Why would College Board want to make the SATs easier?
Anyway, memorizing words is a waste of time. Memorizing doesn’t work at all. What you need to do is practice. Do a lot of critical reading practice problems so that you get used to the kind of questions they ask. When you’re doing the vocabulary questions, try to break the word down into different parts. The root of the word usually gives you a very good idea of what the word means in general. When I was studying for the SATs I never memorized any words. I just did hundreds of practice problems. After a lot of practice, I could tell whether words sounded positive or negative and then I could figure out what they meant in general based on their root. That’s all you need in order to do well on the critical reading section.
Good Luck!
Of course there’s not going to be just one list that counts as a “master list,” but there are most certainly books that you should reference. I suggest the book “1100 Words You need to Know” from the Barrons company. Also, if you just go to your local library or book store, they carry loads of books (or sometimes flashcards) that you can purchase for some cramming.
Good luck!
I can’t give you a master word list, but I can give you the 50 most common words on the SAT:
Abstract
Aesthetic
Alleviate
Ambivalent
Apathetic
Benevolent
Candor
Cogent
Comprehensive
Contemporary
Conviction
Diligent
Dubious
Eclectic
Egregious
Exculpate
Florid
Gratuitous
Hackneyed
Idealize
Impartial
Imperious
Inherent
Innovative
Inveterate
Laudatory
Maverich
Novel
Obdurate
Objectivity
Obstinate
Ornate
Ostentatious
Paramount
Penitent
Pervasive
Plausible
Profound
Prosaic
Quandary
Rancorous
Spurious
Stoic
Superfluous
Tenuous
Timorous
Transitory
Vindicated
December 21st, 2009 at 6:24 am
Why would College Board want to make the SATs easier?
Anyway, memorizing words is a waste of time. Memorizing doesn’t work at all. What you need to do is practice. Do a lot of critical reading practice problems so that you get used to the kind of questions they ask. When you’re doing the vocabulary questions, try to break the word down into different parts. The root of the word usually gives you a very good idea of what the word means in general. When I was studying for the SATs I never memorized any words. I just did hundreds of practice problems. After a lot of practice, I could tell whether words sounded positive or negative and then I could figure out what they meant in general based on their root. That’s all you need in order to do well on the critical reading section.
Good Luck!
December 21st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Of course there’s not going to be just one list that counts as a “master list,” but there are most certainly books that you should reference. I suggest the book “1100 Words You need to Know” from the Barrons company. Also, if you just go to your local library or book store, they carry loads of books (or sometimes flashcards) that you can purchase for some cramming.
Good luck!
December 21st, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I can’t give you a master word list, but I can give you the 50 most common words on the SAT:
Abstract
Aesthetic
Alleviate
Ambivalent
Apathetic
Benevolent
Candor
Cogent
Comprehensive
Contemporary
Conviction
Diligent
Dubious
Eclectic
Egregious
Exculpate
Florid
Gratuitous
Hackneyed
Idealize
Impartial
Imperious
Inherent
Innovative
Inveterate
Laudatory
Maverich
Novel
Obdurate
Objectivity
Obstinate
Ornate
Ostentatious
Paramount
Penitent
Pervasive
Plausible
Profound
Prosaic
Quandary
Rancorous
Spurious
Stoic
Superfluous
Tenuous
Timorous
Transitory
Vindicated