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!