<p>A few years ago there was an amusing press report about the SAT vocabulary shower curtain. Maybe it's still available. </p>
<p>But my serious advice is to READ, READ, READ, and READ. Just yesterday, I reread the preface of a Chinese reader I used as a student decades ago. I found out that author has the same theory, even expressed in the same all-capital emphasis, for learning to read Chinese (which I have done) as I now pass on for learning to read English: READ, READ, and READ. Read a lot. Read what you like. Read what is nearby (the breakfast cereal box, or the instructions for a home appliance, anything). Turn off the TV and read. Put down the video game controller and read. And so on. It's pretty apparent from examples in recent tests that these days the College Board likes to come up with reading questions such as "In this passage, the word [whatever word] most nearly means ______," so that context clues are king and memorizing word lists in cram books will only go so far in helping you improve your score. </p>
<p>Enjoy your reading. Good luck, everyone.</p>