In the biggest SAT redesign of the 21st century back in 2016, the CollegeBoard did away with “Vocabulary” questions, replacing them with much fluffier “words in context” items. Instead of having to memorize the definitions of words like perfunctory, intractable, and circumlocution, students could use contextual clues to determine which of four much easier words fit in a given context.
Quite surreptitiously (to use a favorite old school College Board word), they’re been slowly bringing back more and more of their favorite words that used to appear on the SAT for decades.
So the bad news is that it’s no longer accurate to say “there isn’t any vocab on the digital SAT.” But the good news is, from someone who’s seen every question on every official digital SAT available on the Blue Book app, the test writers are using the very same word bank they’ve been using since the last millennium.
Wouldn’t it be great if we all knew what those most commonly appearing words on the SAT were? Hey, guess what? We do 😉 For starters, see the slides above!
The sticking point for most students isn’t lack of access to the set of vocab words that appear over and over again on the SAT but rather an approach to studying them such that they’ll stick.
If you’re like most students, you probably have little trouble memorizing vocab words for quizzes and tests. The night before the quiz—be honest, sometimes the period before—you cram the words into your brain and you do just fine. But three days later, they’ve all somehow vanished from your memory, leaving you with that uncomfortable feeling the next time you encounter one of them (say, on the SAT) that you should know the word but alas, you don’t. D’oh!
So the question is, how do you learn words and NOT forget them? Fortunately, there are several good tricks to this trade.
First, while you’re in training for standardized tests and acing high school in general, become a vocab sponge. Look up and write down (or word process) any word you encounter that you do not know. Make it a matter of pride: NOBODY uses words you don’t know, and when someone does, it gets to you and you won’t let it happen again. 😉 If you want to work out of a great vocab book, the best high school/SAT prep book on the market is Princeton Review’s Word Smart.
One of the oldest and most reliable pedagogical technique is repetition (do you know the word pedagogical/pedagogy? If not, write it down!). Reviewing a little bit every day is THE KEY to long-term retention. That is, rather than cramming for an hour once in a blue moon, you review your word list for just a few minutes once or twice a day.
Whether you use flash cards or simple vocab lists, another key is to group them not alphabetically (as most books do), but by synonyms.
You know how your brain works: sometimes you remember exactly where on the page you read something (e.g., the lower left-hand side) or which words are above and below the word on some list you’re trying to remember. So if the words above and below the word you’re trying to remember all mean roughly the same thing, you’re golden! CPE students know that’s the fastest way to learn vocab is with SYNONYM CLUSTERS!
To make this process more interesting and enjoyable, why not try using virtual flash cards? See Quizlet. One of the benefits of using flash cards (whether virtual or real) is that in creating them, you’re already studying the words. Research has clearly shown that a MULTI-SENSORY approach provides a more effective means to learn material than that of a single mode. In other words, SEEING the words is a start. HEARING them—i.e., reading them out load to yourself (make sure no one’s around so you don’t feel like a total geek) makes use of a second sense. Writing or typing them, a third (taps your kinesthetic intelligence).
Finally, if you want to own a word as part of your long-term vocabulary, USE IT in a real-world context. As soon as you drop an “SAT bomb” in your daily life, you’ve won the war on long-term vocab memory loss. So try dropping the words you’re learning in conversations with your parents, siblings, and friends. Sure, you run the risk of being labeled a “geek,” but then you can laugh all the way to Harvard. 😉
In sum, here’s how to go about learning vocab for the LONG HAUL:
• Become a vocab sponge—add any new word you encounter to your growing vocab collection
• Make flash cards, virtual flash cards, or old fashioned lists
• Organize your cards/lists by synonyms not alphabet
• Use a multi-sensory approach: read, hear, speak, write, type them
• Repetition & regular review: 5-min twice a day crushes a single one- or two-hour study session
• USE them in your daily life to OWN THEM
Use these Synonym Clusters above get you started. You’re welcome! 🙂