Critical reading section part 2: Vocabulary

A popular and destructive weapon the SAT uses is vocabulary.  By way of demonstration, how many of you know what “labyrinthine” means?  Okay, how about “convoluted”?  No?  Don’t feel bad. I’m purposefully trying to befuddle you. 

It’s not that you or your student are not smart.  It’s just that you’ve grown up with a specific language your entire life and the SAT shoves a completely different one in your face at the last moment to trip you up.

To beat the SAT you have to learn its language.  Johnson and Eskelsen (30) state that there is no substitute for memorizing vocabulary words to prepare for the critical reading section of the SAT, and I couldn’t agree more.  Although every word your child studies will not be in the passages they are tested on, the SAT will insert arcane and enigmatic appellations, nomenclatures, and locutions that make the SAT seem unfathomably inscrutable. 

Get the picture?

            Essentially, if your student is not prepared to face a vocabulary incursion, the critical reading section will be like reading a boring, academic journal article (which many of the passages are) with every third or fourth word blanked out.  Almost like Mad Libs, except less fun and you don’t get to make up words for the blanks. 

                

           Now that you’ve got a taste of why learning vocabulary to prepare for the SAT is so important, here are some resources that can help you and your student master this section:

http://quizlet.com/207969/100-most-common-sat-words-flash-cards/

http://www.majortests.com/sat/wordlist.php

http://www.freevocabulary.com/

http://www.vocabulary.com/lists/23400http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/6510

            I recommend freerice.com only after your student has already demonstrated some mastery over the recommended SAT vocabulary words.  It’s a fun game and a great way to help end world hunger, but it doesn’t help students learn as well as flash cards do.  Also, if you do use freerice.com, I’d begin around level 25 to make sure the vocabulary is challenging enough to prepare the student properly. 

Start early and help your child learn 25-30 words a week.  If they do that over summer vacation (approx. 10 weeks), that will add up to 250-300 new words.  If they break it up into 3-5 words per day, they might spend only a half hour at most per day doing this.  Flash cards are the most helpful.  If they carry flashcards with them, they can do it while you or someone else drives with them to and from any appointments they have during the day, and that alone might add up to their daily practice time.  After all, in the U.S., we spend a considerable number of years of our lives in the car.  Why not put it to good use? 

Citations

Johnson, Ned and Emily Warner Eskelsen.  Conquering the SAT:  How Parents Can Help Teens Overcome the Pressure and Succeed.  New York:  Palgrave/Macmillan, 2007.  Print.  

SAT Critical Reading section part 1: Why is it SO HARD!

           Believe it or not, teens love to read.  When I work with students in academic settings, they love to break out their fantasy video game, glamour, and sports magazines, popular novels, and even nonfiction sources to read for pleasure.  Additionally, most of us know someone who has sprinted through an 800 page book the way we stereotypically envision adolescents racing through a few levels of “Halo” or “Call of Duty.”  Think Harry Potter for a minute.  Those books are MASSIVE and yet you know your son/daughter, niece/nephew, or grandchild ate it up in 2-3 days like it was their favorite pizza or dessert. 

              

           So teens can read.  Then why is the SAT critical reading section SO HARD!  It is for a couple of reasons.  First of all, remember that the ETS is purposely trying to trick your student.  The average teenager uses a completely different language than the SAT throws at them.  Even words that we consider vocabulary words often develop different meanings than the standard Webster dictionary assigns them.  Who knows this?  ETS does and they use it to their full advantage to fit your child into a perfectly shaped bell-curve.

Next, it’s time to admit that the passages on the SAT are just plain, downright boring.  Don’t try to convince your student that they’re interesting.  Save your breath.  Besides, do you personally like to read those passages?  You know you’d rather read about sociolinguistics, neuroscience, or the Upper Ganges than you would about anything you could find in “People”, “Rolling Stone”, or “Sports Illustrated”, right?  If you do, I’ll refrain from saying “more power to you” because you’ll lose an important opportunity to connect with your student if you tell them that you do.  That’s less power to you. 

Admitting that the passages are boring gives you the opportunity to join your student’s side in opposition to the ETS and their weapons of unintelligible destruction.  You then can begin the process of learning their tricks, booby-traps and strategies to beat them in their own game.  When your student realizes that it is a game, they will be more motivated not only to play, but to win.  

Your Teen’s SAT Battle and 

The Hunger Games

                The more I’ve become familiar with the SAT and standardized tests in general, the more they remind me of The Hunger Games.  Similar to the way the nation of Panem pits children against each other in gladiatorial battle, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) places your son or daughter into an arena where they will be tested, not against a previously set standard, but against every other adolescent in the room and in rooms across the country.  The creators of the SAT and other standardized tests have created a grading system for the SAT that consistently makes a bell curve much like this one: 

As you can see, there are not many victors (perfect scores) given in this distribution and most students will fall in the larger middle or average section.  The ETS purposefully designs the SAT and other tests so that students’ scores will ultimately and inevitably fall into place this way.  Why?  Simply to demonstrate that their testing services produce reliable results so that colleges and universities will continue to use them as a resource for choosing the “best” students.  After all, if a university enrolls students with higher scores, their ratings go up and more students vie for precious placement into that university. 

To beat the SAT and ultimately the ETS, you need to overcome a couple of myths.  First, the material on the SAT is not as difficult as it is made out to be.  The math section, for instance, is filled with problems that the average ninth and tenth grade student could answer easily on a normal test in their fifth period class.  So if the material itself isn’t more difficult, what is?  Honestly, it's simply the way the questions are posed.  The test creators ask the questions in specific ways that purposely attempt to trip the student up.  A normally easy question is asked in such a way as to confuse the student into picking an answer that seems obvious, but is actually the wrong choice.  All this and an austere looking proctor hovers over you student’s shoulder while the clock speeds away.  Anyone mentally yelling "Dystopia!" yet? 

Second, a low score on the SAT doesn’t mean that your student isn’t among “the best.”  The difficulty of the SAT can breed anxiety and despair into any normally intelligent student who falls in the ETS battle for a victorious score.  Think about The Hunger Games metaphor mentioned above.  Some of those children studied the art of mortal combat their entire lives only to die on live television.  Did that mean they weren't great warriors?  No.  They simply faced terrible conditions in the arena and odds that weren’t in their favor. 

If you’re presently wondering how your child will ever succeed in his or her battle with the SAT, I’m here to tell you that despite the odds and circumstances, your child can come away with a competitive score.  The SAT might be a mean beast or a cruel competition, but every enemy can be beaten.  Sun Tzu, one of the most admired generals in the history of the world, said, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”  If your son or daughter learn the tricks and strategies of the SAT and work diligently in the areas where you need improvement, I can guarantee they will not only increase their score, but leave that arena victorious.