sat vocab 1

VOCABULARY [SENTENCE COMPLETIONS]

The Sentence Completion sections on the SAT are straightforward: read some sentences and fill in the blanks with the right words.

The challenge, of course, is that some (a lot, in fact) of the words are very difficult.

The good news is: there’s a lot fewer vocabulary questions on the SAT than there used to be.

Before 1997, the SAT Reading section was called the Verbal section and it was about 80% vocabulary and 20% reading!

Since 2005, it has been the reverse: the SAT is now 20% vocab and 80% reading!

Aren’t you relieved? You should be! The vocab on the SAT doesn’t range from easy to difficult; it ranges from not so easy to really hard!

But the Sentence Completion question type is an easy one: the context of the sentence allows you to figure out what meaning should go in each blank.

We aren’t big believers in learning lists of words.

Sure, you can do that. But it’s not the best use of your time. The best use of your time is working on practice tests as a whole, and figuring out how to do the reading, grammar, and math sections most effectively and efficiently.

Vocabulary is a distant priority in this regard: it should be the LAST thing you work on. And, since time is almost always in short supply, we would rather you NOT spend much time, if any, on memorizing words.

In fact, you can do a good job of effectively building your SAT vocabulary by just taking practice tests and learning the words in them you don’t know. After all, these are the words that will likely turn up on the SAT’s that you take for real, because the SAT recycles the same words over and over!

This is the best way to get better on Sentence Completions, because you’re working on the question type itself, while learning words at the same time. See how clever and efficient that is?

So, as you do Sentence Completions, highlight the words you don’t know and make a list of them, along with definitions. You can also jot down a one-word definition of each word at the bottom of the practice test page, and review the section from time to time, so that you keep re-familiarizing yourself with the words. This way, you see the words IN CONTEXT, which is essential for true mastery.

This is another way in which the Official Guide to the SAT is so helpful: you can use it as the ultimate SAT dictionary!

FOR MORE ON SENTENCE COMPLETIONS, CHECK BACK HERE FROM TIME TO TIME FOR NEW MATERIAL.

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