Vocabulary Memorization

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>I've been thinking about this for long time. I'm pretty happy with my increased knowledge on vast number of vocabularies now but compared to others who score well over 700, I still feel that I need to learn more. But problem is this: As most of busy students do, I have a lot of extracurricular activities and busy time to manage my GPA so I really don't have much time to memorize vocabulary. What do you guys do to memorize them? Flashcards (they take too much time making)? Reading off the list (uh... not very effective)?</p>

<p>Anyone?</p>

<p>Of course, reading is the best way to learn new vocabulary. Of course... But I'm asking for more quick way to learn them...For March SAT.</p>

2

<p>record your own podcast</p>

3

<p>memorizing roots words would be good. Reading off a list of words and definitions is just tedious and you usually loose concentration.</p>

4

<p>Definitely know your roots. Flashcards are helpful too... especially if you make your own (I know it's time consuming). I studied my flashcards right up to the minute before the test and a few of the words actually showed up on it :]</p>

5

<p>make flashcards only of the words that you don't know. Go over them sometimes and then just look at the original lists. THat's what I did (even though most of my friends said it wouldn't help, I raised my practice tests CR from 650's to 800's)</p>

6

<p>What's podcast?</p>

<p>BTW, can anyone recommend me a good root list? I mean like I'm somewhat ambivalent when it comes to guessing the meaning of the word because well... I don't have a really good list for it. Plus, I can't use root on word like "enervated" which, if used on roots, would tend to say "more of energy" except it actually means "drained of energy."</p>

<p>I like the last idea but I don't know a lot of words so haha.. I don't know =p.</p>

7

<p>Yeah - definitions, waste of time.</p>

8

<p>roots, prefixes, and flashcards. Barron's has 2300 ready made (so you won't make anything) SAT word flash cards in the back...try that.......</p>

9

<p>If my first idea isn't appealing get a study group together and then quiz each other (heard this works, never tried it myself though...)</p>

10

<p>I tried it. We always end up chatting about everything except what we're supposed to study!</p>

11

<p>Thought that would happen...:)</p>

12

<p>One of the most time-efficient ways to learn vocabulary is through flashcards, but not in the usual way. What you really need to do is to get a good list, and start making cards using this method. One side will, of course, only have the word itself. The other side will have a definition in your own words. </p>

<p>The key part of this is that the definition must be your own. Simply copying vocabulary from a book helps very little, if at all. In addition, it's helpful to have a small sketch of some kind that reminds you of the word.</p>

<p>Make from 10-20 of these cards every day, and you're off to a good start. Now you'll need to practice with them. The best way to do this is to find a situation that relaxes you, watching TV or something, for example. Then, when the ads start, quickly separate the cards into two piles, those you know right away (the known pile), and all the rest (the unknown pile). If you hesitate for even a moment before being able to think of the definition, put it in the unknown pile. Take a moment to check the definition on the back of the card before putting any card in the unknown pile.</p>

<p>Speed is the most important aspect of the practice. You should ideally appear to be dealing cards at Vegas. Once you have made your two piles, pick up the unknown pile and go through it again, putting any cards you know into the known pile. Repeat this several times, and you'll end up with everything in the known pile.</p>

<p>Elapsed time for all of this is typically under a minute, once you get the hang of it.</p>

<p>After everything is in the known pile, relax and watch TV again. Once the next ad break comes around, repeat the process with the same set of 10-20 cards. Repeat it once more for the third ad break (I'm assuming typical US 30 minute shows here), and those words should be pretty well memorized. Trying them again after sleeping is nice to really cement them in your mind.</p>

<p>Now, this is useless as a cram method, but if you have a month or so, it's a very helpful way to fill in your vocab holes.</p>

<p>Is it completely necessary for every SAT student to do this? Not really, but most would benefit greatly from it, not just in the SAT, but in later university work as well.</p>

13

<p>To be honest, dont memorize words. It never works, there is no way you can memorize the vast amount of words and retain them all on the test date. I recommend you to read daily (New York Times .. etc.)</p>

14

<p>
[quote]
What's podcast?

[/quote]

podcast would be nice if you want to do a good deed a let other people download every day a new list of words you've recorded.
tutorial on podcast is here
<a href="http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/what-is-a-podcast.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/what-is-a-podcast.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>i actually meant you can record the words with short definitions on your own mp3 player and pump them into your ears instead of rock. they can even make it to your brain haha.</p>

<p>more time consuming but a surefire way of memorizing is writing a 10 sentence story where each sentence has at least a couple of vocab words.</p>

15

<p>I'd say you should just talk to your smartest friend, with both of you TRYING to use obscure words. When you use one the other doesn't know, tell the definition. This will help not only because you remember what your friends say well, but because your friend will give the definition in layman's terms, making it easier to remember. They my even provide a funny story about how they learned it that will make it even <em>easier</em> to remember.</p>

<p>Also, I've learned a lot of words playing boggle and a game on Yahoo! called Word Racer... I have lived a deprived childhood.</p>

16

<p>Personally, I hate roots. They're harder to memorize than the actual words. Lists work fine with me. If you like flashcards, you don't have to make them yourself. Go to Barnes & Nobles and buy some pre-made SAT vocab cards. Some books also come with rip-out flash cards.</p>