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Do I have to take a SAT in order to go to college?

I have to take my SAT in the fall, what should I do?

  • I'm a Chinese native. English is not my first language. Since English is not my first language, I will have a great advantage in applying the college if I do well on the SAT. Last year, when I took the PSAT, it was horrible. However, I'm the top 2 percentile student in the United States who has the highest math score (I think it's approximately 86% THIS IS AN ADORABLE NUMBER FOR SAT). On the reading section/English (critical reading stuff) and the grammar section however, I did horrible! Within this two years, I have been practiced to improve my grammar. And guess what, I can do 80% of the sentence improvement (and other grammar sections) CORRECTLY. I don't have that much trouble writing an essay in a short period of time. However, memorizing vocab. is really not my favorite. But in order to get into a good college (I'm shooting for top 15-20 since I have always received college recommendation letters from top 30ish colleges in the United States. Ex: University of Miami), I HAVE TO get a good score on the reading section. Anyway, how can I improve my vocab. ? I have to take the SAT by this fall (only half years from now). I can devote my summer time to study SAT (my family is not planning to go any vacation because I'm going to be a junior next year, which is the toughest year in high school). I can't retake it again because I will have so many AP's and extracurricular to do/take next school year. And I'm aiming for the early decision for my college administration. So I have to ace the SAT with one shot. Otherwise, I will be suffer. By the way, since SAT takes so long to finish, it's really not preferable to take it over again somehow during your high school life. Anyway, do you guys have any suggestion of how to memorize all those nerdy vocab. in a short period of time? I'm a visual learner by the way. And unfortunately, I HATE reading the books (sorry if I offense someone).

  • Answer:

    It's probably a good idea to study Latin prefixes. Latin is one of the more basic forms of languages and isn't even used today, but there are many modern languages which have a large vocabulary based upon Latin, including English. It's pretty difficult in reality to memorize a dictionary or some other heavy-duty word base, but memorizing prefixes and suffixes is a great way to get the gist of what a word means without having to think for a while about which word it was and when did you memorize it. This is far more effective than sitting in front of a dictionary for a couple hours everyday and will also benefit you later in life to help you analyze words. Also, as a little side note, even though the University of Miami is a pretty good school, it's nowhere close to the top 15-20, most of which are Ivy Leagues and other top-notch schools. When you said that you were aiming for top 15-20 and were getting college recommendation letters, I was expecting you to at least cite a top UC or something, but U Miami? Not even close to being considered on that level. For a school that's far closer to schools like UCSB and UC Irvine in ranking, which granted are not bad schools, but which are third-rate by comparison to the top 15-20, some readjustment of mentality might be in order.

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It's probably a good idea to study Latin prefixes. Latin is one of the more basic forms of languages and isn't even used today, but there are many modern languages which have a large vocabulary based upon Latin, including English. It's pretty difficult in reality to memorize a dictionary or some other heavy-duty word base, but memorizing prefixes and suffixes is a great way to get the gist of what a word means without having to think for a while about which word it was and when did you memorize it. This is far more effective than sitting in front of a dictionary for a couple hours everyday and will also benefit you later in life to help you analyze words. Also, as a little side note, even though the University of Miami is a pretty good school, it's nowhere close to the top 15-20, most of which are Ivy Leagues and other top-notch schools. When you said that you were aiming for top 15-20 and were getting college recommendation letters, I was expecting you to at least cite a top UC or something, but U Miami? Not even close to being considered on that level. For a school that's far closer to schools like UCSB and UC Irvine in ranking, which granted are not bad schools, but which are third-rate by comparison to the top 15-20, some readjustment of mentality might be in order.

AlexPalm...

If you don't like to read, you could try doing crossword puzzles, or listening to, say, an NPR podcast and looking up the words you don't know. If you are familiar with any of the romance languages - Spanish, French, Italian, Latin - many difficult vocab words have a root with a simple word in one of those other languages, it can often help you figure things out. Partake in academic conversations - read the newspaper and discuss current events - sign up for a word of the day feature in your email, or get a word app on your phone. Start playing word games, either in books or on the computer. All of these tactics can help.

Jeff

If you don't like to read, you could try doing crossword puzzles, or listening to, say, an NPR podcast and looking up the words you don't know. If you are familiar with any of the romance languages - Spanish, French, Italian, Latin - many difficult vocab words have a root with a simple word in one of those other languages, it can often help you figure things out. Partake in academic conversations - read the newspaper and discuss current events - sign up for a word of the day feature in your email, or get a word app on your phone. Start playing word games, either in books or on the computer. All of these tactics can help.

Jeff

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