Unfortunately, a mastery of vocab is almost necessary for a competitive score on the SAT.  Fortunately, a mastery of vocab is awesome for life and may come in handy later on (for the GREs, impressing girlfriends, showing up the class superstar, etc).  Everyone likes to know how I teach vocab.  Vocab can’t really be taught.  You can bring the students to vocabulary, but you can’t make them drink, er, learn. How do I bring the vocab to the students?  For one, I inundate them with lists.  Generally, I’d say the Princeton Review’s Hit Parade is a good place to start (I am going to make Hit Parade flash cards and post them soon, contingent on if it is legal).  PR did the research and determined that these words show up the most often.  Barron’s has an even more comprehensive list of >3000 words, but that list is daunting for even the strongest students.  Unfortunately, you can learn all the words on that list and still have words show up on the SAT which you’ve never seen before.  Ideally though, the words that you’ve never seen before will have some root or connotation that will seem familiar and then you still won’t have a problem.  In fact, in my class, I never emphasize dictionary definitions, and require only an idea of the word on the quizzes.

Personally, I feel there are two ways to actually learn vocabulary (or learn anything for that matter):

1. Use the word
2. Associate the word to something else or create a mnemonic device

1. Using the words
When you actually use your neural connections and use a word in context (in speech, writing, etc.), your brain creates a new “wrinkle” or something equally awesome.  I remember a substitute teacher telling me this in 6th grade.  She told us this story of how she took her vocab list from high school and made a sentence out of it.  I still remember that sentence (and all the definitions of the words) ten years later.  “You have the audacity to insinuate that I perpetrate; if so, your pugnacious disposition I cannot fully comprehend, and it is enough to horrify anyone’s perpendicularium.”

On that same note, my mother (who wanted my two brothers and I to be SAT superstars) started learning the SAT vocab for herself so that we would follow her example. She tried using the words in sentences and prayed that we would pick up the definitions. Unfortunately, she knew definitions, but never paid attention to grammar. She would make fart jokes and reference farts (nouns) as “noisome fetids” (both adjectives).  Or she would wake up in the morning and say she was ready to ablution (noun, incorrectly used as a verb).  She would also say these words completely incorrectly with her tinge of an Indian accent.  Fortunately for us, we relished the humor and the words (and definitions) stuck.  The point is, when you become aware of the words, rather than just looking at is a memorization task, you’ll remember the words.

Continue to Vocab: Mnemonic Devices and Resources