pulchritudious

So did you use an audio tape?
Flashcards?
Memorize definitions?

Claire1016

I used some flashcards, but the best way to really understand the meaning of a word and remember it is to read it in context. I just read a lot pretty much.

emyo

By drawing it out or making up funny examples.

john6391

root words, suffixs, and prefixes (although I think it kind of goes without sayinG)

amciw

Wrong forum?

To be more specific, I read a lot of relatively advanced material from an early age in order to attain a wide ranging vocabulary. I studied not a single word. It served me perfectly during the test.

The best way to to ace SC is to start prepping ten years before the test.

adamonkey2

^
yes amciw's way is the best, and is the most popular reason why kids score 800 in their CR.

but then, not many people realize they need to read a lot until they're conscious of how it would affect their sat scores.

i just read too, and my english teacher made my class learn like 200 vocab words. otherwise, i just paid slightly more attention to vocab i dont know in my daily life.

amciw

Of course, I only got 770. But I've never missed a sentence completion question.

On a side note, I used to suck at CR. My sophomore PSAT was 69 in CR, with 6 passage based reading questions wrong. One year of English that actually taught me how to analyze literature brought that to a 79, with only 1 wrong. SC is the hardest to study for, really, because it just tests a range of vocabulary you either have or haven't developed by the time you take the test. It isn't something you can learn, like the proper way to answer passage analysis questions.

miraboo

I didn't actively memorize words. Not until the day of the test and I thought that it might help me. Ended up with a 710, which I'm happy with. Missed 7 questions on the paragraph based reading.

hikids

Flash cards mostly, both made up or purchased.

juliushark

do ACTs have "ACT words"? sorry don't think it deserves a thread so ill post it here

jessiehl

Try freerice.com.

Newjack88

I didn't.....

That seems like a waste of time and memorizing the words that could possibly be on the test seems like gaming the system, in my opinion. Just spend your time reading and your vocabulary should grow. If you just memorize what the words mean you aren't really expanding your vocabulary because you probably won't be able to use them in everyday speech. You'll have to consciously be like, "I want to use a big SAT word so I'll use [blank]."

zfox001

I picked a word or two and tried to use it sometime during the day. It helped cause then i was actually using the words and they stuck in my head

with_one_voice

People always say reading reading reading is the best way to get all the sentence completions, and I'm sure it is... But when the SAT is in a few months, and on top of school, work, activities, and test prep you don't have that much time for leisure reading, you need a plan B.

And my saving grace was this list: http://img.sparknotes.com/content/te.../sat.vocab.pdf.
SparkNotes's 1,000 Most Common SAT Words.


Maybe it's not the most "natural" way to improve your vocabulary, but it worked great for me -- my vocabulary shot up, my writing improved, and I didn't miss ANY sentence completions on the last SAT I took.

rmadden15

Flashcards are the way to go. I have nearly 300 words memorized, which are from Princeton review hit parade and Sparknotes.