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.