Memorizing Barrons 3,500 word list, worth it?

<p>Im bad at sentence completions, 58%:(. I was wondering if I should memorize Barrons word list to improve from 58% to 95%+ on sentence completions. Is it worth it? I mean time is not a factor for me, I can memorize like 30 words a day.</p>

<p>i dont think so, bc i did that with ssat and the sat and i memorized 100+ words a day for a month, but there were still alot of words that I forgot. I think its best if you learn the word naturally( use the word alot)</p>

<p>oh really? So how many points did you improve your <em>critical reading</em> score before and after learning words?</p>

<p>I mean I know I can go up 60 points if I get all my sentence completions correct but I dont know how I should go about learning words.</p>

<p>I did a wordlist everyday during the summer.. it helps</p>

<p>what wordlist and also how many points did you improve from the beginning to the end?</p>

<p>In barrons. I did one entire word list everyday during the summer. It was required for my SAT class. I couldn't remember all the words of course but some stuck to my mind and they appear every now and then.. even if they arent directly in SAT questions you can still use them in your essay which helps. I can't list an exact point range, sorry ^^; but just reading the word list several times a day can help too.</p>

<p>It's not worth it. All the useful words come up often in a lot of the great American novels. If you read often, you should be fine. </p>

<p>Don't learn it the hard way like me..</p>

<p>i think it'll take longer to read 10, 500 page novels than to memorize a wordlist</p>

<p>One more thing, if you attempt that wordlist, I guarantee you will not be satisfied with your results</p>

<p>but hey it's your choice</p>

<p>

But what are the chances you will actually remember what each word means, and how to properly use it in a sentence?</p>

<p>The best strategy is to spread the vocab studying over a long period of time (e.g. 2-5 words a day) and use it in real life.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I'm lazy and don't care to do all that.</p>

<p>At any rate, the more hastened, but a bit less effective, route would be to a) read books and then do the above b) do the above but with more words/day. At any rate, it's very inefficent, in my opinion, to merely memorize words. </p>

<p>Just my two cents.</p>

<p>You can get free account in <a href="http://www.number2.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.number2.com&lt;/a> They have a free vocab drill that has many words. </p>

<p>Try it!</p>

<p>It's probably worth it, but by memorize do you mean you can recite the words, or the words + definitions?</p>

<p>i strongly disagree with barron's wordlist. i went through it TWICE a year ago. I am sure that I know at least 95%+ of those words there and yet I still get about 1 SC wrong (of 3) in each section. However, just as xiggi says, the SAT really tests the various connotations of simpler words. Occasionally they may throw in 1 or 2 questions in every section that have "difficult" words, but you can often look at the roots of the word to figure it out. I'm not saying you should not memorize a wordlist. However, just do not memorize Barrons. MOST of those words never appear on the SAT. Memorize a smaller wordlist and really understand all the connotations of those words. Always use a dictionary when you read. Also, read copiously magazines, newspapers, etc...</p>

<p>connotations? ***? might as well memorize the word-roots and prefixes then. which is something that i attempted. didn't work AT ALL tho, since all the hard words on the SAT don't usually have readily dicernable roots/prefixes.</p>

<p>ok so after reading all of these opinions, I'm ambigious. </p>

<p>So I shouldn't memorize Barrons word list? and go ahead memorize other word lists?</p>

<p>some "hard" SC's...from CB online tests.</p>

<p>"the entrepreneur had a well deserved reputation for ------, having accurately anticipated many changes unforeseen by established business leaders"</p>

<p>a. prescience
b. sincerity
c. avarice
d. complicity
e. mendacity</p>

<p>a. prescience, because its the only word with PRE. PRESCIENCE IS NOT EVEN IN THE BARRONS LIST! FOR SHAME!</p>

<p>===================
this one is very hard but good reasoning will get you the right answers...</p>

<p>"....downright ----, having no pep and vigor than a -----."</p>

<p>a tedious, jingle
b inchoate, lullaby
c lugubrious, dirge
d facetious, ballad
e sprightly, eulogy</p>

<p>take out D and E because the first words are too positive. take out inchoate. why would a lullaby be "inchoate"? i don't know what inchoate means, but it sounds "mean" or maybe "incomplete". for sure inchoate does not mean "no pep and vigor". </p>

<p>you should know what tedious and lugubrious means. why would a jingle be tedious? </p>

<p>the answer is C, a dirge is lugubrious. don't know what dirge means, but it's obviously negative, just like lugubrious. (lugubrious is mornful. you should know this)</p>

<p>hey so r u saying that roots, prefixes help?</p>

<p>someone post in here a sentence completion that they think cannot be solved by reasoning and prefixes/roots.</p>

<p>another example which you CAN use roots and reasoning...</p>

<p>"victor gained a reputation for being a ---- because he constantly bullied other children"</p>

<p>bunglar - i don't know, sounds like an idiot.
ruffian - ROUGH guy
stickler - to stick with something? to stick something? to set up?
daredevil - obviously daring
naysayer - no say</p>

<p>therefore...ruffian!</p>