<p>I bought volume 1&2 yesterday. Then I opened my official guide to see if any words in verbal sections can be found in direct hits. But i didn't find many. Does it really help the sat?</p>
<p>Trust me, it really is. Just wondering, what words didn't you find in Direct Hits?</p>
<p>Yes, it really is. It is helpful for the sentence completetions but it also helps some of the CR questions that are vocabulary based. Even if the correct answer was not in Direct Hits, many of the wrong answer choices are so you can easily eliminate those.</p>
<p>Stevii - I don't agree with you. I just checked out this year's Official SAT Practice test. Our Guidance Office has hundreds of them. There were 6 level 4 and 5 sentence completions. Direct Hits scored hits on 5 of the 6 questions. The hits were circumscribed, bent, prodigious, duplicitous..candid, and cosmopolitan. The only one DH didn't have was bully, which I really don't think is a hard word. DH also had indulged which was a level 3 word. DH rocks - it was a big help on my PSAT! Got to go to class - xoxo</p>
<p>^ lovetotext is right. DH did fine on the practice test. It also looks like DH scored a Hat Trick on the November SATs. As already reported DH did great on the Saturday SAT. I have been reading the posts on the International SAT and the Sunday SAT. Several posters are reporting that DH scored exceptionally well on those tests.</p>
<p>Haha, I've got a better list than Direct Hits...posted it in the past. Dunno if thread is still here, but I alost uploaded it on the CC Google Group a while ago.</p>
<p>did you post this one?</p>
<p>Abate to reduce in amount
Aberrant deviating from what is normal
Abhor hate
Abrasive rough, coarse, harsh
Abrasiveness harshness, coarseness
Abrogate cancel, deny, repeal
Abscond run away in a secret manner
Absolution forgiveness, pardon, release
Abstain desist, go without, withdraw
Abstemious self denying, refraining from indulging
Abstruse difficult to understand, obscure
Abstruse hard to understand, esoteric
Acclamation a shout or approval
Accolade tribute, honor, praise
Acquiesce to agree to, give in to
Acrid sharp, pungent (used of smells and tastes)
Acrimonious caustic in nature, bitter, burning in nature
Acrimony sharpness in nature or speech
Acrophobia fear of heights
Acuity sharpness (mental or visual)
Adamant forceful, inflexible
Adjuration an earnest request
Admonish caution, advise against something
Adroit skillful
Adulation strong admiration, worship
Adversity hardship
Advocate support
Aesthetic concerning art or beauty
Affable friendly, social, easygoing
Agglomeration a mass of varied parts
Aggrandize to widen in scope or power (sometimes seemingly)
Aggregate coming together to form a whole
Alacrity eagerness, enthusiasm, quickness
Alchemy medieval chemistry, attempt to change base metal into gold.
Alibi an excuse that shows someone was not at a crime scene
Allay to lessen
Alleviate make less severe
Aloof distant, detached, cold
Altruism putting others first, being self-sacrificing
Amass accumulate
Ambiguity uncertainty, vagueness
Ambiguous unclear in meaning, can be interpreted in different ways
Ambivalence lack of clarity, wavering, being undecided
Ambulatory able to walk around (used of hospital patients)
Ameliorate make better
Amelioration improvement
Amenable ready to answer
Amenity agreeable way
Amiable friendly
Amity friendship
Amorphous lacking in shape
Analgesic medicine to combat pain
Analogous comparable
Anarchy chaos, lack of government
Anecdote an amusing brief story
Animosity hatred, antagonism
Annex (noun)a building which is an addition to an existing building
Annex (verb)take possession of, seize, capture
Anomaly something which does not fit in a pattern, irregularity
Antagonism hostility, strong opposition (usually towards main character, protaganist)
Antagonistic opposed, hostile, aggressive
Antediluvian outdated, prehistoric, very old-fashioned
Anthropocentrism putting man at the center of one's philosophy
Antipode opposites
Antiquated outdated, old fashioned
Apathetic indifferent, uninterested, lethargic
Apathy lack of interest or emotion (antonym empathy)
Apocryphal of doubtful origin
Apogee climax
Apparatchik a member of an apparat (usually in a Communist community)
Appease pacify, soothe, calm down, make peace with
Apprehensive worried, fearful
Apprised given noticed to
Arable can be cultivated
Arbitrary random, for no definite reason
Arcane obscure, known only to a few people
Archaic ancient, outdated, old fashioned
Archetype classic example of
Archives collections of old records, place of storage of old documents
Argillaceous having a significant amount of clayey matter
Articulate clear, lucid, eloquent
Artifice deception, trickery
Artisan craftsman
Ascendancy controlling influence
Ascetic without luxuries, severely simple
Assiduous thorough, diligent
Assuage to calm
Astute perceptive, sharp-witted
Asylum place of refuge or safety
Atavism appearance, and the reappearance
Atheist person who does not believe in God
Atrophy waste away from lack of use
Attenuate weaken
Atypical not typical
Augment increase, make bigger
Auspicious favorable, promising to turn out well
Austere severely plain
Aversion a dislike of
Avuncular pertaining to uncles
Balk hinder and prevent; hesitate over
Banal common, dull
Banality ordinariness, dullness
Bane troublesome influence
Bard poet
Baroque highly ornate, or irregular in shape
Bastion fortress, stronghold
Bauble a showy ornament, usually a scepter
Befuddle confuse
Begrudge resent
Beguile mislead, lure
Belabor explain in unnecessary detail
Beleaguer besiege, attack
Belie contradict
Belittle to demean
Bellicose war-like, aggressive
Belligerent aggressive, ready to fight
Bemoan complain about
Beneficiary a person from a group that receives special benefits
Benevolent kindly
Benign kindly, harmless
Benignity compassion, gentleness, fondness
Bequeath leave something in one's will to be given after one's death
Berate scold, criticize
Bereavement deprivation, usually by death
Beret type of cap
Bestial behaving like a beast, brutal
Betroth arrange the marriage of
Biannual twice a year
Biennial once every two years
Bigot narrow-minded, prejudiced person
Bilk cheat, defraud
Billowing swelling, fluttering, waving
Blasphemy speech which offends religious sentiments
Blatant obvious
Blighted damaged, destroyed, ruined
Blithe free-spirited, carefree
Blunderbuss ancient weapon (type of gun); a clumsy person
Bolster support, prop up
Bombast arrogant, pompous language
Boorish ill-mannered
Bourgeois middle class
Braggart someone who boasts
Brawny muscular
Brevity being brief
Bristle to show irritation
Broach start to discuss, approach
Brusque blunt, abrupt
Bulwark fortification, barricade, wall
Bureaucracy officialdom
Burgeon grow, flourish, put forth new shoots
Burnish polish
Busker a street performer
Buttress strengthen, support
Byline the line that tells you who wrote an article
Byzantine complex and intricate
Cacophony discordant loud noises
Cajole coax (persuade)
Caldron huge cooking pot
Callow immature
Candid frank, honest
Candor frankness, openness
Cantankerous bad-tempered, quarrelsome
Capacious spacious
Capitulate surrender, give in to
Carping constant criticism
Cartographer person who makes maps
Castigate scold strongly
Catharsis purging of emotions (usually by means of music)
Catharsis purging of pent-up emotions
Caucus type of private political meeting
Caustic burning
Cavalcade procession of vehicles
Caveat a warning
Celerity speed
Censorious disapproving, critical
Censure blame
Cerebral intellectual
Certitude certainty
Charlatan trickster who claims knowledge he doesn't have
Chary wary of, cautious about, reluctant to give
Chastises punishes
Chattel a slave
Cherub a beautiful, innocent person
Chicanery trickery
Chicanery trickery or deception by false arguing
Chimerical changeable, unstable
Choleric easily angered
Chronicler person who records historical information
Circuitous indirect
Circumlocution using too many words, long-windedness
Circumscribe limit
Circumspect cautious, considering all sides
Circumspect discreetly watchful
Circumvent avoid
Clairvoyant psychic, mystic
Clamor shout, scream
Clandestine secret, covert, stealthy
Clemency mercy
Clich</p>
<p>^Yup that's the one, but I have another small list added on to it, which I didn't post.</p>
<p>EDIT: I'm currently studying this list. :) It's helped me get every single SC right except for 1 on the May and June SAT I took.</p>
<p>... DH is my 1st choice ^^ (followed by wordsmart, 500 key words and list of 1000 words of Sparknotes) </p>
<p>@ Quicksandslowly: if u don't mind, can I ask the scores u got on ur two tests? ^^</p>
<p>@Quicksandslowly: This list is Barron's right? Or someone must have gleaned those words from current "hot" word lists? :D</p>
<p>Those are not Barrons list. Got them from loft369 more than a year ago.</p>
<p>May 2008 SAT: 2180
June 2008 SAT: 2260</p>
<p>December 2008: Dunno. Haven't taken it yet. :D</p>
<p>do u guys recommend memorizing all those words posted above? [i'm taking the Dec. SAT so i need as much as prep as possible]</p>
<p>^ I believe the wi word in the above list is wistful. Like most of the super long lists, this one has some good words and some words that have an extremely low probability of being on the SAT. For example, do you really expect to see zucchetto, zephyr or xanadu on the December SAT? Not likely. Desi_chick my best advice is to buy Direct Hits and the Rocket Review. Taken together the two list have about 500 different words. Based upon a number of recent SATs and PSATs these two lists will provide all the words you need to ace the sentence completions and any vocabulary-based CR questions.</p>
<p>i've seen Xanadu on the real SAT QAS!</p>
<p>^Really - which test?</p>
<p>If Direct Hits is really that good, could someone please upload onto ...?</p>
<p>Isn't that group illegal? Now you're asking to have more illegal activity happen? Just buy the books -- $26 and you have the whole set. And the people who wrote the book get their fair due.</p>
<p>^ I totally agree</p>
<p>From reading the different threads on CC, DH has obviously been on target on both 08 PSATs and the different versions (including the international versions) of the October and November SATs. Now that the books have arrived, we are finding that the clear and interesting examples have really helped in learning the vocabulary. We are anxious to see how it goes on the December SAT.</p>
<p>Yeah, let's see how DH performs this time ;)</p>