Category Archives: Vocabulary

SAT and ACT Vocabulary – Why It’s Important & How to Learn It

Straight to the point: improving your vocabulary helps you in these three ways on the SAT and ACT:

  1. You can recognize these new words and make the reading and writing/grammar sections much easier for yourself
  2. You can use the new “big” words in your essay and improve your score
  3. You can breeze through the sentence completions (SAT only), saving time and mental energy for the reading passages

Bonus: you can use these new words in your school assignments and college essays!

There are many ways to improve your vocab level, but here are my two favorite (“laziest”) ways to incorporate some new words into your life ASAP:

Most of my students find it easy to learn about 10 new words per week at the depth needed for these tests – so what are you waiting for?  Go elevate your linguistic knowledge – and your scores.

SAT Question of the Day Explained – January 26, 2014 – Sentence Completion, Two Blanks

David Livingstone

Today’s SAT question of the day is a two-blank question about explorer David Livingstone.

The first blank tells us that he has a certain kind of reputation – we just don’t know what it is yet, so we’ll have to keep reading.

The second blank helps us unpack the sentence: some revile him, while others…blank him.  Let’s see what revile means. Continue reading

SAT Question of the Day Explained – January 23, 2014 – Sentence Completion

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. Continue reading