Sparknotes, and even some AP english vocab. </p>
<p>you can still "view" the vocab if you are not a member- you just can not print them in special flashcard form. But I printed out thousands of words last night easily by jsut clicking on the view button. </p>
<p>Yeah, I like reading novels on my free time. That'll probably increase my reading speed and vocab. It's a pretty slow process though.</p>
<p>I think I'm going to go with WordSmart... because Barron's 3500 list is too time consuming. I shouldn't focus completely on just vocab. Maybe just know the words in WordSmart well, practice a lot of critical reading sections, and read novels :] </p>
<p>I saw Sparknotes 1000 words online... that looks good too. I don't know... has anyone taken the SATs and got decent results from certain vocab lists?</p>