<p>Hey folks,</p>
<p>I am an international student and I am searching for a better way to learn vocabulary than memorizing. I have already tried out some of the new approaches (reading, flash cards, ..) but I figured out that I need something like a guide, which gives you the meanings of the pre - and suffixes. Something like a general guide, which shows some of the basic rules (f.e. re- prefix means so and so ... / ambi - prefix means in general terms so and so..) when you have to come up with the right vocab.
I have already checked out the techniques (like POE, making educated guesses..), but I just need a simple guide which makes it easier for me to study the new vocabulary. Could you help me?</p>
<p>Thank you very much!</p>
<p>Barron’s reading workbook has a guide to prefixes/suffixes. I never used it, but there’s a pretty extensive list of roots and their meanings. Personally I’ve always preferred memorizing words and not roots but different things work for different people.</p>
<p>Memorize vocab just before you go to bed. Sleep consolidates memory. Also you need to be concerned with second and third definitions and connotative as well as denotative meanings of words, especially if you are shooting for the highest scores. I suggest you read news, business and science magazines and keep a running list of words you encounter that you don’t know. Use a dictionary and read ALL of the definitions. Write them in a journal. The act of writing expands the amount of your brain that stores the memory of the definition. (Try to add 5 - 10 words a day.) Read the journal before you go to bed at least twice a week. Don’t try to memorize as much as test your recall and just read the list.</p>
<p>Hey all.
So, is it wise to mug up the dictionary?</p>
<p>Well I have taken the SAT 3 times and I missed very few vocab questions. What helps me is writing a + or a - in each of the blanks, signaling me to choose a word that is either positive or negative fitting the context of the sentence.</p>