The majority of students’ attention should be devoted to other areas given the lack of focus on vocab on the SAT, however there are a few things that students could do to directly and indirectly practice their vocab skills. How can students improve their vocabulary without wasting time? Here is another example from a version of the October 2020 SAT with its associated passage:Ī precision writing question from the October 2020 SATīecause this question gives words as answer choices without any context, it is vital to know the definition of these words, but let’s remember that there are typically only a few of these questions, so they should not be a major source of stress. These questions, called Precision questions, require that a student potentially replaces a word with another in order to better fit the context of the sentence it is in. Students will also be exposed to around 3 vocab questions per writing section, which has 44 questions total. The key is that students need to know the meaning of each of the words in the answer choices in all of their applications and different uses in order to see which one best fits within the context of the sentence. This question type relies on the student having some knowledge about medium-difficulty vocabulary words that they more than likely have experienced before.
Here is an example from a version of the October 2020 SAT: An example of a word in context question that appeared on the October 2020 SAT These questions, called Words in Context, will direct the student to a line containing the vocab word and have them select a different word that has the same meaning in the same context. To go into specifics on the lack of emphasis on vocab on the current version of the SAT, typically there will be about seven questions in the reading section, which consists of 50 questions total, that ask the student to match a word with its correct meaning. The new vocab questions are passage-based and rely on the student’s ability to use context to discern what a word means.
However, on the current format of the SAT, vocab is much less emphasized, and the words tested through vocab questions are much less obscure and lower in difficulty. Memorization of commonly used SAT words, which were high in difficulty and typically rarely used in everyday writing, was absolutely vital to success in the reading and writing sections. In the old format of the SAT (tests taken before 2016), vocabulary was much more highly emphasized through the sheer number and types of questions asked. What is the best way to approach SAT vocabulary while minimizing stress and allowing for the focus of students’ studies to be on the most vital aspects necessary for score improvement? This guide can help students reduce the amount of anxiety they feel in preparing for the SAT by providing ways to most effectively study for SAT vocab questions. It is important to understand the impact that strengthening vocab has on doing well on the SAT as a whole. Should students be spending hours memorizing the definition of words that might not even appear on the exam? No! Should they even dedicate any resources to studying for SAT vocab? Yes! Studying for SAT vocab has become a debatable topic in terms of cost vs.
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