Does Vocabulary Matter Anymore on the SAT & ACT?
The question about how vocabulary intensive the SAT & ACT really are needs to be answered frequently, as the tests often change in ways that obscure their core focus on language acquisition as a marker of reading fluency. Basically, both of these important college entrance exams test English vocabulary, even when few test questions specifically focus on advanced words. The SAT introduced the term “SAT word” to the vernacular as a way of identifying the kind of tough vocabulary the test famously featured. Gone are the old Analogy questions of my youth–ANALOGIES : SAT :: DODO BIRD : WORLD–and even Sentence Completions, the classic fill-in-the-blank questions, have morphed into Words in Context items that focus more on dense text than explicit definitions. The ACT, on the other hand, has never featured many blatantly challenging vocabulary questions. So, the question is a valid one: Do students need to bother with vocabulary…
Vocabulary Mastery and the Zipf Scale
Math lovers often find inspiration in the ways in which simple equations underlie even the most seemingly random phenomena. Language lovers, on the other hand, might be surprised to learn that word frequencies can be neatly modeled on a logarithmic scale. Welcome to Zipf’s law! Zipf’s Law states that the frequency of a word is inversely proportional to its rank in a frequency table. The most frequent word (which in English is the) appears twice as often as the second most frequent word (of), three times as often as the subsequent word, and so on until you arrive at the least frequent word in the entire lexicon. On the Zipf Scale of 1-7, a value of 1-3 indicates low-frequency words, while 4-7 encompasses high-frequency words. Each increment of this logarithmic scale represents a tenfold decrease in frequency; a word with a Zipf value of 2 might appear once per 10…
Improve Your Vocabulary in Three Easy Steps
Living in a tech-enabled, AI-powered, video-on-demand society has many people convinced that knowing a wide range of words just isn’t important anymore. After all, we can just look up unfamiliar words on our ever-present devices, right? Don’t give up on language just yet; vocabulary still matters. If anything, certain types of words matter more than ever. No matter how the exams change, the SAT and ACT both continue to challenge vocabulary comprehension in a variety of ways, both embedded in passage text and through discrete usage and context questions. What should change is how learners develop the kind of rich, practical vocabulary that promotes success on tests, in school, and in life. Those canned lists of 5000 SAT words won’t cut it anymore, if they ever did. Yes, memorizing certain tightly-focused lists can deliver crucial points on test day. Even better, learning the Latin and Greek roots of words promotes…
Roots2Words Quiz: October 2024
Mastery of practical English vocabulary improves understanding and elevates communication. How strong is your vocabulary? Try your luck with this test of the most essential words covered by Roots2Words in September 2024: 1. Precise, thorough, and attentive to detail; unwaveringly ethical: (A) demure (B) itinerant (C) scrupulous (D) cowed (E) onerous 2. To explore or measure the depths of something: (A) plumb (B) appertain (C) obfuscate (D) rectify (E) prevail 3. Partiality, preference, or proclivity: (A) epiphany (B) rejoinder (C) opprobrium (D) predilection (E) vacuity 4. Demonstrating very high levels of emotion or enthusiasm: (A) sheepish (B) phlegmatic (C) devout (D) effusive (E) saturnine 5. To mediate or ponder; to chew over: (A) chastise (B) ruminate (C) posit (D) extol (E) edify Check your answers on the Roots2Words website. If you didn’t get 5 out of 5, be sure to subscribe to the free Word of the Day!
A Scholarship for Word Nerds
Does your inclination, endearment, and infatuation for the English language lead you to consider yourself a word nerd? My dear friend Jeanne Lucas was a self-professed word nerd herself. Jeanne was also a spirited educator and supportive friend who left this world far too soon. The National Test Prep Association, the non-profit organization of which I am the founding president, is proud to commemorate the life and legacy of a tremendous teacher through the Jeanne Lucas Memorial Scholarship. One-time $500 scholarships will be awarded to multiple students, and all language lovers in the high school graduating class of 2023 are invited to apply by submitting a response to the following prompt in 300 to 500 carefully selected words by May 1, 2023: Our dear friend Jeanne Lucas frequently referred to herself as a word nerd. She reveled in using lesser-known vocabulary in everyday settings. Jeanne’s love of vocabulary and grammar…
The Most Important Vocabulary Words for the SAT & ACT
The general public holds the SAT synonymous with highly advanced–some might say abstruse, arcane, or esoteric–even though some major test revisions dispensed with question types devoted to that topic. Before vocabulary came storming back to entrance exams, I used to joke that the test makers veered away from strict vocabulary testing for two important reasons. First, graphical literacy matters more than an advanced lexicon in the 21st century. Second, College Board and ACT both realized that they don’t need to throw fancy words at students who struggle just as much with everyday terminology! To be fair, grammar and reading questions designed to challenge vocabulary knowledge don’t test basic words any more than they test highly advanced or technical terms. Instead, test makers focus on a sweet spot called Tier Two Vocabulary. The concept of sorting vocabulary words into tiers is linked to the influential book Bringing Words to Life: Robust…