[Avex]

How to deal with vocabulary, you guys? Like getting words in ur head. erm, im not taking the SATs until like a year later or somewhere like that, so what can i do now while time persists to improve my vocab?

[xx_melody]

Read! I know it's cliche and whatnot, but it helps. Books like The Kite Runner have really nice SAT-friendly vocab words =)

The Underground Guide to the SAT book suggests closing your eyes, and picturing an image along with the word. For instance, if you think of ardent which means passionate or something, they suggest you close your eyes for about 20 seconds and picture a guy hugging a heart to his chest. Kinda stupid I guess, but it might work.

[paradox^]

Getting some practice books may help. There are lists of SAT/ACT vocab words at the bookstore (and even online). Take a few everyday and study them over and over them.

[KIM_SAYS:]

Flashcards.

It sounds lame, but they really work...well, they did for me anyway. Try using them when writing papers for school, you familiarized with them and they just get stuck in your head. And like paradox said, there's usually a huge list of vocab words in SAT books. During the summer when I had time, I'd add three new words a day and go over them over and over.

[mp.ARK]

So far everyone's given you very good advice. I would recommend that you read high-caliber books like Life of Pi or Guns, Germs, and Steel. It helps put those advanced words into context.

[litoxshortaii]

associate them with other words/ppl/things you know in life or look at parts of the word that remind you of another word. for example, i remember "polemical" (which means controversial or arguable) because it kind of looks like the word "poltergeist" and the poltergeist in harry potter is always creating controversy. another one is "pretext".. i remember the word by the "ex" (the word means "EXcuse")

[jess89]

^yeah i associate words with other things. ie. abhor means to loathe (hate with a passion) so i always think of "whores" since i abhor whores haha. also, try incorporating them into your everyday language. that way you'll know the meanings and people will think youre really smart xD

[Avex]

thanks for the advice!!!
also, is it more important to learn words just by reading the context around the word rather than just looking up the word everytime? because i find that really annoying

[Sky's Crying]

Dont' cram through 100 words every saturday unless you can really handle it. Just go through like 25-30 words every week so that you aren't overwhelmed and you actually remember them. As you continue to remember more words, you'll start to see them more often because you won't just glaze over them. Reading helps a lot too. So make sure you look everything up that you don't understand.

[swtamy83]

My suggestion is to memorize like 10 vocab words every week and keep on testing yourself all the words everyweek. That way, you'll see it every week and it'll stay on your mind. My english teacher made us do that and it helped a lot!!

Mkae flashcards!! It's easier that way.

[crackednut]

thanks for the advice!!!
also, is it more important to learn words just by reading the context around the word rather than just looking up the word everytime? because i find that really annoying

Context should give you the idea of what the word means, and if you're still unsure you should look it up
Generally, if you can't figure a word out, its ok to write it down and look it up later. As long as you can still understand the rest of the passage without needing to know that word it should be ok.

Like others said, reading books works best
Try to read something you're interested in though
Slugging through something that bores you won't be very helpful...challenging, but not enjoyable
Thats how I built up my vocab...because I was never one for using vocabulary flashcards and memorizing definitions...it just never stayed in my head that way.
But whatever works for you, go for it...its just that reading also helps with the passaged based parts as well.

Also, don't ignore grammar!! It seemed a much bigger part of SATs than vocab, and you're going to get killed if you don't keep the rules of grammar in mind...parallel structure(the sneaky one lol), subject verb agreement, etc etc