Vocabulary Lists' Performance on the March 2011 SAT

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>I've analyzed the vocab from the March 2011 test (sentence completion only, no passage-based reading vocab) and compared it to the Direct Hits lists, Barron's lists (high-frequency/hot prospects and 3500-word), Princeton Review Hit Parade list (250 words), and the RocketReview 323-word list. I've analyzed 15 mid-high-level words that showed up in the correct answer choices as well as 47 mid-high-level words that showed up in the incorrect answer choices as well as the questions themselves. At the bottom of this post, I give a summary of the number of hits on each list, both including and excluding words from my experimental CR section.</p>

<p>Below, I have listed the words and indicated which of the 5 lists, if any, included them.</p>

<p>Here are the 15 mid-high-level words that showed up in the correct answer choices:</p>

<ul>
<li>adept (DH, Barron's 3500, RR 323)</li>
<li>challenge (v) (RR 323)</li>
<li>dynamism (Barron's 3500 as "dynamic")</li>
<li>empirical (DH, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>escapist (Barron's 3500 as "escapism")</li>
<li>ethereal (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>indelible (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>insolent (Barron's 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>mendacity (Barron's 3500 as "mendacious", PR 250 as "mendacious")</li>
<li>multifariousness (Barron's 3500 as "multifarious", PR 250)</li>
<li>pedestrian (DH, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>precocity (DH*, Barron's HF, Barron's 3500, and PR 250, all as "precocious")</li>
<li>rectitude (Barron's 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>tactless (DH*)</li>
<li>unperturbed (Barron's 3500 as "perturb")</li>
</ul>

<p>Here are the 47 mid-high-level words that appeared in the incorrect answer choices or within the questions themselves:</p>

<ul>
<li>abominable (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>accolades (Barron's Hot Prospects, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>acumen (Barron's 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>adherence (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>adroit (DH, Barron's 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>affability (DH, Barron's HF, Barron's 3500, and PR 250, all as "affable")</li>
<li>altruism (DH, Barron's HF, Barron's 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>apathy (DH, Barron's HF, Barron's 3500, PR 250, RR 323)</li>
<li>banality (DH, Barron's 3500, PR 250, RR 323)</li>
<li>conscientious (Barron's 3500, PR 250, RR 323)</li>
<li>constriction</li>
<li>conveyed (RR 323)</li>
<li>cunning</li>
<li>dalliance</li>
<li>decorum (Barron's HF, Barron's 3500, RR 323)</li>
<li>demise (DH, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>deplorable (Barron's HF, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>embraced (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>enshrined</li>
<li>exasperated (DH*, Barron's 3500, RR 323)</li>
<li>exorbitant (DH, Barron's 3500, PR 250, RR 323)</li>
<li>extol (DH, Barron's HF, Barron's 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>extraneous (Barron's HF, Barron's 3500, PR 250, RR 323)</li>
<li>forbearance (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>fractious (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>frivolous (Barron's HF, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>illustriousness</li>
<li>impartial (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>implacable (DH, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>jocularity (DH*, Barron's Hot Prospects, Barron's 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>judiciousness (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>luminous (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>magnanimity (DH, Barron's 3500, PR 250, all as "magnanimous")</li>
<li>nihilism (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>oblivious (DH, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>opinionated</li>
<li>punctiliousness (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>recursive</li>
<li>sagacity (DH*, Barron's HF, Barron's 3500, all as "sage")</li>
<li>shrewd (Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>solitousness (DH, Barron's 3500, PR 250, RR 323)</li>
<li>staid (Barron's 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>suppositional (DH*, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>susceptibility (Barron's HF, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>traffic (v.)</li>
<li>verve (DH, Barron's 3500)</li>
<li>withdrawn (Barron's 3500)</li>
</ul>

<p>*word was defined in passing rather than as part of the main list</p>

<p>DH lists are from the 2011 editions, Barron's lists are from the 2007 book, and the PR and RR lists were accessed in user-generated sets at the following links:
Princeton</a> Review Hit Parade flashcards | Quizlet
Rocket</a> Review Vocabulary 323 Words flashcards | Quizlet</p>

<hr>

<p>SUMMARY:</p>

<p>Out of the first 15 words:
Direct Hits had 5 hits (incl. 2*)
Barron's HF had 1 hit
Barron's HP had 0 hits
Barron's 3500 had 13 hits
Princeton Review 250 had 5 hits
RocketReview 323 had 2 hits</p>

<p>Out of the final 47 words:
Direct Hits had 17 hits (incl. 4*)
Barron's HF had 10 hits
Barron's HP had 2 hits
Barron's 3500 had 39 hits
Princeton Review 250 had 14 hits
RocketReview 323 had 9 hits</p>

<p>Out of the 62 total words:
Direct Hits had 22 hits (incl. 6*)
Barron's HF had 11 hits
Barron's HP had 2 hits
Barron's 3500 had 52 hits
Princeton Review 250 had 19 hits
RocketReview 323 had 11 hits</p>

<hr>

<p>In my experimental section:</p>

<p>Out of the 12 words analogous to the top 15 above:
Direct Hits had 5 hits (incl. 1*)
Barron's HF had 7 hits
Barron's HP had 0 hits
Barron's 3500 had 10 hits
Princeton Review 250 had 3 hits
RocketReview 323 had 5 hits</p>

<p>Out of the 37 words analogous to the final 47 above:
Direct Hits had 10 hits (incl. 0*)
Barron's HF had 13 hits
Barron's HP had 0 hits
Barron's 3500 had 32 hits
Princeton Review 250 had 7 hits
RocketReview 323 had 10 hits</p>

<p>Out of the 49 words on my experimental section:
Direct Hits had 15 hits (incl. 1*)
Barron's HF had 20 hits
Barron's HP had 0 hits
Barron's 3500 had 42 hits
Princeton Review 250 had 10 hits
RocketReview 323 had 15 hits</p>

<hr>

<p>SUMMARY, INCLUDING MY EXPERIMENTAL SECTION:</p>

<p>Out of the top 27 words:
Direct Hits had 10 hits (incl. 3*)
Barron's HF had 8 hits
Barron's HP had 0 hits
Barron's 3500 had 23 hits
Princeton Review 250 had 8 hits
RocketReview 323 had 7 hits</p>

<p>Out of the final 84 words:
Direct Hits had 27 hits (incl. 4*)
Barron's HF had 23 hits
Barron's HP had 2 hits
Barron's 3500 had 71 hits
Princeton Review 250 had 21 hits
RocketReview 323 had 19 hits</p>

<p>Out of the 111 total words I saw on yesterday's test:
Direct Hits had 37 hits (incl. 7*)
Barron's HF had 31 hits
Barron's HP had 2 hits
Barron's 3500 had 94 hits
Princeton Review 250 had 29 hits
RocketReview 323 had 26 hits</p>

<p>Here's a list of the 17 words that did not appear in the Barron's 3500 list:
acronym, challenge (v), constriction, contemporize, conveyed, cunning, dalliance, enshrined, illustriousness, impassioned, opinionated, recursive, repose, sociable, stern, tactless, traffic (v)</p>

<p>I can email a full list in .xls --> .pdf form that includes the words from my experimental section upon request.</p>

2

<p>Wow this is useful
I was wondering if you remembered the actual incorrect answer choices per question
For example, I was wondering if you might know what the incorrect answer choices were for the “Indelible” question or maybe the “challenge” or “adept” question?</p>

<p>Thanks alot!</p>

3

<p>I’m sorry, I don’t have <em>that</em> good a memory, haha.</p>

<p>However, I <em>can</em> tell you that all three of those words, “indelible”, “challenge”, and “adept” were in the same section, and the other words in that section were:</p>

<p>shrewd
withdrawn
hesitant
exasperated
apologetic
extol
enshrined
oblivious
embraced
deplorable
traffic (v.)
apathy
decorum
acumen
dalliance
extraneous
recursive
suppositional
fractious</p>

<p>If I had to guess, indelible was with deplorable, challenge was with extol, and adept was with oblivious.</p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

4

<p>well i remember that indelible was an answer and it wasn’t paired with another word. and i got both deplorable and extol for answers too.</p>

5

<p>So, if you don’t want to memorize 3500 words, DH is still the best?</p>

6

<p>@sm2626: By “indelible was with deplorable,” etc., I meant that indelible and deplorable were answer choices within the same question, not that the words were paired within a single answer choice.</p>

<p>@chaosdog: I agree with others who suggest that a combination of DH, PR, and RR is ideal. There’s a lot of overlap, and together, they included 58 (incl. 4*) of the 111 words on my entire list.</p>

7

<p>Bravo !</p>

8

<p>I suggest memorizing the entire dictionary. I think a combination of Oxford’s and Merriam Webster’s should suffice.</p>

9

<p>How many words does the DH list have?</p>

10

<p>“challenge” is a medium level word?</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>It must be … because someone would like it to be! </p>

<p>This type of compilation with “statistics” suffers from the usual problem, namely that the words that are counted as hits are so common that they should be known by almost everyone taking the SAT. </p>

<p>Are words such adept, challenge, dynamism, escapist, insolent, pedestrian, precocity, tactless, or unperturbed really that hard?</p>

12

<p>^ Precocity and pedestrian might give people trouble</p>

13

<p>Woah. It’s Xiggi!</p>

<p>I read your advice.</p>

<p>Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii</p>

14

<p>xiggi :O</p>

<p>The Gods have arrived.</p>

15

<p>Wow
Xiggi
I thought he was myth</p>

<p>I’m still kind of dumbfounded sitting here. It’s like a ghost arrived and then disappeared…</p>

16

<p>@garfieldliker: Yes, I consider it a medium-level word because <em>given the way it was used</em>, as in “I challenge this line of reasoning” rather than “this assignment challenges me” or “I challenge you to a duel,” it would probably confuse some low-level students who don’t recognize its usage here, which is “to call into question the validity of”. Let’s not forget that roughly 50% of the students taking the SAT score below 500.</p>

<p>That said, there aren’t too many low-level students browsing the CC forums, so it probably <em>is</em> worthless to include medium-level words for most people here.</p>

<p>Also, the Gods have indeed arrived. Thus I make a new offering that includes <em>only</em> the words I myself probably didn’t know at some point in high school:</p>

<p>15 –> 8:</p>

<ul>
<li>empirical (DH, Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>indelible (Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>insolent (Barron’s 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>mendacity (Barron’s 3500 as “mendacious”, PR 250 as “mendacious”)</li>
<li>multifariousness (Barron’s 3500 as “multifarious”, PR 250)</li>
<li>pedestrian (DH, Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>precocity (DH*, Barron’s HF, Barron’s 3500, and PR 250, all as “precocious”)</li>
<li>rectitude (Barron’s 3500, PR 250)</li>
</ul>

<p>47 –> 17:</p>

<ul>
<li>acumen (Barron’s 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>adroit (DH, Barron’s 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>altruism (DH, Barron’s HF, Barron’s 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>dalliance</li>
<li>forbearance (Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>fractious (Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>frivolous (Barron’s HF, Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>implacable (DH, Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>luminous (Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>nihilism (Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>punctiliousness (Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>recursive</li>
<li>solitousness (DH, Barron’s 3500, PR 250, RR 323)</li>
<li>staid (Barron’s 3500, PR 250)</li>
<li>suppositional (DH*, Barron’s 3500)</li>
<li>traffic (v., as in “The Daily Show traffics in fake news.”)</li>
<li>verve (DH, Barron’s 3500)</li>
</ul>

<p>So, out of these delightful 25:
DH has 9 hits (incl. 3*)
Barron’s HF has 3 hits
Barron’s HP has no hits
Barron’s 3500 has 22 hits
PR has 10 hits
RR has 1 hit</p>

<p>I’ll also make an offering in the form of a list of high-level words from my experimental section (study up! they may appear on a future test!):</p>

<p>[because I am lazy, let A = DH, B = Barron’s HF, C = Barron’s 3500, D = PR 250, and E = RR 323, and let $ indicate words from correct answer choices]</p>

<p>appellation C
blas</p>

17

<p>What was the question involving pedestrian? The other answer choices? Was adroit one?</p>

18

<p>I don’t remember the question. Based on my notes, my best guess is that abominable and adroit were among the other answer choices.</p>

19

<p>I think we are all missing the point. Xiggi was here.</p>

20

<p>Wow Buffalowizard, great work putting this together. It still amazes me that even after memorizing 3500 words you can’t count on knowing every word on the test.</p>

<p>I didn’t have time to memorize that many words so I used DH (which has around 500 words) and the Blue Book and was able to get a great critical reading score. We also read some great books at my school like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter and Jane Eyre which had lots of vocab words.</p>