<p>I’ve read through DH, RR, and PR Hit Parade and know most words I see on the test but sometimes I see some I don’t know and don’t know what to do.
Ex)</p>
<p>Physical exercise often has a _________ effect, releasing emotional tension and refreshing the spirit.</p>
<p>I was able to cross off A, B, and E cause I knew what those meant but didn’t know what retentive or cathartic meant. I guessed retentive and was wrong.</p>
<p>What should I have done in that situation to determine that it was cathartic?</p>
<p>Ex) </p>
<p>Because drummer Tony Williams paved the way for later jazz-fusion musicians, he is considered a _______ of that style.</p>
<p>Roots will definitely help, but it also helps to look for core words. </p>
<p>In example 1, you’re stuck between cathartic and retentive. Cathartic reminds me of “cardiac” or “artery”, so I’m assuming it has something to do with the heart or its functions. Retentive reminds me of “retain” and “attentive”, so I’m assuming it means tending to retain or paying attention to keeping things; essentially, constant. </p>
<p>cathartic means emotionally purging, and retentive means retaining well. Although I might not know what these two words mean, I can figure out that retentive is probably not it since retain means to keep and the sentence has “releasing…” in it. </p>
<p>For connoisseur/progenitor, it is a little different. connoisseur has a connotation of a matire’d or a fancy person. Progenitor might not remind you of anything, but look at the construction: pro + genitor. pro means good, for, promoting, and genitor reminds me of “generator” or “generate.” So, a progenitor would be one who helps create something. That fits perfectly into the blank, so I would write that.</p>
<p>What An0maly said will work some of the time. Namely if you can eliminate some of the choices or some of the choices have roots you’re familiar with. However, sometimes the choices will be words you’ve never seen before and words that don’t have any noticeable roots. e.g. moribund, picayune, visceral, and halycon. If you can’t eliminate any of the choices and you don’t have a clue, just omit</p>
<p>also i noticed some stuff from other languages could help… like for the moribund one you said, i thought of morir (to die in spanish) and related it to death… (moribund - in a dying state; near death.) so it worked in that case =)</p>
<p>I use that strategy all the time. If there is a word that I can’t break up that way, then I will just make sure I can eliminate the other 4. I’ve never seen a SAT question where there are 2 words that definitely can’t be sounded out/figured out.</p>
<p>Roots certainly help, and the other suggestion about relying on your romance language knowledge is great, too. You’re already doing the right thing by narrowing down and guessing. The only other thing I can suggest is just to keep at the vocabulary. It’s always best to KNOW the word, so you don’t have to guess! Good luck.</p>
<p>My HS requires 3 years of Latin, so we’re encouraged to rely on our knowledge of root words. Of course, catharsis is Greek, so I guess it wouldn’t have helped us there, since the three year Greek requirement was thrown out generations ago. But it might have helped with some elimination.</p>
<p>You probably don’t have time to go take Latin for 3 years, but if you know some other language that’s very much related to English, that can be helpful. Always look for connections. I guess this is where people who don’t have a lot of natural ability in vocabulary turn to memorization. Maybe it works.</p>
<p>Oh, and phrases. Retentive always makes me think of anal retentive. You wouldn’t want exercise to have that effect!</p>
<p>For #2, roots are really the best way to go. I’ve studied French as well as Latin, so I have the words pretty much covered. But you know these stems anyway, I’m guessing. Pro- is always like for or before. Think prologue. And gen- is beginning. Think Genesis.
On the other hand, connoisseur breaks down into someone who knows something well. I can;t do this one as well for you because I don’t know as much about French, but when I see it, I can think, oh, “cognosco,” so a connoisseur knows stuff about a subject. </p>
<p>I also started to independently study the etymology of words when I was 11, so that helps. And sometimes I read the dictionary. But making up personal connections in your head really works!</p>
<p>FYI… The root “pro” means first, not good. i remember answering these questions somewhere in some practice test probably. for cathartic i remembered the word “catharsis” which i learned in english which is the sudden purging of emotional tension.</p>