r/Sat • u/Much-Worth-1225 • 1d ago
How do you memorize words?
Sat vocabulary is so hard and I am the kind of a person who memorizes words easily but forgets instantly, too. Please, any advice will be a huge help!
1
u/Resolve_Prep 1d ago
Look up spaced repetition and/or the Leitner system. Whether you are learning vocabulary or anything else, you will want to employ some version of that.
1
u/SentenceIcy8629 1d ago
You learn to interpret the context, not memorize the word if that makes any sense
1
1
u/ShrekDek 1560 1d ago
Just read more books. Even if you don’t fully know the meaning, more literary knowledge will help you solve the problem through context.
1
u/RoryLoveskai 1480 23h ago
What I did when I was struggling with vocab was use the 1000 sat word list on spark notes then do 10-20 into vocab.com which really helped me
I used to get most of vocab wrong but now I’m able to understand and not miss any of those. Reading could help too but Im honestly too lazy and it takes awhile to encounter so many words at least in my opinion so I found doing word by word instead of coming across it to be more efficient. Also roots of words messed with my head and I was honestly too lazy to break it down too…
It might be different for you though! Everyone’s learning styles are different and I’m just sharing what worked for me
4
u/Arietem_Taurum 1d ago
My advice: don't memorize words. Memorizing words for the SAT is a waste of time in my opinion and I will explain why.
The Words in Context section where the vocab words come up is only about 10 questions out of 54 total in the R&W. Considering that half of these are in the first module, where you will probably not struggle with most of the words, you are only dealing with between 4 and 6 really tricky vocab questions.
It is completely possible to get every single 2nd module vocab question wrong and still get a 700-750 on R&W if you do well on everything else. So unless you are aiming for a perfect or near-perfect score, I wouldn't recommend bothering at all.
On the flip side, if you ARE aiming for a perfect score, focus on roots, not specific words. Obviously, since you seem to be struggling with the memorization process, this probably doesn't solve your problem completely. But knowing which roots mean what can exponentially increase your ability to figure out the meanings of new words when you see them.