| I am very happy that Pete accepted to share his views from the standpoint of both a tutor and author. I am most thankful for his pointing to some differences. I hope to bring a few additional experts to add to the critique.
In the meantime, I'm still working on additional elements. Again, let me stress that I write them without much editing. I have noticed that a few of my posts could be more clear. Please consider this the Beta version!
Just a quick reply regarding the vocabulary issue. I agree that the vocabulary is not unimportant. My biggest objection goes tword the very large lists of words, such as the 3500 Barron's words. Assuming a student can digest 50 words a day, that would take about 70 days of hard and dedicated work. I think that learning large lists of words work for younger students -for instance young immigrants- or for adults. The issue is mainly of how to allocate precious time. If the typical student balks at spending 40 to 60 hours to prepare for the SAT, I would hate to see him spending the bulk of it trying to memorize stacks of flashcards. Let's also remember that the mere exercise of taking AND reviewing past tests entails the revision of the words that show up in the correct and incorrect answers.
On the other hand, I do support spending time to review a small number of words on a daily basis. I also supprt spending time on analyzing roots, prefixes, and suffixes. |