My first batch of SAT summer camp kids finished up today. I've found
that for kids whose verbal scores start off in the 500 range (ie, around
the 50th percentile) the most reliable indicator of the extent to which
they'll improve is how dedicated they are to studying their vocab words.
Last year I had a kid whose classmates made fun of her for obsessively
going over her vocab flash cards on a two-hour bus trip to Brown; on the
final test, though, they were stuck around 580 while she busted out a
710. This year's vocab superstar started in the middle of the pack, with
a 540; she ended up as the only kid to land a 700 in the entire camp. Her
secret? Not only did she study the vocab lists we provided, but she
assembled her own based on her outside reading. One vocab list, for
example, was derived from The Great Gatsby. Another was from
Ready, Okay! Naturally I wasn't about to let her leave without
getting a copy of this list. And here it is:
Ready, Okay! as SAT Vocabulary List
- accredited
- acolytes
- aesthetic
- allotted
- ambush
- amiability
- amorphous
- aneurysm
- atonement
- cascading
- catharsis
- cognitive
- conspicuous
- copulating
- crass
- disemboweled
- dissonance
- earnest
- eccentricities
- ephemeral
- felled
- fiscal
- flagellate
- forlorn
- frisk
- horrendous
- incredulous
- indignant
- insuperable
- jowly
- marginally
- metaphysical
- parceled
- partition
- perfunctory
- phallic
- plaintive
- predilection
- proactive
- purview
- recluse
- sedentary
- stultify
- suffice
- suttee
- topology
- traipsing
- truancy
- vague
- veneration
- vestige
- virulent
So there you have it. Ready, Okay!: you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll
get into the college of your choice.
Return to the Calendar page!
