1.4 SAT Critical Reading - How to Build Vocabulary

How to build vocabulary: Building vocabulary is an obvious key for doing well on the SAT sentence completion questions.  At some level, a raw ability to define words is critical for eliminating answer choices and exposing the correct answer choice.  Building vocabulary by studying a long list of words a week or two weeks before the exam is NOT the answer.   Our minds are just not built for soaking up that information and more importantly retaining that information.  Imagine all the other things your mind must do before and during the exam- it's quite miraculous if you think about it!  But, to assume that your mind will retain a vocabulary list that you have studied for a week is wishful thinking.  Retrieving a list of commonly used SAT words and studying a one to two word definition is really not the correct way for approaching vocabulary development.  Though this approach may yield a few words that you did not know before and some may even appear on the test on test day, you must be realistic about how much you may gain from an 11th hour approach to building vocabulary. 

For most of us, the approach may be reduced to this: I've seen this word before and I know that it was on the list, but I can't for the life of me remember what it means.  A shallow understanding of how vocabulary is built will often yield this result.  Research tells us that the human mind needs up to 11 experiences with one new word before we master it.  I know, as a veteran high school English teacher, that a short study of SAT related words is not the answer to doing well.  In fact, those students who typically score well are those who read.  They read the newspaper; they read novels; they read articles online; they read and read, so it is not unusual to find that their experience with words in general is strong. 

Reading for Vocabulary

The question is this: may a smart study approach to vocabulary replace years of reading?  The answer is not completely, but partially.  Students who are career readers will be the best prepared since SAT related words lists for them are review lists, giving them more experiences with common words that appear throughout their reading. 

Vocabulary Flash Cards

If you do not fit into the above group, progressing slowly but surely is the best approach, which you may achieve in two ways (a) study from SAT related words lists but only give yourself twenty at a time; do not approach these from an alphabetical sequence; instead pick a few here and there until the list is complete; (b) discipline yourself to stop at unrelated words and study them in context; create your own sentence after defining the word and keep a notebook filled with these finds.  A newspaper is a great way to build words since you may read short articles that allow you to practice this approach.  Above all, be patient with your vocabulary growth.  It will not come overnight and you cannot expect it to. We recommend spending 30 minutes multiple times a week for two to three months, starting with the top SAT 250 vocabulary words, then progressing through the comprehensive 5000 SAT vocabulary words. We also provide a mobile version of our SAT vocabulary flashcards for your iPhone or iPod Touch here.

When students score well on the sentence completion section, there is an immense pride that goes with it since these students train just like an athlete who trains for years to win one race.  If you are going to spend any of your time on the 11th hour approach, save your time and complete practice sentence completion questions instead.  Review all the words in the set even if you got the question correct.  Perhaps there was one word that needs a little more investigation.  Remember that small gains add up to big points!