How do YOU study SAT vocabulary?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>Ok so far its Feb. and im taking my first SAT in June. I have learned in total ten words. They are: gregarious, enigma, vindicate, transient, adversity, ephermal, ostentatious, tactful, amicable, and evanscent. I learned them in a matter of 30minutes, and all besides adversity, I never knew before. I have a question how do you all study your vocab words? Do you go down a SAT word list in alphabetical order, or do you just pick out words from a list and study them?</p>

<p>Because I have problems going in alphabetical order, because in my head they all look the same. Example: abjure (meaning to reject) looks the same as abrogate (meaning to abolish) in my mind. I can’t tell them apart, and im afraid that on the SAT I might confuse the definitions.</p>

<p>Also, is 10 words a day from Feb 15. to June SAT, enough SAT words?</p>

<ul>
<li>And can someone recommend a FREE list to use, that has rememberable (if thats a word) definitions. Like I don’t want some long complicated definition that I won’t remeber, I want like a one-two word definition of the word. I wanna see what I can learn for free, without going out and buying a word list I may not read.</li>
</ul>

<p>Currently I am using Sparknotes 250 Most Difficult words
and [100</a> Most Common SAT Words](<a href=“http://www.yourdictionary.com/dictionary-articles/100-most-common-sat-words.html]100”>http://www.yourdictionary.com/dictionary-articles/100-most-common-sat-words.html) </p>

<p>Can you guys give me feedback on those two SAT word list. Like does Sparknotes have hits? I saw sycophantic on a bluebook question and its in Sparknotes word list so that was a plus, but guys give me your feedback on the accuracy of those list.</p>

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<p>Someone has the stats of different wordlists. Sparknotes is like, decent. But Direct Hits vol1+2 are the best. They don’t go in alpha order. And they are just wonderful! But together they cost like 20$. I would get it, if I were you. They contain only 450 words, but have the most “hits” on the SAT, compared to some lists with 3000 words.</p>

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<p>450 words? That is excellent. Yeah I wasn’t gunna read 1000+ words, not that I couldn’t, but I don’t want to read them straight. If I read 450 here, 250 there, they’ll eventually add up. Wait so which should I get Direct Hits 1 or 2?</p>

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<p>Both. Together they are 450. It’s the best of the best. Sure it may not cover everything, but it is the most efficient word list, and is sufficient for a good score.</p>

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<p>Back in Korea… We had tests every morning where if you got less than 80% you went to detention… So that motivation had me stay until 8 or 9 just going through the words…</p>

<p>Suprisingly, by the end of the night I memorised 50 or so words and they stuck with me</p>

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<p>^ ELITE Korea? If you did go there, I went there too. Sucked.</p>

<p>Also, the best combination was DH + Barron’s 3500 for me. Go over the DH first and then go through the Barron’s 3500.</p>

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<p>If you want to conquer SC ONLY, DH is enough.
If you want to improve your CR , DH+Barron 3500 is the best , like SakataGintoki said.
However, if you have time, I recommend
Dh -> McGrawhill -> 1000 most common -> barron 3500</p>

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<p>^^</p>

<p>TPR… Sucked hard. Worst month</p>

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<p>dang. TPR sucks more now due to commercialization, inadequte instructors and other stuff such as incompetitive environment/rowdy ppl, etc. i guess it’s part of spending life in prep classes</p>

<p>and TPR actually dropped my pts… XP</p>

<p>i really suggest that u study on ur own. i did that and went from a 1950 to 2200 and upwards</p>

<p>and i totally agree with hellscream except for McGrawHill
McGrawHill is weird.</p>

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<p>Haha it was the easiet place for me. near Samsung because I stayed in Gangnam…
Bit too late now… Applied and everything.</p>

<p>I improved by 300 points so ehh … But I know I would have gotten higher had I actualy studied more., it was minimal effort for me since I was sick of the snow and lack of familiar faces (I live in South Africa)</p>

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<p>^ u’ve improved 300 pts from what starting pt? b/c an improvement from 1400 to 1700 is not tantamount to one from 1950 to say 2250 (where i am approximately at)</p>

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<p>Some SAT vocab thoughts…
First, there are two ways the SAT tests vocab…deliberately and incidentally. They test vocab deliberately in SC and RC when they decide that the point of a question is to test vocab. You have to be careful on these questions because they often look for your depth of understanding of the word. That means they are looking for the second or third definition of the word. If you are only studying one or two word simple synonym type first definitions, you are at a disadvantage. (One way to cure this is to look for the word in your reading. If you are reading adult material, you are likely to encounter the word used in different ways in different contexts. You’ll get a wider understanding of the word.</p>

<p>The incidental test of vocab occurs when the test writers aren’t trying to test your vocab, they just happen to use words that you don’t know. You can find these words anywhere on the test, including in the math section, although I believe they try to avoid that. I think it’s more of a problem for ESL test-takers.</p>

<p>In either case, the vocab words are really commonly used words among well-educated and well-read people, so whether they are on the test or not, the words on most word lists are worth learning. From stats I saw on another thread, it’s clear the Direct Hits lists had the highest percentage of words that actually show up on the test. Barron’s stats were among the worst. They have a huge list and many if not most of the words are arcane or obsolete time-wasters.</p>

<p>A final point concerns how you study. It was actually described in boramk’s first post. Study your vocab words as the last thing you do before you go to bed at night. Any time you have pure memorization tasks, night time is the right time. Your brain uses the time you sleep to organize and consolidate long-term memories. Understand, I’m not talking about all-nighters. They are a bad idea. You need the sleep to lock in the memories. Study UNTIL you are tired, then turn out the lights. I used to study biology terms while laying in bed. I went through them once or twice and then turned out the light. When I reviewed them in the morning, I had them all down cold.</p>

<p>Another thing: the more different ways you experience a word, the more of your brain gets involved in remembering it. If you look at the word, you experience it through sight and language. If you also say and write the word, you experience it through sound and physical motion. That’s four ways your brain perceives the word rather than two. So, study out loud and make flash cards. (And make sure you know how to pronounce the words properly.)</p>

<p>Once you’ve learned the words the first time, let a few days or a week go by and then review them again. Then another few days and another review. Neurobiologists and psychologists have found that that routine will strengthen the connections in your brain that store memories. (The process is called “long-term potentiation”.) No matter what you study, it’s better to work on it for a moderate time then give it a rest for a few days and then go back and work on it again. You will remember more info in less time and remember it longer. It will also take less time to re-learn it later. (I’m thinking final exams here.)</p>

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<p>^^</p>

<p>I went from 1630 to 1970. That was about 3 weeks or so of prep.
English, I was always terrible with. MAth? I used to be good (I finished grade 12 math in grade 10), but because of the 2 years of no maths I frogot nearly everything, most of that 3 weeks was going through math, so math ended up being my lowest score.</p>

<p>Unlike other Koreans, I’m not super smart haha</p>

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<p>I studied around 520 words from the Barron’s SAT Vocab with cartoons book.</p>

<p>-Pradeepthi Bommidala.</p>

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<p>an excellent way to expose your identity, Praddepthi Bommidala.</p>

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<p>also it is a good idea, btw, to look past compilations of vocab that appeared on the real sats except those administered in january, may and october.</p>

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<p>Direct Hits is awesome!! It helped me so much on the critical reading. I wasn’t sure that 400+ words was going to be that helpful, but it was great on both SATs that I took. Thank you Silverturtle for your recommendation!</p>

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<p>nonono, i heard barrons has the worst vocab list. hey if you are an esl student, can you tell me how you studied? I need help</p>

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<p>also it is a good idea, btw, to look past compilations of vocab that appeared on the real sats except those administered in january, may and october.</p>

<p>^ why not on these months?</p>

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<p>I keep word lists while reading books/articles of words I don’t know. Then I look them all up at [EasyDefine</a> - Define multiple words quickly](<a href=“http://www.easydefine.com%5DEasyDefine”>http://www.easydefine.com). This way I can save my word lists and quiz myself on them.</p>