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I plan on at least looking over Barron's 3500 word list. Needless to say, it is daunting.

Can anybody elaborate on his or her experiences with vocab memorization? After memorizing the 3500 words, can you spit out the definitions verbatim or can you only give a general meaning? How long did it take you?

I'm sure other people have experienced knowing what a word means but being unable to define it. When memorizing, do you only focus on the words that are completely new or do you work on getting Barron's definition memorized for all words?

Thank you for your help.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 11:58 pm: Edit

"Can anybody elaborate on his or her experiences with vocab memorization?"
****It was an EXTREMELY long, and drawn out process. It was not, however, very painful. It is just endless, though....


"After memorizing the 3500 words, can you spit out the definitions verbatim or can you only give a general meaning?"
****Pretty much either, depending on the word. For probably about 60-70% of them, I could tell you the exact definitions. For the remainder, I could either give you a general definition or one of the word's many definition.


"How long did it take you?"
****Just for Barrons? About a whole summer and much of the school year including self-tests and review. However, it really depends on how many words you learn per day. There are 70 days in the summer. I would use 50 days to memorize about 50 words per day (2500). Then, I worked on reviewing and testing myself on these 2500 words for the remainding 20 days or so. With the remainding 1000 words or so, I worked on them during the school yr. To this very day, I still test myself on about 50 words a day.

"When memorizing, do you only focus on the words that are completely new or do you work on getting Barron's definition memorized for all words?"
****Well I could just sit here and tell you what I did, but you should not care much about that. What you need to figure out is how much you actually care about the test, and what you are willing to do to score well. Do you want a 1600? How about a 1500? How is your crit reading? Its really all about tradeoffs my friend.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 12:02 am: Edit

BTW.......

If I were you, I would start off with much smaller lists FIRST. When you complete the small lists, and you are still unhappy w/your score, then move on to the bigger ones! Just think: What if you could use an 800 word list and get yourself a score that you are happy with? Then memorizing 3500 words would have been (almost) pointless. Work your way up the stair case.

By Mrowry (Mrowry) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 12:08 am: Edit

This is my recommendation for vocabulary.

Our school system uses a series of small workbooks called "Vocabulary Workshop" by Jerome Shostak, published under Sadlier-Oxford. Each book has about 15 units, each with 20 words. There are exercises with definition, synonyms, antonyms, fill-ins, and choosing the right word, along with cumulative reviews every 3 units.

This is all the vocabulary I've done in my life, and incidentally, all the SAT prep I've done in my life (because I didn't have to do it independently). My verbal SAT in 8th grade was like, in the high 500's or something... I knew so few words. My Jan SAT verbal was an 800. So if this is any indication, it "works." Anything before Level F of Vocabulary Workshop you must know to, like, get through life. Level G hits on a lot of SAT-level vocab. Level H is kind of esoteric... higher than the SAT, in my opinion.

Just throwing in a suggestion not many people have made. The good thing with these is seeing words in various contexts, which actually helps you learn them and use them (instead of memorizing lists). The older edition is better, so if those are accessible, buy those. The newer edition (that our school uses now) spoonfeeds everything and is utter crap. :-P

By Jwood (Jwood) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 12:10 am: Edit

Thanks for answering, Incognito.

I read a lot but unfortunately crit reading was one of my weaker points. The first time (and only, so far) I took the SAT, I missed 6 crit reading, 3 analogies, and 1 sentence completion. (It got me a 670)

I live in the midwest. Nobody takes the SAT in my school. None of the colleges expect it (they'll take it, obviously). Also, I already have a high enough ACT score to get into my school of choice, most likely (31). Basically, I am doing this for my own satisfaction. I really want to do my best. I can't stand the thought of other people being inherently smarter than I, even though they certainly are. I've read a lot of your posts, Incognito, and it seems that I am kind of like you. I am not quite as obsessive, though. I would be perfectly happy with a 1500. (My first was a 1360)

I will be taking my next SAT in June, so I have some time - but not a lot.

On a side note, do you think that beefing up my reading habits in the next few months will actually help me or is the test too soon for that?

By Jason817 (Jason817) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 12:13 am: Edit

What I am doing is memorizing kaplans list first. Then when I get to Barrons, there would only be around 5 words per page that I dont know. After memorizing those, I will memorize the 100 most frequently used words from Grubers or whatever book has that. Use "Hot Words For the SAT" to help review. It organizes words into categories (so under 'Violent', it would have SAT words that mean violent like belligerent and quarrelsome)

By Jwood (Jwood) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 12:15 am: Edit

Thanks for your input, Mrowry. I'll consider those.

Incognito, I am working on Barron's smaller high-frequency list right now, in case I fail at the larger list. I figure that I should get that down really well first.

By Incognito (Incognito) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 12:24 am: Edit

To Jwood:

"I read a lot but unfortunately crit reading was one of my weaker points."
****I am just curious, but what do you read?


"I missed...3 analogies, and 1 sentence completion."
***That right there says that your vocab is pretty good. However, regardless of who you are, your vocab can always improve.


"I am doing this for my own satisfaction."
****I guess I could say pretty much the same here. I'm not even going to college next yr (for several reasons, though).


"I can't stand the thought of other people being inherently smarter than I, even though they certainly are."
****The existence of such innate intelligence to which you've just eluded to is something that I love to discuss and investigate. I dont know if it exists to the extent to which many people claim it does. Perhaps intelligence is environmental?....


"I've read a lot of your posts, Incognito, and it seems that I am kind of like you."
****Actually, beleive it or not, but I was thinking the exact same thing before I even read that statement!


"On a side note, do you think that beefing up my reading habits in the next few months will actually help me or is the test too soon for that?"
****Honestly, I dont really know. I have done a lot to try to investigate the whole correlation btwn a reading background and the SAT (which is where my 1st question above came from). I dont know for certain. I really hope so, though. I am depending on reading to bring my score up myself.


Please do me a favor: If you find anything out about these issues (like a web site or something) please tell me. I am very interested in the above issue(s)...

By Jwood (Jwood) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 12:40 am: Edit

I am just curious, but what do you read?
I figured out that reading can be enjoyable in 7th grade. Since the, I've grown to appreciate science fiction the most but I don't limit myself to that genre. Favorite books include, Dune, Lord Of The Rings, 1984, Brave New World, and Dracula (an amazing book.) I don't read very much non-fiction.

Please do me a favor: If you find anything out about these issues (like a web site or something) please tell me. I am very interested in the above issue(s)...

This has nothing to do with the SAT but it is interesting in regards to intelligence:
http://www.eugenics.net/papers/murray.html
This is on a eugenics website. I didn't even know what eugenics was before we covered it in psychology. Everyone, be warned. This site could be offensive to some people. It is quite a touchy subject. I do not necessarily believe in it, but it is interesting.

By Jwood (Jwood) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 08:21 am: Edit

Oh, and I forgot to mention that in addition to missing 4, I omitted 3 analogies/sentence completion questions.