Vocab Memorization

<p>What strategies do you guys employ when you memorize words? Repitition, writing them down and saying them, mneumonic devices, or what? I ask because I've been doing a lot of word memorization lately and I'm big on the mneumonic devices, but would like to see how others do it as well.</p>

<p>I went with good old rote memorization. Also, because I like to see how they are used in context, I often tried to find sentences the words were used in.</p>

<p>I usually make flashcards and practice in chunks of like 25 words.</p>

<p>Then I read the newspaper and notice the words in context.</p>

<p>Is vocab memorization even that helpful now that analogizes have been eliminated?</p>

<p>Seems to me that the best prep now would be reading extensively so as to be able to understand words in context.</p>

<p>I have about 3000 different flashcards and whenever I have time I try to study :)) Also i write each different word for about 20 times....</p>

<p>Don't do too much vocab memorization, anywhere from 500-1000 should be enough.</p>

<p>i think the sparknotes 1000 word list should be good. first go thru the whole list and mark of the words that u dont know. memorize those words. hopefully, they are much less than 1000</p>

<p>I usually use study cards. I find that it takes me just one time to remember a word, if I can call up its definition upon seeing the word, without peeking. Now, that may take 5 or 6 tries when I'm going through a pack of words, but it just takes once. What makes a word easier to memorize for me is to try and identify any Latin/Greek roots or French relations. Usually words that are derived from, say, a Greek god, are harder to memorize :) Or any other word that doesn't have a clear etymology. This might be less practical for you, but I also look up each word on my computer using a dictionary program, based on American Heritage's data, to find new definitions and example sentences. The definitions are often more precise and have example sentences as they are actually used in literature, rather than trying to relate, say, "apocryphal" to high school life, as SparkNotes likes to do. American Heritage (both the paper and the digital versions) also has a very useful feature called "The Right Word," which delineates the difference between words such as to lie, to prevaricate, to rationalize, to fabricate, to equivocate, and to fib.</p>

<p>When memorizing words, I make it a point to actually try and understand the word itself, rather than just the meaning. This understanding is obviously reinforced in reading, but if you can at least use it loosely, then you probably know the word well enough for the SAT. I specifically remember not understanding the verb "to equivocate," even though I remembered its meaning, "saying one thing while meaning another." While perhaps good enough for the test, I was actually interested in bettering my vocabulary as well, and the meaning was too hazy for me to glean anything useful out of it. Looking it up in the dictionary helped fill in the blanks.</p>

<p>As for the mnemonic technique, I've never actually tried it because, while I don't doubt that it helps you memorize the words, I don't think it's the best way to know a word. I'd rather know a word through context and through its etymology than perhaps memorizing a rhyme that cues up its dictionary definition :) Then again, I've never tried it, so perhaps I'm off base here.</p>

<p>Also, a note on icyfire's comment, be careful in crossing off the words that you "already know." For most of the words, I had at least a dim understanding of them, and knew them in context, but I didn't know exactly what they meant (this is what reading can do to you!). So it depends on whether or not you're content with just learning the words for the SAT or actually knowing what the words mean, but mark carefully.</p>

<p>Syn (excellent post btw), what's the name of the dictionary program that you use?</p>

<p>lol i hate vocab. i remember i bought a princeton review thing with 250 important SAT words. I went through it in a week. But when I went back through it a second time, I only remembered 47 words. haha.</p>

<p>i never studied SAT vocab after that and still managed to pull a 670 on the old one with analogies. on the new one w/o analogies, i didn't do any prep and got a 650.</p>

<p>I never studied vocab and got a 760 on the CR. Thank god they got rid of analogies, haha!</p>

<p>Look, i think memorizing vocab is a waste of time. I got a 770 last time and memorized NO vocab.</p>

<p>n1bigdude, you must already have a big vocab unlike many of us. For everyone else, it is essential to memorize vocab. I bet you would've scored higher had you memorized vocab.</p>

<p>No, it's not a vocabulary test. I think there are probably at most 4-6 questions on the whole CR where vocab could be an issue.</p>

<p>That's about 50 points to gain at least.</p>

<p>S got a 760 without studying vocab.</p>

<p>I got a 750 without memorizing vocab, but most of what I got wrong or left blank was vocab. For like 20-30 extra points, I'm glad I didn't spend the time</p>

<p>memorizing random vocabulary seems like a waste of time...the test seems to be more about context and i think that reading would be better</p>

<p>Everyone's experience may differ, but personally I've noticed good results by memorizing vocab. I've been able to do sentence completions not only with a greater feeling of security in my answers, but most importantly faster (a lot less sitting on two words vacillating between them by trying to dig them up out of my 'subconscious vocabulary'). This gives more time on the reading portions of CR.</p>

<p>This may seem subtle, but I've got plenty of time right now to brush up on the subtle aspects of the test. Also, I didn't start this post to debate on whether or not memorizing vocab was beneficial for the SAT, I started it simply to ask <em>how</em> others prefer to memorize vocab so that maybe I can improve my own technique by learning from them (assuming beforehand that they are in the same pursuit I am).</p>