There are some topics you can easily cram. Vocabulary isn’t one of them. In general, words don’t stay in mind until the fourth or fifth time you learn them. Try to begin your vocabulary study several weeks before the exam. Take 15 or 20 minutes a day to learn new words. Periodically review all the words you’ve previously studied; quiz yourself, or have a friend quiz you. This simple regimen can enable you to learn several hundred new words before you take the SAT.
LEARN A FEW WORDS AT A TIME
Don’t try to gobble dozens of words in one sitting. They’re likely to blur into an indistinguishable mass. Instead, pick a reasonable quantity—say, ten to fifteen words—and study them in some depth. Learn the definition of each word; examine the sample sentence provided in the Word List; learn the related words; and try writing a couple of sentences of your own that include the word. Refer to your own dictionary for further information if you like.
LEARN WORDS IN FAMILIES
Language is a living thing. Words are used by humans, innately creative beings who constantly twist, reshape, invent, and recombine words. (Think of the jargon of your favorite sport or hobby, or the language that has blossomed in cyberspace in recent years.) As a result, most words belong to families, in which related ideas are expressed through related words. This makes it possible to learn several words each time you learn one.
In the SAT Word List, we’ve provided some of the family linkages to help you. For example, you’ll find the adjective anachronistic in the word list. It means “out of the proper time,” as illustrated by the sample sentence: The reference, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, to “the clock striking twelve” is anachronistic, since there were no striking timepieces in ancient Rome.
When you meet this word, you should also get to know its close kinfolk. The noun anachronism means something that is out of its proper time. The clock in Julius Caesar, for example, is an anachronism; in another way, so are the knickers worn by modern baseball players, which reflect a style in men’s fashions that went out of date generations ago. When you learn the adjective, learn the noun (and/or verb) that goes with it at the same time.
BECOME A WORD ROOT TRACER
The two words we just discussed anachronistic and anachronism are like brother and sister. Slightly more distant relatives can be located and learned through the “Word Origin” feature you’ll find near many of the words in the list. The origin for anachronistic connects this word to its source from another language: the Greek word chronos means time. Ultimately, this is the root from which the English word anachronistic grows.
As you explore the word origins, you’ll find that many words especially bookish SAT words—come from roots in Latin and Greek. There are complicated (and interesting) historical reasons for this, but the nub is that, for several centuries, learned people in England and America knew ancient Latin and Greek and deliberately imported words from those languages into English.
They rarely imported just one word from a given root. Thus, many word roots can enable you to learn several English words at once. The word origin for anachronistic tells you that chronos is also the source of the English words chronic, chronicle, chronograph, chronology, and synchronize. All of these have to do with the concept of time:
• Chronic means lasting a long time
• A chronicle is a record of events over a period of time
• A chronograph is a clock or watch
• Chronology is a timeline
• Synchronize means to make two things happen at the same time
Learning the word root chronos can help you in several ways. It will make it easier to learn all the words in the chronos family, as opposed to trying to learn them one at a time. It will help you to remember the meanings of chronos words if they turn up on the exam, and it may even help you to guess the meaning of an entirely new chronos word when you encounter it.
USE THE WORDS YOU LEARN
Make a deliberate effort to include the new words you’re learning in your daily speech and writing. It will help solidify your memory of the words and their meanings. Maybe you’ve heard this tip about meeting new people: If you use a new acquaintance’s name several times, you’re unlikely to forget it. The same is true with new words: Use them, and you won’t lose them.
CREATE YOUR OWN WORD LIST
Get into the habit of reading a little every day with your dictionary nearby. When you encounter a new word in a newspaper, magazine, or book, look it up. Then jot down the new word, its definition, and the sentence in which you encountered it in a notebook set aside for this purpose. Review your vocabulary notebook periodically—say, once a week. This is a great way to supplement our SAT Word List, because it’s personally tailored. Your notebook will reflect the kinds of things you read and the words you find most difficult. The fact that you’ve taken the time and made the effort to write down the words and their meanings will help to fix them in your memory. Chances are good that you’ll encounter a few words from your vocabulary notebook on the exam.
Read More : The Best Vocabulary-Building Tips For The SAT
