Sat Test

I promised definitions of the SAT vocabulary words that I posted in my last blog post. Here they are:

Oblivious ~ unaware

Podium ~ raised platform

Abstruse~ difficult to understand, obscure

Hedonistic~ pleasure seeking, self indulgent

Pliable~ flexible, not stubborn

Infringe~ to encroach or trespass

Enunciate~ clear pronunciation, accent, articulation

Plethora~ an excess

Pandemic~ prevalent over a large area, continent, epidemic

Soporific~ sleep inducing

Were these words difficult for you? I can tell you right now that if you don’t work on your vocabulary words then you will not get a high score on that portion of your SAT. How will you study the vocabulary words in such a way as to maximize your potential for a high score?

How to study vocabulary words

There are some tried and true ways to learn vocabulary words. I’ll explain them here and you can try one of them, or all of them. It’s your choice. But please try at least one of them and if you find my examples don’t work for you, do your best to do find something that does.

Flash Cards are one method of learning new things. You may have used flash cards when you were younger to learn words, or letters or numbers. You can use this to bone up on your SAT words as well. Put the word on one side of the card, and put the definition on the other. Now, read the word and flip the card over to read the definition. Repeat this process, except this time read the definition and try to guess the word itself. Do this as often as you can. Take the flash cards with you when you are riding in a car, or on the bus.

If you learn by doing, then write the words down. Then write the definitions down. Repeat this as often as you need to do so.

Another great way to learn SAT vocabulary is by saying the words out loud. If you are a person who learns best by vocalizing, then this is an excellent way for you to learn your vocabulary words. Read the words out loud from the cards, then flip the cards over and read the definitions out loud. Repeat this process as you would the other two I’ve just mentioned to you.

If you want to try a different approach to memorizing the words, you can say the word, then say the definition and then try to use the word in a sentence. This method will cement the meaning of the word more fully into your memory.

All of these methods, if used properly, will help you in your desire to learn the SAT vocabulary in preparation for that part of the test. Remember, study hard!

In my next blog I’ll discuss other parts of the SAT and what you will need to be successful in those sections.

In my last blog I told you that if you googled SAT vocabulary you would come up with over two million results. That’s a lot of websites to click, so you might want to think about a few things. First, do you have some extra money that you can spend on purchasing books and study aids? If you don’t, that’s just fine. There are a lot of ways to study for the vocabulary section of the SAT without spending any money, or perhaps spending a lot less than what some companies are asking you to pay.

First of all, if you already have a good track record of studying and are able to work independently, then you may be able to do it all on your own, using the free offers from various online companies.

I’ve told you about the College Board website at www.collegeboard.com and how they offer you free vocabulary words sent to in your email, and will also let take a sample SAT test. There’s a great website here http://www.takesat.com/wordlist.php that gives you a free list of vocabulary words with their meanings so you can study them. There are ten wordlists with 100 words on each list. This gives you a thousand SAT vocabulary words to learn.

The College Board isn’t the only place to go for help on learning SAT vocabulary. Another great source for learning the vocabulary for the SAT can be found on www.kaptest.com

They have many of the same things that the College Board offers and they also say you will get a higher score or you get your money back. You will have to pay for their services, but if you’re looking for some great online courses and one on one help, then I think Kaplan might be a good choice for you.

SAT Vocabulary

I’m going to show you a paragraph that I wrote with several SAT words throughout the section. Read it and see if you understand the words and if you think you know what they mean. I’ll underline the SAT vocabulary words and in my next blog I’ll give you the meanings of each word.

Tessa was oblivious to the noise from coming from the speaker up on the podium. The man had told a joke when he began his speech on Avian Flu but as he droned on, his words become more and more abstruse. Tessa was only there at the Conference because her hedonistic boss knew she was more pliable than her co-workers and wouldn’t complain about an added assignment. He didn’t want to go because it would infringe upon his golf time. As the speaker continued to enunciate a plethora of verbs to describe how horrific a pandemic would be, Tessa found his words soporific and had to fight to stay awake.

There you have ten words that you might see on the SAT vocabulary test. Just by reading it, can you give a definition of each word? If not, then perhaps some vocabulary study is in order. Even if you can discuss the definitions of each word, some extra study is necessary anyway, because the SAT is coming and you need to get a high score.

I’ll give you the definitions in my next post. Meanwhile, study up!