<p>Alright, after taking SAT for the first time this June, i performed horribly in the Critical Reading section due to my lack of vocabulary skills. I did well on Critical Reading if Sentence Completion was removed, only missing 3. But, i missed about 8-10 on sentence completion alone, placing my CR score well below 700. My goal for the CR has been 700+, but i need to improve my SC to get there. My vocab has always been way below average, and need a way to improve it tremendously. </p>
<p>So, i'm planning on taking the SAT again this October, and still have no idea on how to improve my horrible vocabulary. Before taking the June test, i had both the Direct Hits Volume memorized and still do, but unfortunately it didn't help last time. Only a few of the DH words actually appeared. I had also memorized "most of" the Sparknotes 1000 SAT Words. Now, i have these 1-2 months to solely improve my vocab. It would be great if i can get some helpful advice on how to improve my vocab effectively in a month or so. My goal is to only miss 1-3 SC this October. Any sort of links or any advice will be greatly appreciated. </p>
<p>I don’t know if you need another list; I studied Sparknotes’ list and got 800 on critical reading. One other thing I did try was to group all the words on the Sparknotes list by general meaning (good, bad, shiny, big, etc.) a few weeks before the test and study those groups, since the SAT only expects you to know a word’s general meaning.</p>
<p>You might also want to try a few practice tests and analyze your mistakes. It could always be your approach to the vocab problems, not your vocab, that’s causing the problem.</p>
<p>Thanks lidusha, for the advice. I have taken practice tests, not too many though. Maybe it is my approach that is defective. Oh, and i have tried grouping words, and it “kind of” works. Thanks for the advice though.</p>
<p>Any additional advice from anyone, espeically other vocab lists recommendations would be great.</p>
<p>I found going through online vocab lists to be easier for some reason when I was prepping. I felt like it forced me to recognize word patterns more often so I could guess the meanings of words in the sentence completion part. number2.com has a good vocab database; freerice.com is also good and it’s supposed to be for a charitable cause. :D</p>
<p>Yes, i’ve gone through both the Direct Hits volumes, memorized them. I think only a few words from there appeared on the last test i took. So i’m looking for some other list.</p>