<p>I've heard from Xiggi that memorizing SAT words are useless, but if the SAT has 19 sentence completions with highly challenging words, then what is college board testing us on? </p>
<p>In my opinion it's the words, but since xiggi is a respected SAT helper, I also would like to know why xiggi tells us not to memorize the words.</p>
<p>He even said that "A blind folded monkey pointing at a webster dictionary would do better than a margin of Barron's word list" </p>
<p>Then, there is noitaperp, who memorized he said rougly 1000 words.</p>
<p>So there are so many opinions on this, and they come from people like noitaperp & xiggi, who scored very high on the SAT</p>
<p><strong><em>any opinions are immensely appreciated</em></strong> :D</p>
<p>Xiggi’s advice isn’t that memorizing SAT words is useless, it’s just that looking at those provided 50000000 word lists in the prep books is not the most efficient way to study. Think about the majority of the words you know. How many of those did you learn from looking the definition up in a dictionary or word list? The best way to learn SAT words is reading higher level texts and novels, since the way we learn most of our words is by hearing them in context over and over again until we recognize what they mean. </p>
<p>Reading word lists is better for your vocabulary than watching funny cat videos on Youtube, but you’ll only retain a fraction of the words that you’re studying, and most of the words you’re spending your time on aren’t going to be tested anyways.</p>
<p>yeah but it more or less helps, and the majority of words i know were words from Barron’s SAT CR tests. Over my 8th grade summer, i cannot tell you how much vocab i learned from these tests! rougly probably 100 or more, which in my opinion is pretty suffice for just a middle schooler entering high school.</p>
<p>But now i’m in 9th grade. the year is ending.</p>
<p>I need to buckle up and start taking things serious.
I nearly have like 2 years and a couple of months to start memorizing hot vocab and mastering CR.</p>
<p>I’m aiming to score 2100 +, to get into NYU stern and maybe other schools. </p>
<p>(idk if i’m insane or not, but one of my SAT prep tutors in my private saturday school told me that a 2100 would result in “average colleges” such as SUNY colleges.) ← now that right there is scaring the heck out of me!!! what do you expect from everyone? a 2200? this is ridiculous!!!</p>
<p>So where can a 2100 get you? </p>
<p>Thank you AmaranthineD, you’re so kind.</p>
<p>I would think the odds are low that the words you memorize would actually appear on the test.</p>
<p>I strongly agree, but what can we do? we have to memorize the common words first, and then take in the other not very frequent words</p>
<p>I don’t think you’re getting the point. 9th grade is the perfect time to start building vocabulary by reading. Every day, you can do some practice CR problems and vocab words, if you want, but also try and read some higher level magazines such as New York Times, Economist, etc. Some classic vocab novels such as Charles Dickens or Shakespeare, and pretty much everything from the classic section would be great not just for SAT vocabulary, but for some good essay examples and for you to start thinking at a higher level.</p>
<p>Barrons is okay from what I’ve heard, be sure to get the blue book and take a practice, timed CR test if you’re that worried about it. And your counselor is correct about the SAT scores. A 2100 will not “get you” anywhere or prevent you from getting in anywhere, but can be an important factor depending on which school. I would consider 700+ in each subject a reasonably competitive score depending on your major.</p>
<p>For more help, check out the SAT/ACT forums.</p>
<p>wow, thanks for the abundance of advice AmaranthineD :D.
oh and yes, a 2100 is an average of 700 on each sections so, i don’t know how my tutor can consider it poor or “okay” for just some average college out there.</p>
<p>Please repost on the correct forum.</p>