Tom Whittaker (right)

Today’s SAT question of the day is a single-blank sentence completion about a certain mountaineer.  He had “unflagging determination” and “_______ physical preparation” for his successful ascent.  Let’s think of what should go in that blank. If he completed his ascent, he probably put in the work he needed to accomplish his goal.  Diligent might be a good prediction (it’s also one of your vocab words!), as would consistent or sufficient. The best answer that matches our predictions perfectly?  Assiduous! (Also one of your vocab words to know!  The top 100 have come out to play.) This question is rated hard, largely because the vocabulary level in the question itself as well as in the answer choices is pretty high.  If you didn’t know the other words in the answer choices, remember that you can always break them down:

• fortuitous sounds like fortunate, so they are probably related (they are)
• heedless…to heed is to listen or obey, so this is something like not listening
• expeditious is like expedite, which means to speed up (and exped- even sounds like speed)
• pedantic means really picky about academic points…like that guy who always corrects your grammar on Facebook?  Pedantic.  Be careful, because this word does NOT break down like pedestrian, with “ped” meaning feet – it doesn’t in this instance.  Oh, English!