<p>Okay. I’ll provide a little insight from my own personal experiences. Now, I used to run a class called “Visual Vocab,” a class in which parents are told that their kids can memorize 100 words in an hour with my “innovative” technique and easily memorize3,000 words in 1 month at a 100% retention rate. It was a stellar success in terms of attracting many students desperate to many memorize words, but the results did not always fulfill the expectations of parents or students.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, I grabbed a word list from Barron’s or Word Smart, compiled about 3,500 words, made my own list, and employed the use of mnenomics/visual cues in creating linking words that would perhaps help the students better visualize and remember the words. </p>
<p>To give you an example, let’s say the word was “docile” and the definition given is: “meek, submissive, obedient.” I would give the kids the linking word “dog”, which rhymes with “docile” and tell them to visualize a docile dog obediently listening to his master’s commands. There are many words in which associations like these come easily, but are also many in which it is very difficult to find a suitable linking or rhyming word. </p>
<p>Some students responded with great enthusiasm, especially the more Americanized students who could understand the linking words (I used “curb” as a linking word once and I was shocked to discover that over half of the class didn’t know what curb meant. The same went for the word “ramp”), whereas other students initially responded with great fervor but could not, even though they remembered the linking or rhyming word, associate the word properly with the definition and more importantly, its correct usage when they saw the word on the Sentence Completion section. </p>
<p>I remember once teaching the word “soporific” once as something that bores or puts you to sleep. I used the linking word “soap opera” (once again, everyone immediately knew what a drama was not but many did not know what a soap opera was), and told them to picture watching a boring soap opera that was “soporific.”</p>
<p>Now, I came across the word “soporific” in one of the sentence completion practice exercises, but it was used as a noun to indicate a type of sleep-inducing drug. I cannot remember the exact usage of the word, but “soporific” was the correct answer, but many students did not choose it because many students could not correlate the use of soporific with a drug. </p>
<p>The reason I give such detailed explanations and examples is to show that your points do indeed have many merits. As for me personally, I believe that my own method worked remarkably well for me because shoot, obviously, I created it with my own linking words and more importantly, because I know most of the words anyway to some extent and merely had to freshen my memory. So, while it amazed many students that they could choose any word out of the list of 3,000 words, and I could immediately reply with the correct linking word and definition, I knew, in reality, that my 100% retention guarantee was just a gimmick. </p>
<p>The reality is that the only real way to succeed on the SAT is to study your *** off, whatever methology you employ. For some, memorizing a word list of 3,000 words is extremely helpful; for others, they need merely scour 500 words from Direct Hits and can immediately see an improvement in their scores. </p>
<p>But as a teacher or tutor, you must also understand that the majority of students are not diligent, they do not want to scour the Internet to find their own resources, and find what best works for them. They merely want to be spoon-fed or at the least, deceive themselves into believing that they can somehow produce a magical score in a month with some hoax strategy. </p>
<p>I mean, you ask students these days what the word “dictionary” means, and they will look at you with an expression of “duh…***?”…but then, you ask them what a “thesaurus” is, and you’d be surprised at how many kinds have a blank expression, with some kids even thinking the word means some kind of dinosaur. </p>
<p>As a salesman, we market what sells. It’s that simple, but you don’t have to be a genius to understand that nothing in this world can replace diligence, determination, and a genuine desire to learn. </p>
<p>I mean, a lot of people who know me personally think of me as a glib talker whose goals in teaching are based purely for monetary profit. While this is undoubtedly true to an extent, I do remember a time when education actually meant something, when you could go to the local library and the old lady working as a librarian could actually provide you with some deep insights on a book you checked out, and a time when reading was actually enjoyable. </p>
<p>Now, I genuinely hate reading books, but alas, what adult in any profession truly enjoys what he or she is doing? </p>
<p>BTW: Your comments on the post concerning my essays are appreciated. Man, I know for sure I used to enjoy, if not love, writing, but teaching the same introductory templates, examples, and conclusions and looking at over 20 essays written in the exact same way that I myself taught to students, sometimes, I wonder what the hell I am doing.</p>