Up Your Score (11 page)

If none of these techniques works, there is one foolproof method. Neurologists say that if the word and its definition are repeated over and over during sexual activity, they will never be forgotten. There is no scientific explanation for this, but it is a widely accepted fact. Of course, we wouldn’t know.

Another phenomenon you should be aware of is the
serial position effect
. Suppose you have a long list of words to memorize and you spend the same amount of time studying each word. According to the serial position effect, you will remember the words at the beginning of the list best, the words at the end of the list next best, and the middle words the worst. Therefore, spend the most time on the middle of the list.

Your chances of memorizing something improve if you study it right before you go to bed. While you sleep, your brain
sorts out what occurred during the day. The last thought that goes into your brain right before you go to sleep gets special attention while your brain is doing its nightly sorting.

Finally, nobody studies better with music. Experiments have been done with people who swear that they study better with Rihanna playing in the background. But chances are this will only lead to you daydreaming about her umbrella.

Research has shown that the more you do with a word, the more likely it will stay in your brain. So read, write, sing, and say the word and its definition. Tattoo it onto your elbow and staple it onto your goldfish.

You must keep flash cards and an audio recorder by your side while you study. When you come to a word you don’t know, look it up and devote 12 seconds to thinking up a mnemonic device, be it a sentence, a quick drawing, or a bit of song lyric—whatever works for you. Then write the word on one side of a 3” × 5” card and its definition and your mnemonic device on the other.

Carry your flash cards with you everywhere. Study them dur -ing the ride to school, while you wait at the dentist’s office, and during particularly boring classes. Every night before you go to sleep, test yourself on your words. Put the cards you know in one pile and the ones you don’t know in another pile. Every night you should be able to add five cards to the pile of cards you know.

Do a similar thing with the recorder. When you come to a word that you want to remember, record the word, its definition, and either the example sentence that we give you or one that you make up. Then you can listen to the recording while you are in the shower or brushing your teeth. If you can rap or sing some of your words and definitions, it’s more fun to listen to. If your friends ask you what you’re listening to, respond casually, “It’s Gretchen and the Vocab Lists—they’re new out of Seattle.” If your friends ask to listen, say, “The record company asked me not to play it for anyone until it’s been officially released.”

Also, you may want to take a pocket notebook around with you to write down any unfamiliar words you come across. This will not only improve your vocabulary, it will also help your social life tremendously.

Then, after you’ve aced the SAT, you can sell your recording, flash cards, and notebook to your younger sibling.

Don’t be intimidated; there are only about 600 words here, and you probably know some of them already.

This is not a complete list of SAT words, but some of these
will
be on the test you take. Also, some of the words on this list could appear in another form. You therefore should learn to recognize various forms of a word, like
refute
and
refutation
. The sentences and illustrations that follow the definitions are examples of the memorization techniques we described. Enjoy, and may you be blessed by the almighty vocabulary god until you get to “zyzzyva.”

Aardvark
is the first real word in the dictionary, so we figured that we should start with it even though it has never been and probably never will be on the SAT.

lower; humiliate

“I will not
abase
myself by admitting that I don’t even have
a
basic
knowledge of vocabulary,” said Paul.

to embarrass

Arthur was
abashed
at
a bash
when he ate too much and tossed his cookies into the trash.

to lessen

Abigail’s sister screamed, “
Ab ate
all the cookies!” Later, of course, her anger
abated
.

to loathe; hate

The terrorist
abominated
his enemy Nate so much that he put
a bomb in Nate’s
boxer shorts.

profound; difficult to understand

When Abraham Lincoln wrote a confusing peace agreement to end the Civil War, people commented that
Abe’s truce
was
abstruse
.

to stress; emphasize

An
accent
mark
accentuates
a syllable.

While in New York, it was rude of you to
accentuate
the fact that Brooklyn people speak with an
accent you hate
.

sharp incline of a hill

A cliff
is an example of an
acclivity
.

award; honor

When
Coolio
received an
accolade
for his acting, he just smiled and asked for
a Kool-Aid
.

to approach and speak to

“That sn
ack cost
you $3.95!” the salesman said,
accosting
the customer who was about to leave without paying.

zits

skillful

C-3PO is an
adroit
an
droid
.

to flatter and praise so much it’s sickening

“Br
ad, dual eight
hundreds on your math and critical reading SATs? You’re a god!” she
adulated
.

to make impure

Never trust an
adult
with your belly button lint collection. He will definitely
adulterate
it.

to foreshadow by disclosing only partially

The economic indicators
adumbrated
that the price of gas would rise to
a dumb rate
.

hostile; opposed; unfavorable (see
AVERSE
)

“It’s tough writing a national anthem during a British attack,” complained Francis Scott Key. “The only light you have is the rockets’ red glare. You have to
add verses
under
adverse
conditions.”

to urge; recommend

Adv
ertisements
advocate
products.

artistic; pertaining to a sense of what is beautiful

As the tick
was sucking blood from my arm I squashed it. The dead insect smeared on my arm was not
aesthetic
ally pleasing.

fake (think: a-
FAKE
-ted)

His
affected
personality negatively
affected
our
affect
ion.

attraction

There was a natural
affinity
between him and his new
Infiniti
.

rich

A flu went
around the
affluent
passengers of the yacht; their diamond tiaras and Rolexes sparkled when they sneezed.

public brawl

The frog was
afrai
d to enter the
affray
.

open-mouthed

If you stand
agape
, there is
a gap
in your mouth.

horrified

We were
aghast
when he “passed
gas
.” (See
EUPHEMISM
.
Passed gas
is an example of a euphemism.)

able to move in a quick and easy fashion

Age’ll
make you less
agile
.

cheerful promptness

The empty auditorium was the result of
a lack
of
alacrity
among the sleep-deprived students.

a false name

“Your real name was
all I as
ked for; why did you give me an
alias
?” the reporter said to Jennifer Garner.

supplying nourishment

When Watson asked, “What’s a ten-letter word meaning ‘supplying nourishment’?” Sherlock replied, “
Alimentary
, my dear Watson.”

to soothe; to make more bearable (see
ALLEVIATE
)

Note:
This is one of a countless number of SAT words with this meaning.

He
allayed
his parents’ fears by getting
all A
s on his report card.

stated without proof

It was
alleged
that he died by falling off
a ledge
.

to make more bearable (see
APPEASE
)

A leaf he ate
failed to
alleviate
his hunger, even though it was a large leaf.

to refer indirectly

a reference to something

A lewd
person
alludes
to salacious behavior (see
SALACIOUS
).

An
altercation
broke out when, at the
altar, Kate
said to her groom, “I don’t.”

to collect; to get a bunch of

By publishing this book, we hope to
amass
a mass
of perfect scores for our readers.

able to walk

After he was run over by the
ambul
ance, he was no longer
ambulatory
.

to improve a bad situation

Amelia rated
her social life as having been
ameliorated
since last year.

peaceful relations; friendship

Note:
The root “ami-” means “friend,” as in “
ami
able.”

There was
amity
between the students at
M.I.T.
and their math professors.