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Question

Dear Mitch,

Next weekend is the last SAT Exam of the year for my daughter, who is a senior. She is a very bright girl, and does very well in almost every class she has taken in school. However, we immigrated to this country just a few years ago, and learning to be fluent and confident in English is still very much an ongoing process for her. And the place this challenge becomes its worst is on the big standard tests, and especially the SAT.

Of course the math section, even with all the words in the word problems is still basically math, and other than the words in each story problem math is math. My daughter has always loved math and she did well on that section even though it was in English. But the reading section is another story altogether!

I realize it's very 'last minute' (as another person recently said in her letter to you) but is there any advice you could give my daughter for this week for her studying? It is, of course, her last chance to prepare for it.

Thank you,

Ev. N.

Answer

Dear Ev.,

Yes, I do have advice for students in this situation. What I am going to do here, though, since it really is the last week, as you say, is limit my advice to avoid overwhelming anyone with just a few days to go. THAT would be one of he worst things I could do to someone who must already be justifiably anxious about the upcoming event.

Typically, the challenge for students still working toward fluency in English is that the review books almost always assume a certain level of proficiency in the language, yet this assumption is not always prudent. Even if a student learns all of the higher level vocabulary words recommended y the SAT prep books, they are not given a chance to be reminded to go over or learn the level one step down (medium-easy/difficult words that show up at least as much as the vocabulary words on the test, yet which may not be among the thousands mastered by a person still working toward fluency. I could give hundreds of groups of words, and they would total several thousand individual words. But that would not help anyone just a few days before the big day. Instead, here are just a few groups, small and intentionally incomplete, which I have arranged very loosely into 'families' by similar or related definitions (Though RARELY do two words have the SAME meaning, even 'synonyms'.) Look these up if you do not know them. Try to learn as many as you can. I promise you that you will see them again very soon.

On a Saturday...

When you are not in the mood to see them. ..

So, take a good look before then; it can only help.

 

SMART:

intelligent

astute

insightful

wise

learned

intellectual

thinker

ingenious

genius

brilliant

clever

bright

perspicacious

resourceful

analytic

logical

advanced

erudite

eloquent

quick

capable

unerring

shrewd

 

FALSE:

fictitious

incredible

preposterous

fraudulent

wrong

imposter

incorrect

deception

deceit

copy

duplicate

mythical

apocryphal

fraud

phony

fake

ersatz

bogus

charlatan

quack (specific to physicians)

pseudo

faux

imitation

artificial

sham

 

NOT TRUE:

inaccurate

mistaken

imaginary

fictitious

 

NOT SMART:

limited

naïve

infantile

puerile

immature

sophomoric

illogical

gullible

simple

simpleton

foolish

moronic

imbecile

slow

dim

dull

thick

obtuse

dolt

lummox

 

 

Hope this helps.

From over here in virtual-anxiety-land, please wish your daughter the best of luck!

Mitch

P.S. I always try to remind students that though the test is important, no score is so 'bad' or 'low' that it will kill them or even ruin their life. The world will not end. In fact, if they look out the window the following morning, they will probably notice that the sun shall once again rise. And a new day begins!