<p>Hey, so I'm taking SATs in March and so far in my practice tests I've done poorly in the Vocabulary section.</p>
<p>My Vocab is pretty weak and most of the time during the medium or hard questions I would have no idea what most of the words mean.</p>
<p>So yeah my question is: Is it efficient or possible to memorize 100 words a day for probably around a week? I'm on February break right now so time is not a concern. I don't have too much time after this week and before the SATs in 3 weeks so I want to memorize enough words by the end of break.</p>
<p>Is that a good idea? Would it work? </p>
<p>And also I'm using a list of words from the Essential 500 words. I don't actually own the book, someone just have the words on flashcards on Quizlet haha. I'll find another few hundred words somewhere.. </p>
<p>Even though I was never an expert at SAT vocab, 100 words per day seems like a long shot. As in, if you take too much in at once, you’ll likely forget most of it. But if it works for you, go ahead.</p>
<p>I memorized around 400 words a day before I took my SAT, and I actually actively tried to use 95% of them most of the time, in casual language, or in my writing, which really helped a lot. I still remember at least 85% of the words today (around 3 months after I memorized them) and it helps because I don’t need to re-memorize for the March SAT (retaking from a January of 2370)</p>
<p>It is never a good idea to memorize huge lists of words. Memorize a few hundred at most and reason through the rest. Or alternatively, learn the common roots.</p>
<p>I never really sought to memorize SAT words like “cantankerous”, “amalgamate”, “iconoclast”, or other words that rarely appear in everyday language or literature. Especially if you’re writing papers, it’s best to avoid “grandiloquent” language if there are more concise words available. For the SAT though, memorizing roots gives the most payoff for the least study.</p>
<p>My kid went through The Essential 500 Words in 2 weeks.
He probably didn’t know half of the words in the book before studying it.
On Jan test, he missed only one sentence completion question.
You might also consider doing the questions on the back of The Essential 500 Words.</p>
<p>100 words a day is totally doable and a good idea. I advise against focusing on roots–it’s great in theory, but in reality, combinations of letters matching “roots” appear in tons of words that have no etymological link to those roots at all.</p>
<p>100!!! NO WAY?! THAT IS NOT REALISTIC. I DID SATS IN DECEMBER AND I HAD A COUPLE OF WEEKS TO MASTER MY VOCAB. I USED A BARRONS TEXTBOOK THAT HAD ABOUT 800 WORDS. OBVIOUSLY I KNEW SOME OF THEM AND SKIPPED THOSE. I LEARNT/ CRAMMED TEN UNKNOWN WORDS A DAY AND IT WORKED. MY VOCAB GOT A LOT BETTER. FLASHCARDS DIDN’T REALLY WORK FOR ME THO. ALSO THAT ROOT THING WAS A WASTE OF TIME…</p>
<p>I agree with marvin100. 100 words a day is not only doable but ideal. I used to run a vocab class using a technique called mnemonics in which I taught kids 200 words in 2 hours (100 per hour). 200 was a bit too much, but 100 would have definitely been more ideal. Of course, we promised parents a 90% retention rate, although in reality, the kids probably didn’t even remember half. Whatever you do to study vocabulary or however many words you memorize, you should always remember that association and usage are equally important. </p>
<p>Vocab really takes time to build up. My kid started to learn 10 words a day since middle school years but that is not for test preparation purpose. It just take time to learn the words so that you can understand and use the words afterward. Short term memory does not last very long. </p>