<p>I am currently a high school freshman and in the past year my vocabulary has greatly improved as I have jotted down difficult and obscure words down on several sheets of paper as my mnemonic method. My real mnemonic method, however, is this: I then create a Google document on Google drive where I would set 190 words per document(equaling to 15-20 pages), and I bolden the words and their definitions. So far I have five documents on Google Drive all about vocabulary but I have not updated them since September 17. I have continued to write down a ton of words on blank pieces of paper, and I promised to myself I would update those words when I have time to. I have also used Dictionary.com Word of the Day and some valuable vocabulary words on Vocabulary.com to further my lexical progress. I have played Vocabulary.com games often and strived to compete on the Vocabulary Bowl that started September 30. My real question is this: These vocabulary words are good for academic writing and encounters on reading passages, but what is the significance of their impact on reading comprehension? I just took the Explore exam two and a half months ago and I got a composite score of 18 despite my vocabulary bank. I have read that ACT does not test obscure vocabulary and knowledge of those words does little to help answering critical reading questions. They will help on the SAT exam, but ONLY on sentence completion questions, based on my observations. It seems as if vocabulary on the SAT only helps significantly on sentence completion questions, but I got numerous questions wrong on those that followed reading passages. The key was not vocabulary: I spent my time perusing and at times skimming through those passages to conserve time but I still have trouble understanding at times tone and overall purpose of the passages. There is like a disconnection when I read the passages and it’s troubling. The disconnection is my failure to have critical thinking. I can’t think critically when I read reading passages and I have found that vocabulary doesn’t really help on comprehension or critical thinking. It only helps with grammar, sentence completions, and writing. I don’t know if what I am observing and saying is correct, but it doesn’t seem as if making a correlation between context requires profound vocabulary. And also on essay sections, does vocabulary help to develop coherent flows?
The reason why I ask this is that I try to use vocabulary and length on essay portions to boost the chances of high scores, but in the end I feel like they really might not be enough. I have read those who get 6’s on their SAT writing and they can still achieve that score without writing a lot. They write like only three paragraphs and their writing flow is cohesive. That’s why I am beginning to have this feeling that critical thinking and vocabulary are two different things. Am I right? Also on the free SAT practice test that I mentioned, I only scored a 1,730, with poor to mediocre scores on writing, reading, and math. I only got a 530 on the Reading(41 right and 26 wrong, zero omitted), a 680 on the Writing(40 right and 9 wrong, zero omitted), and a 520 on Math(32 right and 22 wrong). By the way I achieved a 6 on the writing, and I don’t even know if the piece I wrote deserved a 6. Any which way, I got 26 right and 22 wrong for passages and 15 right and 4 wrong for sentences. For math, I struggled the most on geometry, which I seriously had no fault for because I am only in Algebra 1 right now. I struggled the most in writing on improving sentences. On the Explore exam I took, I basically scored an equivalent of 26 on the ACT, which isn’t enough because I have set expectations for myself to get into Ivy League schools. 26 WILL DEFINITELY not do. I struggled in Reading and Math and did much much better on English and Science. Recently I bought several test-prep books, which were Barron’s 36 and Cracking the ACT by Princeton Review. Hoping those will help!</p>
<p>1730 as a freshman? Sorry to say but most students who apply to ivy league schools get 2400s when they’re in 7th grade. Unfortunately your only option now is community college, and even that is a high reach.</p>
<p>On a more serious note, you have three years to prepare. Regardless of amount you put in, your score will definitely improve as your brain matures and you gain more knowledge. I’d say it’s never too early to prepare, but at your age it’s WAY too early to let the SAT cause you anxiety. Relax.</p>
<p>@aalewis ■■■? I know you were joking but are there any seventh grade students who have the intelligence and who have had gotten a 2400 on the SAT? <a href=“California boy, 14, gets perfect score on SAT ”>National News - New York Daily News; This boy did it, and he’s only in eighth grade!!! Talk about a child prodigy!!!</p>
<p>I agree with your observations about the ACT and SAT. Comprehending SAT reading passages doesn’t rely mainly on vocab. Vocab can help in the essays if you use them correctly and use them well, but they’re not necessary even to get a perfect score.
But you really shouldn’t be stressing out right now, you’re doing fine on these tests as a freshman. Enjoy life while you can.</p>
<p>Vocab will help a lot, but it must be combined with solid reading skills.</p>
@marvin100 I agree!
Practice speed reading. However, there’s no point in reading a passage if you don’t understand it. That’s just wasting time. What you need is to both comprehend the passage and do that quickly. Don’t skim if it doesn’t work for you. Spend some extra time with it, so that you’re able to understand it. Sure you might be taking more time initially, but you’re actually saving time by not having to constantly re-read.
Once you’re able to do that, practice reading fast. The easiest way to improve reading speed is to read more. Whatever interests you, random novels, articles, anything with words.
There’s also websites like this: http://www.spreeder.com/app.php?intro=1 that are fun to play around with. I don’t know if it helps, but it’d allow to know how fast you can read and comprehend. I find that using the word chunks, under settings, helps to simulate actual reading.
Think of it this way:
To solve math questions, you have to know the numbers. Like, you have to know what “47” means, that “8” is larger than “4,” etc.
But just knowing the numbers won’t make up for not understanding mathematical principles and rules.
In CR, substitute “words” for numbers. Knowing them is essential, but you have to have reading principles and methods or you won’t get very far.
I had exact the same problems and I’m a foreigner (which makes improving reading comprehension much harder). I have learned over 3000 advanced SAT vocabulary but was still not able to get a solid Cr score ( I was scoring 550 at max). Those words only helped me to ace the sentence completion questions. Then I switched to the ACT exam and felt that its reading section was much harder than that of SAT’s. I was barely able to remember the details and comprehend the passages fully and was required to read 4 collosal passages in 35 minutes (I wasn’t even able to finish SAT Cr on time). I was dumbfounded but then decided to improve my timing. At first I was completing the reading section of at 50 minutes (15 mins late. which is…) not to mention that I was also bad at comprehending it. As i tried to absorb as much information as possible in the given period of time, I started to improve my focus, reading comprehension and timing, and I did this just less than 2 weeks. I believe the most important thing that you need to improve is your focus. If you have enough focus then you’ll be able to understand and follow the plot effectively without wasting time rereading the sentences. I just did a practice test and I was able to improve my score by 60 points and finished the each reading (except the 18-20 questions one) 5-7 minutes in advance. I feel much confident as of now and able to understand SAT readings easily. Of course additional sources like Times are great for improving your reading skills but first you must identify the problem that is not letting you to reach your full potential. Btw, the reason why i didn’t score much higher even though i was able to understand the whole passage is that I read too fast (for SAT but still slow for the ACT) and regard questions as they’re ACT’s Cr questions which are much easier and can be answered just by looking at the passages. I am now trying to avoid the traps set in cr passages. I feel like I can do anything!
Of course having a solid vocabulary helps but not as much as other abilities help.
I learn 25 words a week, and I started when I was 12, so by the time I took the SAT this year I had a pretty stellar vocab. But I devoted <5 minutes a day to it so I could focus on more important activities.
Speed reading, grammar, problem solving, and practice tests are way better ways to prep. Prioritize them more then vocab, but don’t completely ignore vocab either. Know 0 vocab and do everything else perfectly and you could get a 2200 (only if you get everything else perfectly)
TL;DR. Not much.
That’s savage studying… I studied like 350/600 words in a book and missed 0 vocab.
Years and years of avid reading is what helps w CR. Most CR passages don’t use fancy vocab. CR is about drawing inferences.
Well, maybe vocab won’t be a great factor since the CR section will change and won’t require too much vocab as the current one. But it’s good to have a solid vocab. You have plenty of time. It takes years of practice to learn those skills. Work hard in your GPA and EC’s. Good Luck!
More than the SAT, that vocab will help with the AP Lang and Lit exams, as there are many words in the passages, questions, and answer choices that are so “sophisticated” they are unused in everyday discussion and reading
@Matt846 Words like hebdomadal, sesquipedalian, esculent, comestible, radix, ichnography, rhadamanthine, bruit, and sequacious right?
Possibly, though maybe not quite at that level of obscurity
Of those, @Izpare, only comestible is likely to come out. In fact, it’s a perfectly cromulent word, unlike the others, which are, I’m afraid, ripe for floccinaucinihilipilification.
flocc… something is so long i don’t even know how to pronounce that shit