<p>I'm not a native English speaker so vocabulary has become the biggest problem. I have been reading vocabulary books and tried to remember the words but I find it extremely hard for I cannot actually use them! What can I do???</p>
<p>you barely have to know any vocabulary to take the SAT. Many of the questions have tonal directions (negative, positive), so the task of the test-taker becomes determining which words match the tone. Look for words such as unless, although, and while, because they tell you what the logical response would be. It really works.</p>
<p>And if you really think that you need to know vocabulary, try the Princeton Review Word Smart series. They cover a lot of SAT words.</p>
<p>I personally think the best way to learn vocabulary is not to sit and memorize lists of words, but to read more advanced/challenging articles. The content of the article doesn't matter so much as the types of words they use. As you're reading through them, make note of the words you don't understand, and look them up. That way you can see how that word is actually used in a sentence.</p>
<p>^I concur with CDN_dancer. I'm also an overseas applicant, and SAT vocab was challenging. My remedy: Read the hardest books you can read within your capabilities. Also read the Economist, which some of the best journalists in the world publish articles.</p>
<p>I second the rec for Word Smart. It's a great book! Well, I have one...I didn't know there was a series.</p>
<p>Economist sounds great. I'm gonna have a try!</p>
<p>Does Economist.com work? Are the articles on the website the same to the ones on the magazines?</p>
<p>The articles should be the same, or at least very similar in terms of content and style.</p>
<p>I find the best way for me is looking at a list of vocab words, doing around 10 words per day that I don't know - defining and making a mnemonic sentence. I can't believe how much mnemonics have helped.</p>
<p>I have tried to look at a list of words, but find it hard to actually change it into my positive vocab.</p>
<p>Use the words in everyday language. That's largely how we learned the words we know now.</p>
<p>Honestly, this topic comes up every now and then. Wouldn't it be a good idea for College Confidential, on the SAT section, to have a bunch of articles, like "How to Improve Vocabulary" or "How to Pick Colleges" or "How Interviews Work"? That'll save a lot of time and effort repeating. I know it's rather unpleasant for people to have to ask (and answer) the same questions over and over.</p>
<p>Yeah I agree with dchow08 about using the words everyday.</p>
<p>What worked for me was actually using flashcards. Like set a certain number of words that you plan on memorizing EVERYDAY... even if you have homework or your tired or whatever memorize that many words a day! Then, go onto facebook and leave your friends nice comments with the words casually inserted to help you retain the definition and how to use it. :) geez, who wouldn't like an excuse to go on facebook! :D</p>
<p>Wow! you're sooo smart, dearsky! I've never thought about using facebook to practice using new words! THX a lot!</p>
<ol>
<li>Use words in everyday conversation.</li>
<li>Read challenging texts. The Economist is a great example. </li>
</ol>
<p>As an added bonus, number 2 also helps with other CR questions</p>
<p>Those only help if you have a decent amount of time before the test. I would still recommend memorizing a fairly small (~500) word list.</p>
<p>Ok, so I agree that reading alot of varied texts helps (in fact, this is the #1 way to improve your vocabulary), but I think its also wrong to completely dismiss the idea that memorizing lists is a bad idea. The Barrons book (how to prepare the SAT) has a very very long list of SAT vocab words used that have appeared for the past ten years and although this looks like a very tedious list, memorizing one or two lists per day consistently for however many days it takes to learn (and put the words in context, not just strict memorization) is also a good idea. Reading at the same time will help reinforce the meanings of many of these words. Hope that helped.</p>
<p>THX skze & cheeky2126 ! I think I'd better force myself to remember a whole vocab book anyway.</p>
<p>go on Collegeboard.com, look up the 101 Recommended books, read them, look up the words that you do not comprehend in those, utilize the words in conversation or talk to youself using that word, and you will be golden.
Not only will you be increasing vocabulary but you will be reading and gaining much more from the books.</p>