How to learn the vocabulary?

[geryorama]

Pozdrav svima.

U January cu polagati SAT i interesuje me kako mogu najbolje da memorizujem oko 4000 reci? Cuo sam da mnogi to rade da bi dobili bolji score na Critical reading-u!

Hvala vam

[elz]

First and foremost - what I teach students in all our test preparation seminars -  There are only three kinds of words in the world:

1)  Words you know

2)  Words you kind of know

3)  Words that you do not know

There is nothing like an SAT exam to make you aware of these three classes of words.  

Well there are several ways to go about learning new words.  Memorizing 4000 new words is something of a non-starter for most people.  Here is what we suggest in our SAT courses here at the Center:

1)  Read as much as you can at an academic level.  One very helpful option is to register for free at the New York Times : www.nytimes.com

Use the learning network option, which you can find on the left side of the main page, go to the article of the day, click to turn on the vocabulary, and the highlighted words have their definition when you click.

2)  Begin to check out books from the nearest American Corner, keep a notebook close by and begin to note down unknown words to look up later, then go back and reread.

3)  Go down the typical SAT frequent word lists, become familiar with these words and notice when you see them in the course of your reading.

4)  When you read, become more aware of the vocabulary.  In general, we all read a sentence as a whole.  It is a rare case that one word that we do not know, causes us to miss the meaning of an entire sentence.  That is why many SAT test takers become bumfuzzled during the exam.  People who were good readers did not realize that there was a word in a sentence that they did not understand...they understood the sentence, but not each and every word in it.  Continue to read for meaning, but at the same time, think about each and every word in the sentence.

5)  Another thing that we teach in the classes are ways to divide words up when it is a word that you "kind of know".  Is it a positive word?  Is it a negative word?  Even if you are not 100% secure with the word, can you use it in sentence?  

6)  With your dictionary, keep track of each time you look up a word.  For example, make a little tick beside the word.  When you have a word with three ticks beside it...you have a major problem with this word.  You need to write the meaning down on a piece of paper, carry it around with you and drill that word to death.  Unless you want to look it up a fourth time

I hope that helps a bit with the vocabulary building part.