Improving Vocabulary Blog » SAT Vocabulary

The Use of Educational Software as a Pneumonic Learning Agent

wordman — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:45:17 +0000

Every year, millions of students around the globe take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Many universities use this test one of the admissions criteria to see if a student will succeed in their school, and more specifically the program of their choice. Universities use various measures to determine a student’s performance. The SAT examination has an area of the exam that emphasizes reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. Terrill, Scruggs, and Mastropiere (2004) reported that “A strong psychometric relationship has consistently been reportedbetween measures of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.This finding could imply that one way to improve children’sreading performance is to increase their vocabulary. Eight studiesare reviewed that attempted to do this. Although all eight studiesreported increases in students’ word knowledge, many failedto facilitate reading comprehension.” (p. 288). Many teachers aim to teach their students in a multimodal approach how to improve their students’ vocabulary and comprehension.

Price and Finkelstein (1994) conducted a study that examined whether “mnemonic strategies would beuseful for high school students with learning disabilities.Over a 6-week period, this teacher taught the students SAT vocabularywords using either a traditional instructional approach or pictorialmnemonic keyword strategies she had developed.” (p. 134). Price and Finkelstein’s study produced results that using mnemonic instruction, 92% of students improved their vocabulary whereas on 49% did so under traditional methods. Several other studies have been indicative of similar results. The common theme has been that students can improve their memory for the Scholastic Aptitude Test vocabulary words by associating the words with corresponding pictures taken from media sources such as educational technology software, vocabulary building exercises, flashcards, and even magazines. By doing so, the student demonstrated that long-term recall of words associated with pictures was higher than recall of words not associated with pictures.

Educational software that helps students build their vocabulary for standardized test such as the SAT, TOEFL, and GMAT will have a similar impact. While the use of technology in education is a great reinforcement instrument, it is important given the tremendous increase in the use of computers and educational software in classrooms, that students still have a strong understand of the fundamentals of doing things using traditional manners. Wood (2001) said “Since there is much at stake, it is urgent that the literacy community accept responsibility for the critical evaluation of the tools that teachers will use to help teach the next generation of children to read.” (p. 168). Tools such as Executive Vocabulary and Ultimate Vocabulary provide the balance between the necessary comprehension skills students require, a visual and tactile way of learning how to read, and help build a student’s vocabulary so that regardless of the standardized test, the student s performance will be stronger.

Price, M. & Finkelstein, A. (1994). Pictures improve memory of SAT vocabulary words. Journal of Reading, 38(2), 134-135.

Terrill, M.C., Scruggs, T.E. & Mastropieri, M.A. (2004). SAT vocabulary instruction for high school students with learning disabilities. Intervention in School and Clinic, 39(5), 288-294.

Wood, J. (2001). Can software support children’s vocabulary development. Language Learning & Technology, 3(1), 166-201.

Learning SAT Vocabulary Procedures for a Better Score

wordman — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:42:51 +0000

SAT is one of the most competitive and toughest examinations in the world. SAT is written worldwide and commands respect from many large and small institutions. People well versed in writing and reading English can score good marks with ease. To obtain good score in SAT one should understand the split ups and mark patterns which is very essential. SAT is taken globally which makes this test to be presented in standard form of English language. It is important to have good command of English language and vocabulary to master the tests and answer it accordingly. People taking this test in developing world do face problem due to standard of English. It is important for people with English as second language to understand and answer the questions accordingly. Concerning with English there are two major sections which are writing and critical reading. Writing and critical reading are two scoring sections when compared with mathematics section.

Mathematics section is also critical for gaining good score. To get good marks in mathematics section one needs to understand the questions thoroughly. Often some questions have hints and possible solutions which can be deciphered if the candidate has good English reading ability.
Writing section has various different sections such as error identification questions, sentence and paragraph improvement questions. To answer error identification questions one needs to have good knowledge of grammar, vocabulary and sentence formation. To improve scoring chances in this section one needs to know the basics of English such as nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, etc. While answering sentence and paragraph questions one can prepare by reading newspapers and writing the read material in their own words. Either they can consult their lecturers or any person who has good command over English language. While answering paragraph questions one needs the ability to write an already written paragraph in much more simpler and eloquent way. Take out a paragraph from the newspaper and then re-write it in simpler words and in a much more refined way.

Reading is a slightly tougher section than writing. Reading examines the candidates in three major sections which are sentence completion and short and long reading passages. Reading section examines the student’s vocabulary and English skills. Sentence completion forms an important part of reading section. A word or two should be placed in a sentence to complete it. A passage will be presented to the candidate from various branches such as social sciences, humanities, physical sciences, personal narratives, etc and questions are asked based on the topic. Comparison of two passages is also asked often, a candidate can prepare himself for this tricky section by reading the same news in two different newspapers. Reading can be very tricky and hard if the candidate misses out on crucial understandings or losses concentration while reading the passage. At times he may have to reason out logically on the outcome of the essay.

SAT Vocabulary and Writing Info

wordman — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:25:27 +0000

Scholastic Aptitude test and Scholastic Assessment test is also known as SAT. To obtain college admission in United States one needs to pass SAT. SAT is owned, published and developed by a not to profit organization present in United States of America. After 2005 SAT was renamed as SAT reasoning test. This section has four different sections math, critical reading and writing. Writing was recently included in SAT to determine the knowledge and reasoning skills of the applicant.

Critical reading and writing sections are two very important sections which test your reasoning ability. These sections determine whether you will pass or fail the test. To answer this section it is important to have good command on vocabulary.

There are two different sub sections to the essay section they are multiple choice and essay questions. Of the total 100% score 30% is reserved for essay and the other 70% is for multiple choice questions. Writing sections was introduced into SAT after complaints from various institutions regarding students writing ability. Student’s knowledge of grammar is tested by error identification and sentence improvement questions. Student is presented with multiple choices from which he needs to select an appropriate answer. Logical organization of ideas, improvement suggestions for an essay, sentence improvement, etc are just some of the questions on which a student is tested.

SAT being an international competitive exam has standard level of English. This test is written in different parts of the world. In some countries such as India, China, Japan, SriLanka, France, etc English is not their native tongue and students from these countries need to place much emphasis on developing grammar and vocabulary. Students in English speaking countries such as Australia, USA, England, New Zealand, etc need to place emphasis on developing good grammar and vocabulary so that their English gets polished and refined for accuracy. Analysis by Dr. Les Perelman revealed that students who scored the highest mark 12 have written more than 400 words and those with lower grade obtained 1. Grader of your essay spends less than 3 minutes on checking the quality of the article which you wrote.

Some of the ideas which you encounter in your daily life seem to be outlandish and ineffective but in general they help you to develop vocabulary. Students are taught pronunciation and grammar in their classroom but often they are not taught words – particular words which they need during conversation. Students generally need to develop their own vocabulary learning methods which are effective for them.

Learn words associatively (they come handy during essay writing), use those words to express your personal state of emotion, make sure you are listening to what you are saying, make a note of the difficulties which you are facing, etc. There are many other suggestions which you can implement in your student life so that you can gain upper hand in the test.