Vocabulary in Context...help improve from 750 to 800!

<p>I am taking the SAT in two weeks and I'm doing a practice test every day. I'm constantly getting around 750 because I miss 3-4 vocabulary in context questions. I have no problems with sentence completion but vocab in context is just so confusing!</p>

<p>Does anyone have any tips on how to tackle this section? I've tried plugging in each option in the sentence, but too many of them sound right to me. Am I supposed to look for an option that is one of the actual dictionary meanings of the word or just matching the specific sentence will suffice?</p>

<p>hello there mr. mustard!</p>

<p>I got an 800 CR, and got a 690 on the practice test I took the day before. Vocab in context is basically just eliminating anything that sounds potentially wrong. If you give me an example of a question you find confusing, I can probs help you more.</p>

<p>When doing vocabulary in context, I would suggest that you refrain from allowing the actual dictionary meanings to influence your answer too much. I once missed a vocabulary in context question on “prejudiced” because the word generally has a negative connotation and denotation, but the answer ended up being one with a positive one… </p>

<p>When they ask you a vocab in context question, try thinking of what you would replace the vocab word with BEFORE looking at the answers. I’ve done that a few times… sometimes you’ll find the word that you thought of in the answers, and sometimes you won’t. In the cases that you do, you’ll almost always be right… in the cases that you don’t, look for a synonym or something similar to the word you have picked in your mind.</p>

<p>Vocabulary in context almost never means the word’s most known meaning. Sometimes it’s even contradictory to its intended meaning ,as cherrysunsets exemplified.</p>

<p>The tactic I use is to replace the word with one of the answer choices in the sentence and then re-read it . Most of the answer choices usually alter the sentence’s original meaning.If you have trouble - look 2 sentences up and 2 sentences down to grasp the context.</p>

<p>I third cherry sunset’s advice :)</p>

<p>I have the same problem. Today I took a full test and got 4 CR questions wrong. Two of them are vocab context type. One question asked the meaning of “mean” and the correct answer is “base.” While I was taking the test, I thought “base” was not least correct answer because it means foundation. Another is “cheat” means “mislead.” I chose “swindle.” But these two words are similar. It is sometimes hard to distinguish one from the other.</p>