If you scored really well in the verbal section of the SAT - how did you prepare?

<p>I am currently a rising Sophomore and my school is making us take the SAT come this November. I am fairly good with math, but verbal and esp vocab is sort of a problem for me. Right now I mainly just use flash cards, but I find it pretty demoralizing after a while.</p>

<p>Did you guys have a better to do learn? If so would you mind sharing how you prepared?</p>

<p>Go through direct hits volume 1 and 2. Thats about 400 words and they are all useful. As far as learning the words, I found that making sentences with them was really helpful. </p>

<p>Thanks Remi! About how many words would you say you had to memorize to really feel prepared?</p>

<p>I wish I started prepping in 10th grade lol. Take my advice: memorize a bunch of vocab words IN CONTEXT i.e. each word next to a sentence using that word. Do this with 1000+ words that are considered complex. You have plenty of time. People say memorizing vocab doesn’t help but I disagree; many times in the reading passages mistakes are more the fault of not knowing words than not being a capable reader. Source: 800 CR</p>

<p>Thats great advice @dopecake‌ - thanks, and congrats on your awesome score! I’ll try to make some context out out of these words and hopefully can memorize them in time!</p>

<p>What are the best vocabulary lists?</p>

<p>Read a lot and study Latin and Greek stems.</p>

<p>Who is forcing you to take the SAT???
Unheard of.
Are you sure it’s not the PSAT.<br>
Anyway, don’t take the SAT in November. Those scores can and will get to the colleges.
Take the PSAT instead. Nobody will know your scores.</p>

<p>Definitely memorize vocab. I got a 750 on the January SAT, only had one comprehension question wrong – the rest was vocab. If I had memorized some words, I have no doubt that I would’ve had an 800.</p>

<p>I don’t think it’s a good idea to take the SAT at this point, and I’m not sure the school can require it. It may be good to start preparing, but if you take it in November you will almost certainly feel you could score better if you take it again as a junior. You’ll have a score you don’t like on your record, which some colleges may require you to submit. You’ll have more testings on your record, which starts to look bad if you take it too many times. And you may be back in a year or so with those issues. It’s not hard to find kids who started testing early posting that now they have bad scores on their record or now they are worried about too many test dates.</p>

<p><a href=“Is it okay to take the SAT 3 times? - Test Preparation - College Confidential Forums”>Is it okay to take the SAT 3 times? - Test Preparation - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“How Many Times Is Too Many? - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums”>How Many Times Is Too Many? - SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums;

<p>They will be changing the format of the SAT in the spring of your junior year. This could potentially lead to wanting/needing even more testing. If you like the format of the current SAT, it may be helpful to try to get through it before the change takes place. In this case, I think you’d still be best off testing later in the year (March-June), then trying to get your best score in Oct or Dec as a junior.</p>

<p>I got a 36 reading, 35 english, 800 CR, and a 730 writing. I personally didn’t study for either of the tests…BUT, I have always read extensively. I typically read about 25-35 books a year, mostly classic lit. Stuff like Cervantes, Twain, Maugham, etc. My vocabulary has been majorly enhanced by going through those top works. I’ve never heard of Direct Hits, but I think, since you’re only a sophomore, it might be better for you to tackle some more challenging books over the next year(s) to get those words actually ingrained and understood as opposed to just memorized for a test.</p>