It is said that a person needs a 4000-word vocabulary to hold a daily conversation, but about 10000 for SAT, and 20000 for GRE. Growing up in China and still having many Chinese friends, our go-to starting point is to get one of those specially-compiled dictionaries containing the GRE vocabulary, and simply go through it page-by-page until we memorised all the words.
I consider myself to be fairly eloquent in English, but everytime I flip through the vocabulary list there will be a handful of words that I have never heard about. How do you guys come across so many words in daily life? Or do you have some clever way to memorise them for the exam?
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I didn’t do any specific preparation at all for the SAT. Just went to high school.
For the LSAT I took a weeklong class that went over strategies for the logic games section (which has since been eliminated).
We have books and prep courses. I took prep courses.
Wealthy and middle-class families send their kids to SAT-preparation classes and take the test twice to get a better score. Less well-off families might buy their kid a book about studying for the SATs that might include flashcards. Poor students often do no study for the SATs.
Edit: If you’re talking about the vocabulary section specifically, they just use flash-cards. The words used in the test are not related to their usefulness or frequency in the real world. Many of them really can’t be used in the real world at all since it would be completely unnatural and no one would know what you meant to begin with.
Most people take prep courses or online practice tests. I personally didn’t even practice
I did practice tests but I honestly went in and winged it because I had no intention on going to college. I just wanted to go into the military and later become a tradesman.
I bought a book online and did my best at studying.
I didn’t find the GRE too hard. If you’ve taken a lot is standardized American tests before and have an above average command of English grammar, it’s not that bad.
Idk I showed up sick to SAT day and got stuck in a textbook closet by myself because I had an IEP
I didn’t do any practice outside of what they gave us class
Most people don’t prepare for the SAT, you just take them one day as part of standard testing.
So, personally, I didn’t do any SAT-specific study, but there are courses and such you can take to prepare. Not sure how effective they are, but they exist.
In terms of broadening vocabulary, just read, lots. Read from a wide variety of periods & genres. Exposure & immersion are the best & fastest ways to learn language IMO, and English is no exception. Use the dictionary to support yourself in places you’re not familiar, but try picking up some 18th-20th century American literature (or really any English language literature) and reading it.
There’s practice tests and study guides, but for the most part we dont just sit down and look at information used for it. At best we’ll look up individual things from practice tests we get wrong
It helps that English is an agglutinative language (weakly so, but still) between the French, Germanic and Latin influences, so “10,000 words” may be accurate, but knowing your prefixes, suffiixes and roots let’s you understand a ton of full words even if you haven’t run into that particular combination before. Like if you know “incorporated,” you’ll also automatically know “unincorporated,” “reincorporated,” “deincorporated,” etc for free even if you wouldn’t use any of those words (bonus, “-ate,” “-ed,” and “in-” are also prefixes and suffiixes around the root “corpo,” you just need to know the right order)
The difference is massive. Some people don’t do shit, all the way up to their parents spending thousands of dollars for classes or private tutors to prepare.
Personally I just read a shitload of books for my whole life, and spent $15 or so on a book of practice SAT tests so I could practice the format and timing a couple of times before taking the real thing.
IMO, spending time trying to specifically memorize words is one of the worst possible things you could do. You gain a functional vocabulary through actual use of language, not rote memorization, so reading is the best way to develop the literature-focused lexicon needed to score high on the SAT (or GRE, or MCAT, or whatever). Add some practice tests to get used to how you’ll need to apply that vocabulary and you’re off to the races.
FWIW, I scored a perfect 800 on the verbal part of my SAT when I took it. I realize there is some component of how my brain is wired at play but I think this gives at least a little bit of weight to my opinions on what works. Read a lot, take practice tests. Really that “easy.” (big scare quotes on “easy” since you can’t really replace a lifetime of reading if you have a few months to prepare and haven’t already been doing that; in that case I have limited useful advice other than practice, practice, practice)
For that matter, the math portion needs practice with the test format to really go far as well. A lot of the questions are designed so you don’t actually need to fully solve them, and indeed may run into issues with the timer if you try. The idea often is to recognize very quickly how to eliminate impossible answers without getting too bogged down in arithmetic.
I did a lot of prep for the PSAT and scored miserably (barely in the 60th percentile). I turned up to the ACT sleep deprived with after a night of grinding Diablo 3 and zero prep. I scored in the 92nd percentile.
The vocab section had tons of words I never heard of. It’s less useful to know every word than it is to know how to get better at test taking (which boils down to the main criticism of the SAT/ACT as a whole).
It helps to learn Latin word roots and common Latin words that go into English words.
I didn’t do any prep for the SAT or ACT. I know there are prep classes you can take for both, but I scored higher than my friends who did the classes, I think there’s only so much you can actually improve your score by taking a prep class.
Basically the preparation I did for tests was knowing where and when it was and having the right kind of pencil with me (I’m old enough we had to do it in pencil lol)
For the SAT I prepped by doing nothing and then staying up incredibly late the night before at a party. Made a good enough score to get into my preferred school and that was that.
My brother took a prep course on the weekends. He missed one question and was so mad.
Mostly, I just read a lot and have never worried about my vocabulary. It’s my native language. I’m pretty good at it.
I didn’t prepare at all. It never occurred to any of us to prepare. If you had asked me at the time, I probably would have told you that studying for a test like that would negate its results, since I had the vague impression that they were supposed to measure intelligence. Now I know better and I’d encourage people to study if it helps them feel more prepared.
I scored very well on my SATs and on the ACT without any studying beyond just high school and reading voraciously and indiscriminately.
I didn’t study for the SAT but I probably would for the GRE.
Prep courses and practice tests are the usual method. I did buckets of practice questions and got a 1510/1600.
Concerning vocabulary. I can’t think of a single SAT question I got incorrect because I didn’t know what a word meant. Pretty universally there was enough context to figure out what a word meant if I didn’t recognize it.
The evidence questions would trip me up. Because you’d have to read an article, answer a question about that article, then choose the sentence that is evidence for your answer to that question. I’d mess up the evidence. I’m a fast reader though, so never had an issue with time management.
I studied a little for the SAT, but not a ton. I didn’t study at all for the GRE.
My superpower is excelling at standardized tests, lol.
I also read incessantly when I was younger which helped with building my vocabulary.
Daily conversation is going to be at a lower level because the mechanism for delivering the information is different. You can re-read the previous line if something wasn’t clear, but with speech you’re losing the understanding of the listener or having to repeat yourself if using obscure words or highly technical language.
As for the english section of college readiness exams like the SAT or ACT, english is very context driven. So based on whats going on in adjacent sentences or the context behind the sentences, a native speaker can usually derive the meaning of that word. Perhaps not to the extent where they feel comfortable using it themselves, but enough to where its not an impediment to their understanding of the text.
A studybook for something like the SAT will probably not focus on memorization for the english section, but give strategies and advice for helping someone optimize their thinking for that section.
So there’s a couple things, the big one that I believe every sophomore(?) public school student in the USA does is take the PSAT which is a practice for the big test while also being an opportunity for scholarship if they score especially high on it. For the bulk of people I’d say this is the first time they encounter the format of the test and are in a timed environment. It’s free and it’s taken during school hours which is why I’d say it’s the big one because it’s the most accessible, a lot of how you prep is really a matter of how much time and money your family can spare.
There was a stack of free practice tests for the ACT and SAT in my high school’s front office, I would grab one of those every week and work out the questions. If I didn’t get anything I asked a teacher of that subject after school and they were normally willing to answer any query as long as it wasn’t too much a time suck.
There are also prep books that are sold and a lot of times after a student is done taking all the tests those are passed like hand me downs from older sibling to younger, maybe they get given to the kid down the street your mom knows or appear for 50 cents at the local thrift/goodwill/used bookstore.
There are also SAT prep courses but I’d say although not “uncommon” these aren’t typical mainly because of the cost. They often cost a couple hundred dollars for a handful of weeks instruction And a lot of families can’t spare the cost.
These days there’s also private tutors for subjects but when I was in high school a decade ago I rarely ran into kids who did SAT tutoring mainly because the time and money it costs.
I took ACTs, rather than SAT. But I did not prepare at all. My coursework leading up to it should have prepared me for it. I have heard of practice testing since, but I wasn’t aware of that at the time.
When I was of that age we didn’t prepare at all we just went in and took the test. Nowadays they have hucksters that sell “prep courses”. A lot of folks fall for them.
You can use test-prep books or courses. If you read a lot of fiction books growing up, that helps too.
I just took them cold.
Did very well on the SAT, ACT, and GRE. Honesty, it’s just reading a lot and using relatively complex language in daily speech. It also helps to learn what certain prefixes and suffixes mean so you can identify what an unfamiliar word might be referring to.
My high school offered an optional SAT practice exam session a few weeks before their own administration of the test. I joined that once during my freshman year of high school just to have an idea of what it would be like.
That session was an abbreviated sample test battery administered in a “mock” exam room setting, and we were also given a full length practice test to take home. Nothing really special.
For the ACT, I just took it once during the 7th grade just for the fun of it. It was cheap enough back then, why not?
There are study courses for these tests, but the only way to actually learn the vocabulary is to read as much as you can. If you read widely and frequently enough no study is really necessary.
Reading books and newspapers. I read books like Dune and Lord of the Rings. Watched Star Trek and read history books, all that increased my vocabulary and reading comprehension. Math is just math. High school did Saturday preparation classes for the pre-SAT and the SAT
There are books you can get with test questions or tutors you can hire. Depends on how high you need the score to be, how much money your parents have.
If they have enough they can even send someone to take the tests in your place. But that is frowned upon.
I didn’t do any prep for the SATs, that wasn’t a thing yet, although even back then some folks would go over “SAT word lists” (I was a snot and considered that cheating). Some Americans will pay for themselves or their children to do test prep, but not all. SAT classes are pretty common now. And it’s always been a bit of a thing to study for graduate level general exams like the GRE, LSAT or MCAT. That said, throughout our K-12 education there are, early on, very direct vocabulary and spelling tests, and by the later grades, increasingly complex reading assignments.
I didn’t study at all for the SAT. For the GRE, I didn’t study for it at all either. I just took them.
A lot of it was the overwhelming stress leading up to the test. After the test, it’s like a weight lifted off of my shoulders.
So much of college acceptance & Financial aid depends on these scores. The people that really care and want college & need financial aid start taking advanced classes in middle school on through high school. They take extra prep courses, use prep books, use prep computer sites, and take many practice tests. Most people end up taking the test more than once to try to raise their scores. It’s a lot of pressure on the American kids too. But as far as vocabulary specifically, they’ve been exposed to a lot through advanced studies then yes, they have to sit down and basically memorize the words & definitions as well
I used a prep book. I scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT and 1580 on the GRE.
Imagine needing to prepare for the SAT
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For the SAT I didn’t do anything special. I took it as a high school student. For the GMAT I got a study guide and took two or three practice tests.
I’m sure both tests are very difficult if you’re not a native English speaker.
I had no preparation other than my regular classes
Dunno…didn’t take either
All of high school is prep for the SAT, then you can take courses or they have prep books, but it tends to deal more with how to take the exam rather than the actual content of the exam. You learn tips like not getting hung up on questions and to just guess and move on.
The real prep is just taking a bunch of practice exams to get you used to the format and timing.
SATs also really aren’t all that important unless it’s a scholarship issue or you want to go to a really good school, but there’s really options for people at any score.
I didn’t
Well, here’s what I did. I totally forgot, and my friends had taken me out to get plastered. I woke up about an hour before, was dragged hung over and reeking of smoke, booze, and didn’t even think to bring a pencil or a calculator. Pretty sure I spelled my name wrong. Follow me for more life advice!
I took a practice test when I was 15 and had a high enough score then to get into any state college so I didn’t bother studying at all. When I took it for real I got 300 points higher than the practice. I forget my GRE score. I took that when I was 30 and thought it was easy.
The losers do all sorts of prep costing $ and spending hours a week. Starting in elementary school.
Just be a good student and take a practice test.
It really isn’t too important.
Scholarships at top schools aren’t merit based anyway
Cry…
I haven’t taken the SAT in 15 years, and I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t testing to make sure you know 10,000 words. They’re testing to make sure you can deduce the meaning using context clues if you don’t know the word.
I had some friends who used the study books or took a specialized class but I just…went to school.
They did cover some basics as part of school, like how the scoring worked so you knew when it was better to skip a question or take a guess.
I took the ACT. Had never really heard of the SAT until college. For the ACT, I had a study book with practice problems in it and that’s it.
It’s engrained into the daily instruction. The daily instruction was probably better 20+ years ago when I was in school.
There are also test prep courses you can take, online or in person, as well as booklets.
I didn’t do anything to prepare and I made a very high score even though I was hung over.
Personally I just went and took it, but this was the 90s. There is way more competition now for these things. I took the PSAT before that, so had a decent idea of what was going to be on there. I didn’t do any practice though. I think taking somewhat advanced math (I took AP Stat and Trig in 10th grade, and Math Analysis in 11th grade) plus AP English helped me prepare enough.
I never prepped specifically for any exams I’ve ever taken in my life. I’ve never taken the GRE or other post-undergrad pre-professional exams though, I only have a bachelor’s in computer science which doesn’t involve any licensing exams or anything.
I just show up and take the test and figure I know what I know. I’ve always scored somewhere in the region of the 99th percentile for any standardized tests I took, so I guess something about the format just jives with how my brain works. But that was just the SATs and the yearly state standardized tests in K-12.
SAT/ACT are college entrance exams for high school students entering college/university.
GRE is one of many exams that people take for post graduate studies after finishing college/university.
I didn’t but I was in the gifted/AP classes so we were doing college level work in high school.
I didn’t prepare for the SAT. I just took it. Back in 1975 (Junior year of HS) I scored a 1350. The following year I scored a 1420.
For my GMAT (1994), I bought a GMAT study guide. It only helped on one part which took a few minutes to figure out. I finished early enough that I probably would have done fine either way.
I don’t think I did anything for the GRE (mid 2000s).
I did nothing for the verbal sections I any of the tests. But I read a lot.
I don’t know what my daughters did when they took it, but it sure wasn’t all that much. I might have bought them a study guide, but I didn’t know if they opened it
I got an SAT prep book that had practice questions. I think that’s common for people who want to do well and go to college.
I think I bought a book that I didn’t really end up spending much time with. I did fine.
I didn’t do anything. My score wasn’t super high or anything, but good enough to get into the local four year university. We usually have reading literature assignments from age 12 – 18 in our education. The material usually gets harder with age.
I went to school and then showed up for the test
I had a secondhand SAT prep book I barely looked at. Kind of just wandered in and took the test. Didn’t bother with the ACT. The score I got was enough to get into my school of choice.
Didn’t go to grad school so I never needed to think about the GRE.
My kids didnt prep.
It’s relatively rare for people to study SAT vocabulary because it would take a ton of time to improve your performance on that part of the test. It’s pretty simple: people who read a lot do best on that part. They learn rare words from books.
Most native english speakers don’t rote memorize words to build up a vocabulary. We build up vocabulary by reading literature and developing a skill set where you can determine what a word means with a combination of context and word roots.
What really helped me the most with preparing for the SAT was, believe it or not, Spanish class. Learning a romance language got me really intimate with Latin roots.
I teach free classes for the English test. Honestly way more crackabke than people think. As for the words reading high level books helps
I mean for the SAT and ACT they cover such a broad range of knowledge theres not really much to study as its all things you learn throughout highschool (and some before that)
Just watch 1889’s “How I got into college”. It will give you everything you need to know.
I had a huge SAT prep book that I studied during a blank period, (basically had an hour free 3 days a week during regular class) the year prior to taking the exam. It had long sections on each exam phase, examples of questions, strategies for how answers are presented, and lots of practice tests which were based on actual questions asked in previous year’s tests. I found it super helpful getting me into the headspace of what to expect on the test. There were definitely vocabulary words in the test sections that were reused on my actual test, and also math strategies and problems that weren’t exactly reused, (the numbers were different) but that I was immediately able to recognize and solve based on what I learned in practice sessions. I scored a 1470 SAT and 34 ACT; anecdotally I found the ACT was much easier, but I took that one first and I definitely did study less for the SAT after receiving my ACT score.
This was in the late 1990s, so ymmv. Standardized tests are something you can 100% study for and solve by being diligent and working hard. I wouldn’t focus so much on vocabulary lists, but the study guides are legit if you put in the work. Additionally there are people who specialize in tutoring for these tests, and that’s probably the better option if that’s something that’s available for you.
The same way you study for any tests. You study and practice.
The traditional way is to study Latin roots, which is a pretty good way. Everyday English words mostly have Germanic roots (we’re an allegedly Germanic language, although only 30% of our words are Germanic). Fancy/cultured/expensive words in English tend to have Latin roots (many via Norman French) because you had to be more educated to know Latin words or Norman French, and they’re much more regular than Germanic words.
Bookish American kids who read a lot can score 800 without practice. Wealthier Americans will take SAT classes to improve their scores. I have taught those classes; teaching vocabulary is a multiyear prospect with a lot of studying and flashcards. OTOH, there are only ten rules relating to commas tested on the grammar portion of the ACT or SAT, and those are EASY to teach, and cover 95% of comma questions, which make up like 30% of the test. So generally the score increases in SAT tutoring come from a) grammar rules that are tested on the exams (because they are finite and easy to memorize) and b) teaching students to write 5-paragraph essays that the formal scorers will score highly. Which is actually EASIER to teach to students who are BAD writers, because it’s a really boring formula that a student who’s a naturally good writer HATES adhering to. Students who are bad writers are very good at learning the formula, because it’s just a formula, not a brilliant piece of English-language writing.
It depends where you go to school. I was fortunate enough to be in a pretty decent school district. My high school prepared us very well to take the ACT.
Every year we took practice simulated ACT tests twice a year. We would have the whole day off of normal school and take these tests to simulate the real thing. On top of this, my junior year, the curriculum included a 1-2 month period where in your core classes you would just go over material that could be covered and do practice ACT style questions. I felt prepared enough to not need private classes
Other districts aren’t so lucky. The availability of resources or the curriculum itself may not be good enough to prepare students for the test. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people’s first experience seeing the style and type of questions on the test is the first time they actually take said test.
I didn’t do anything to prepare. Just schoolwork and the independent reading I normally did.
I did a weekend with a study guide and got a 1480 (800 reading and writing and 680 math) but I’m unusually good at standardized tests, so I’m probably not a good example.
Depends on the college you want to try to get into and their requirements….and how well you’ve learned in school.
I made flashcards to study, took gre practice exams, and took a prep course. There are also free online vocab builders to help build vocab like https://play.freerice.com/categories/english-vocabulary?level=1. Also read! The more you read the better your vocab in general. Also try to use the vocab in regular life. That is how the word soporific stuck with me from the GREs lol.
I didn’t know anybody who studied vocab for the SAT. We’d do practice tests, but those were more about preparing for the questions, not the vocabulary on the exam. Knowing around 10k English words isn’t a big deal for a native speaker – according to a study in The Economist a while back, that’s about the size of a decently educated 8-year-old’s vocabulary. An adult will generally know in the range of 20k-35k words.
Everyday conversation tends to use around the same 2000-3000 words, so we do mostly stick to the basics in daily life. Writing uses many more unique words than conversation, especially novels – take any given adjective and there’s probably at least 5 other words that mean the same thing, and authors will use them all. Prolific readers will have significantly better vocabularies than people who don’t read very much at all. Even still, native speakers stumble across words we don’t know plenty often, and then it’s time to break out the dictionary.
The best way to increase your vocabulary is just by reading a lot. Dictionaries are only rarely helpful, since it relies on memorizing a spelling and definition rather than learning how to actually use it. High level novels are good for both common vocab and uncommon words that don’t come up everyday. Professional articles and journalism are also decent, since they use a lot of specialized terminology and highly descriptive words you don’t hear in conversation very often.
I didn’t do much studying for the SATs and my scores were overall average, with a major imbalance. I’ve always been pretty bad at math and good at writing/verbal things and my scores bore that out – I did really well on the verbal and really badly on the math.
When I took the GRE, I was determined to do better than I had on the SAT, so I ordered a book specifically for refreshing math skills (i was long out of high school at this point) and studied it daily. I did math exercises repeatedly, and I have to say, it totally worked. in the end, I got a 650 on the math section, which is very average, and significantly better than i would have done otherwise, i promise.
I did no studying on the verbal section and got…i think 730?
What was funny was that I took the test in Eastern Europe, where I was living at the time, and I was the first person in my test center to finish the exam. The proctor called me into an adjoining room and I received my scores immediately. I was really delighted to have earned a respectable math score and I’m sure my face showed it. The proctor immediately scolded me and said that of course I finished first and of course I did well, I’m a native English speaker and no one else there was. I felt appropriately chided (although no one else could see me). It wasn’t until much later that I realized she probably thought I was preening over my high verbal score. But I was never concerned about that. I knew when I saw the math score that I had a chance to get into a good grad program.
Anyway, my secret for a 730 verbal score is to spend like 25 years reading a lot.
My strategy in prepping for the GRE was to drink slightly less than usual and get a decent night’s sleep the night before.
I took the ACT twice. I took it on my own in sophomore year and got a 28, my mom got me one of the prep books and we worked on it together in the evenings for about 8 weeks before. I also took it junior year when the school paid for it, and that time I went to an alternative high school where a lot of the juniors weren’t planning on going to college or weren’t really ready for it. So our math teacher took the 3 of us planning to take it and let us use every math period to study together and take practice tests for a quarter of the school year. We all did really well, all of us got above a 30, I think I got a 34. Max score at the time was 36. Thanks Math Teacher Eric!!
Being a lifelong reader helped with the English portion of the GRE. For math, I took free courses to help with the math portion. They were free back in my day.
I just showed up and took the tests and did fine and got into the college and grad school I wanted, no prep involved
Repeating and also learning the prefix, suffix, and root words. Another trick is using context when you can. It’s important that you know none of us, even native speakers and people with degrees in English, know all the words or close to it. Your writing indicates you have a grasped the language well.
Well, if your my best friend in highs school, absolutely nothing. Just show up on the test day and get a perfect score in each test.
For the ACT I was supposed to attend a series of prep sessions, but I never signed up. Just went to the test, then I got a “golden application” to my university of choice. So I guess it went well.
I was scheduled to take the SAT also, but I’d already gotten the guaranteed entry easy application from my school so I didn’t go. My mom was pissed about that. Those tests are expensive.
For the GRE I actually went to the test prep sessions, did the studying and the example exams. They don’t report scores, only a pass/fail and I passed.
I could get my PE now, but it wouldn’t do me any food and it would be a mountain of studying. IDK if I care until it results in more money or a better role, which it wouldnt at this time.
Regarding vocabulary, we take English and/or “Language Arts” every year in grade school. For 12 years we learn how to use context clues and how words are formed – what different prefixes, suffixes, and root words mean. By the time you take a college entry exam, you should be able to dissect an unfamiliar word and make an educated guess as to what it means.
I personally didn’t prepare at all for the ACT. Scored quite high.
I did prepare a bit for AP Physics and AP Calculus, but nothing too serious. Just index cards with formulas, mostly. Didn’t prepare for AP World History or AP English at all. Passed all 4.
Other standardized tests (given by the state of Michigan)… no one prepares for those because they don’t count for anything except awards and funding for the school.
I studied math more than usual before the SATs because I knew it was my worst subject. But I didn’t push myself too hard. I knew I was gonna crush the English part and that I’d at least get an average score. Which is exactly what happened.
As others have said, there are prep courses, practice test books, and vocabulary lists. Also, a native speaker would know considerably more than 4,000 words.
As for me, I took practice tests in school and at home to learn the types of questions asked and strategies for answering the questions. Plus, our English literature teacher had us memorize Greek and Latin suffixes/prefixes and root words to help us learn to decipher unfamiliar words. We also had lists of vocabulary words to memorize each week to help us learn unusual spellings and meanings. While our English teacher wasn’t specifically prepping us for the SAT and ACT, her lessons did help a lot.
We also can take the test multiple times. Plus, there’s the PSAT taken in 10th grade. The score doesn’t count but it gives you a better idea of what to expect and where you need to improve for the real test.
For the SAT and ACT i did literally nothing to prep. Some people will study for it. For the GRE I just did some flashcards for vocab but math was my main area of struggle (it was all stuff I hadn’t done in years) so I watched lots of videos and did practice problems
I didn’t prep for the SAT or the GRE and did very well on both.
I taught English to foreign learners for decades. Memorizing will get you nowhere. Read a lot of interesting material and listen to a lot of radio or podcasts about academic subjects that interest you. That’s how to learn academic vocabulary in a way that sticks with you.
I didn’t study at all. I just showed up and took it. I don’t remember my score but I remember my teacher telling me it was a really good score. After that I never heard or thought about my SAT score
I did no prep for any of the standardized tests, and I am blown away that the GRE is represented as 2X SAT’s difficulty. SAT was way harder. GRE is super basic IMO. I did take the SAT twice so I could improve my math score, and I think that’s a big difference relative to Chinese readiness exams. Pretty sure y’all get one shot and if you fuck up you’re toast. We get as many as we want, and can give them hybrid scores. So like I threw out my 700 or 720 and put my 750 from the 2nd test w/ my 780 and 800 from the first time I took it when I told colleges my SAT score.
I have always prepared for tests by doing all of my course work.
SAT- no prep.
GRE- used a study book from the library.
Professional licensing exam- purchased a test prep program and listened to audio lectures
I don’t know. Never took them. At my high school (late 90’s) I feel like we were never given any info as to what/when that testing is/was. I remember a year or so after graduation, a newer friend mentioned the SAT. That’s when it hit me that I never took it or even was told about it. I asked several of my HS friends and they all said the same.
For the GRE, I got a free test prep app for the math and looked up the criteria and examples for the essay portion. I’ve always had a large vocabulary because I read a decent amount, so I didn’t need to study for the vocab.
The people I know (myself included) who did really well on the verbal part of the SAT were people who had read extensively from a young age. This was also back when analogies were still on the test.
There are practice books and prep classes. I took them but I didn’t do much outside studying. The english portion was really only part I did well on, mostly because I read a lot. Anyway didn’t overcome my shit math score so I went to a community collage and transferred to a university.
I don’t think I even took those
It’s not about memorization, it’s about aptitude. It’s about knowing roots of words, prefixes/suffixes, etc. to figure out words or use context clues.
I have never heard those word count numbers. Pretty interesting. I do recall people talking about SAT words and that kind of being a way to refer to lesser used synonyms of more common words.
The vast majority of exam practice is practice tests. I have never heard of native English speakers studying words just for the sake of knowing them, but I guess that could be useful.
> Or do you have some clever way to memorize them for the exam?
Lol, the clever way is to grow up as a native English speaker in an English speaking country with English language media constantly surrounding your life. I honestly think my knowledge of less common words comes mostly from reading a lot of books as a kid and watching a lot of movies, especially old ones. Both are great ways to be exposed to words that aren’t typically used in day to day conversation.
A strong cup of coffee and two sharp number 2 pencils.
Read a lot of books.