<p>ive heard different things from different people. Some say memorizing is pointless, others say its important. For those of you who say its unimportant, how do you find the right answer without memorizing words? and yes i know to take the structure clues in mind but thats not all of it. How do you pick the right answer if your stuck with words you have no idea about?</p>
<p>Memorizing vocab, especially words that tend to repeat over and over, definitely helps. But whether it’s the best use of your study time is another matter.</p>
<p>When I do not know a word in an answer choice, I try to decode the word using roots and prefixes. I think of other words I might know that have similar spellings or sounds. I once answered a question correctly this way by decoding “potentate.” </p>
<p>If that doesn’t work, I use the word’s “sense”—does it feel positive or negative? This usually leads me to the right answer or at least narrows the field of contenders.</p>
<p>I memorized a good amount of words because the same ones are frequently used over again. Also, if you don’t know very common ones like ambiguous or capricious, it may be wise for you to brush up on a few words so you can answer reading questions that many times include tougher vocabulary.</p>
<p>I think that memorizing can be useful, but it has its limitations. Makes sure you fully understand the definition of a word and not just one of its meanings. Otherwise, overconfidence could trip you up later.</p>
<p>I think if you read a lot you’ll have a good vocabulary. I haven’t seen too many really hard words on the SAT.</p>
<p>It’s really important to know the vocab well, but to call it “memorizing” is going about it the wrong way. You’re really learning the words, and you should become familiar with them through context (Word Smart puts every word in a sentence for you) and actual usage (try to use them in your daily writing). </p>
<p>To SamuelCogley, people often have trouble with vocab on the SAT. You may have come from a background in which you were lucky enough to have regularly read publications like NYT, WSJ, etc. Publications other than these rarely see words such as vitiate or venal.</p>
<p>If the SAT is still a year or two away, then reading more is a better use of time, in my opinion, than trying to study a bunch of word lists. If you have access to a public library, you can read good quality fiction and nonfiction books, as well as newspapers and magazines. This is really the only way to understand not only what words mean, but how they are actually used.</p>
<p>If the test is closer, and you haven’t been a big reader, looking at vocabulary lists may be the best you can do. But try to look at usage examples and not just definitions.</p>
<p>I think reading a lot will improve your vocabulary and will get you ready for the SAT. Memorizing tends to put a lot of stress on you instead of learning different vocabularies. I also like to suggest sattestpreptips.com. You can find some videos here that can help in your SAT.</p>
<p>i recently took a practice test. 7 total quesitons wrong on critical reading. FIVE of them were vocab. the second i looked at the curve and realized my lack of vocab caused me 100 points, and is potentially seperating me from an 800, i started cracking those 1,000 word lists. </p>
<p>i dont know about all of you, but for me, it’s not even a debate anymore.</p>
<p>delmonico, same here. ive realized that most of my errors are in vocab and if i can just fix that i can achieve maybe high 600s, which is great ffor me lol</p>
<p>i kno , rite? the neccesity to study vocab is so underrated . and there’s no need for an “lol” , high 600’s is great. i was scoring 600s on my first practice tests.</p>