<p>I get about 4 wrong on the whole CR portion from vocabulary. How do I fix this? Yes, the obvious answer is "study vocab" but I've read time and time again that vocab study from just lists of words is futile and un-indicative of your actual performance on the vocab portion. So please, what should I do? I'm not getting a major amount wrong on each section for vocab but it is a problem when I get 4 wrong from vocab alone on the whole CR portion of the test.</p>
<p>It’s not an efficient way to learn, but it can be done, and at this stage of the game, it’s probably the best way to learn vocabulary in the short term. Lots of people recommend Direct Hits and there are tons of vocabulary lists out there. Take a look at the book Moonwalking with Einstein for some info on learning vast quantities of information quickly.</p>
<p>Do you answer vocab in context questions correctly on the passage sections?</p>
<p>For sentence completion questions, do you not know the words or are you getting tripped up by the tertiary usage of common words?</p>
<p>Are your errors occurring on difficulty level 5 questions only?</p>
<p>If your goal is to score very high, and if you feel that you are missing questions due to vocab, then I think it’s a good idea to study vocab lists. Also look at the questions you are getting wrong and think about whether there’s any way to determine the answer even if you didn’t know the meaning of that word (of course you do now…). There are people on this site who sneer at vocab lists but my (NMF) daughter thought it was useful for her to do and so did I. I would also make sure to do plenty of high level reading, so you will see sophisticated words being used in context. Of course you have limited time, and so you need to think about whether any other type of prep is likely to net you more correct answers, in any section. Studying those lists will take a sustained effort over quite a while, and the benefit to you will be a few more questions correct at best. Only you can decide if it’s worthwhile. I do think that there’s a neglected side to this–those words are on the SAT because they do appear in college-level reading and you will see them again. It’s a long-term investment in your literacy. Even in material at a lower reading level, my daughter commented that she noticed SAT words which previously she probably would have glossed over. Yes, in the ideal world, you should read with a dictionary at your side and look up every word you don’t know, but that’s not something most people will do.</p>
<p>the rambunctious teen got me pregnant, will that effect my college chances #replytweet</p>
<p>Quizlet is also a very good resource in which you can enter your own wordlist or use the wordlist of others. You can star words that you feel you need to review or work on. It also has a built in test feature so you can test your knowledge. You can also play speller or simply do “Learn” to build your vocabulary with repetition. Good Luck</p>
<p>Cheers!
-alphabot</p>
<p>There are also fiction books out there that claim to teach SAT vocab. </p>
<p>Here’s what you should NOT Do:
DON’T merely read through lists of SAT vocabs. This is THE WORST way to memorize SAT words. Reading the terms will not help you remember them for long, since it won’t stick to your brain. In order for anything new to stick to your long term memory, you need to be exposed to it at least six times in many different ways. You’ll need to see, hear, say, and use the vocab words before the vocab words get stored in your long term memory. </p>
<p>Here’s the BEST way to memorize vocab terms and retain them:
Extract the vocabulary words from the SAT practice tests from the Blue Book rather than getting them from a book that just put together a list of random SAT vocabs. This way, you’ll know how the vocabulary words would be used in an actual SAT question, as well as the group of words that might be used to confuse you.</p>
<p>Put the words in a flashcard and carry them around with you everywhere! Whenever you’re waiting in line, go through the flashcards over and over. This helps A LOT :)</p>
<p>^The problem with that is is what would be the difference between doing that and just studying a book of vocab words? The book uses real words from past SAT’s/Blue Book as well (At least the one I’m reading which is Insider’s SAT Vocab Essential 500). </p>
<p>i bought a pocket dictionary freshman year and walked around with it everywhere</p>
<p>i’ve memorized every word by now and the pages are in horrible condition</p>
<p>Memorization is a nono. Yes, you do memorize, but you should only memorize once. USE THE WORDS IN EVERYDAY LANGUAGE. For example, I use most SAT words I know in essays that I write for Am. Lit Honors, etc, and I use them (sometimes) in casual talk. Once you use them enough, its easy to remember what they mean (because you can think back to the conversations you had and the context that you used the words in). </p>