The SAT can be a turning point in a teenager’s life. Lots of students dream of making it to the big universities yet fail to properly prepare for the SAT. The most important part of your SAT preparation is improving your SAT vocabulary. Improving your vocabulary helps in both the critical reading and writing sections.
Understanding the sections of SAT is an important step toward scoring high in the SAT. The critical reading section comprises sentence completion questions and reading comprehension. The number of SAT vocab words you know will contribute a lot to getting the sentence completion questions correct. It is important that you build your SAT vocabulary word list early enough so that you know a considerable number of words to do well in the SAT.
Reading different types of material helps in improving your SAT vocabulary. Recommended reading materials include Time and Newsweek. The SAT is conducted by a non-profit organization based in the United States and hence American English is the test’s language. Reading periodicals such as Time and Newsweek will help in improving American English vocabulary.
Reading reputed periodicals and newspapers will help in two ways. First, you will be well-informed about current events for the essay section of the SAT. In addition to having a good vocabulary, it is also important that you know the details of a topic given for essay writing. Unless you have the subject knowledge, you cannot create good content with just a good SAT vocabulary.
The second benefit you will derive from reading good periodicals is that you will be practicing reading comprehension with articles similar to the ones appearing in the SAT. The critical reading section of the SAT consists of a reading comprehension section, where your logical reasoning and understanding of the content is measured. When you read periodicals frequently and learn to grasp the underlying message of the articles, you are preparing yourself to do well at the SAT.
Successful students start working on their SAT vocabulary well in advance of the test. The time available to prepare and build a vocabulary makes a big difference in determining the number of SAT vocab words that you can learn. You will not lose anything by working on SAT vocabulary early.
You can start your SAT vocabulary preparation with something as simple as a dictionary. The American Heritage Dictionary is a highly recommended guide for improving your SAT vocabulary. Most SAT students prefer this dictionary to other dictionaries and have greatly benefited by using it to improve their SAT vocabulary.
There are several ways in which you can use a dictionary to improve your SAT vocabulary list. You can learn new words according to the alphabet or just randomly. As you learn new words, make sure that you add them to your SAT vocabulary list. The expanded list will help you in your SAT vocabulary review when the test date approaches and when it is too late to start learning new words.
There are several vocabulary learning resources available on the Internet to help you with your SAT vocabulary preparation. One of the easiest and efficient ways is to subscribe to a daily word alert service through email. This will ensure that you learn at least one new word daily. If you start your SAT vocabulary preparation well in advance, with a daily word alert subscription you are sure to expand your SAT vocabulary list. A recommended free service for word alerts is MrCauseyTutors.com.
Along with improving your SAT vocabulary, you must also focus on improving your writing skills. Try to use the newly learned words in your writing. Even when you write emails, try to use the new words. By using the SAT vocab words in your daily communications you will not only improve your memory but also improve your writing skills.