Website that lists SAT vocabulary words along with memorization tricks: http://www.shmoop.com/sat/vocabulary.html
Good books to read to gain vocab:
Sit next to InstaDefine.com (instant dictionary) while reading
Section vocabulary words into groups of 10 by default. Have option to disable this.
How to memorize vocabulary. It's easy!
This advice applies to vocabulary as well as style:
"As to developing style: carefully reading lots of stylistically intense books is an excellent place to start. As painful as they are to endure and to prepare for, challenging reading quizzes really help if you want to quickly gain powerful writing style. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet letter, John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath , F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby – all of these books will boost your ability to employ advanced, effective vocabulary and powerful grammatical structures. Look up words as you go along — sit next to InstaDefine.com (instant dictionary). Or keep a list and use EasyDefine.com and look them all up retrospectively. However it is very important to read them in context so you can extrapolate their connotations and other usage details. Make your own vocabulary sentences — have fun with them and attempt to string together lots of complex vocabulary terms in the same sentence, using all correctly in terms of both connotation and denotation. Do this with SAT word lists, again use EasyDefine.com"
Step one: conditions
sleep/mental State:
consistently enough sleep
20 minute naps space [study]
caffeine. This is useful when you're under a time crunch. I prefer black tea with milk and sugar or green tea straight. [Study]
Find a quiet, well lighted, and ergonomically comfortable place to work, e.g. an office desk with a good chair. You don't necessarily have to stay in the same place every day -- in fact I find that changing locations sometimes improves recall. I find that thinking back to the time and place and context in which I first heard a word often helps me recall a forgotten definition. (Hint: this time/place association technique works even better for episodic -- sequential -- memorization, such as history).
I simply revisit the day and place in my mind and
I work in silence when memorizing vocabulary. Music is simply distracting for this type of task, especially if it has English lyrics.
Get a rhythm, build confidence in your ability to memorize
step two: technique
Divide them into manageable sets, I like 10.
Try to understand relationships between words, and origins were possible. The more insights you have about a word, the more connections you have between it and things you already know, the easier it is to remember. Realize that the "dem" in "demagogue" [on mouse over a tool tip with the definition should come up: "a leader that appeals to a people's prejudices like Hitler")], is the same as the "dem" in "democracy" and "demographic" (turns out it comes from the Greek "demos," meaning "people", but while useful, you don't actually need to know word origins in such depth. I didn't when I took the SAT). Make up your own connections -- they don't always have to be right; they are just mnemonic devices (I remember the definition of the word "mnemonic," memory aide, because "mnemonic" has the letters "mem" in order in its first syllable (and again it derives from 'μνήμη' the greek word for memory). See my list of "how I remember these words" space for more). This is why knowledge of foreign languages related to English, such as Spanish, French, German, or Latin, helps -- it provides you another of terms and syllables from which to draw connections.
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Seeing these connections is not difficult once you've developed the habit, but it's a new skill for some (many). It's like learning to use a new muscle; you have to try to use it and try to use it until you're tired, then take a deep breath and try again for a few times, then come back in five minutes and repeat the cycle, then come back in half an hour and repeat the cycle, and practice throughout the day, x practice again, and in about a week you suddenly find yourself able to do it. (can you move your big toe perfectly sideways towards the inside? Can you do the opposite with your little forget about it and wake up the next morning toe? Feels impossible (for most of you) right? The muscles are there. You just need to learn how to use them).
It is interesting to note that this skill is very similar to that of making puns
Freerice.com (we should make a knockoff)
"epi-" in "epicenter" Is the same as "epi-" in epidermis; it means above. At the epicenter of an earthquake is the location on land above which is centered. The epidermis is the "above" (outer) layer of the skin.ou don't need to speak Latin to do this -- Spanish, French, German, or myriad of other languages work just fine.
Make sentences. Use the words correctly in denotation connotation and part of speech, but have fun. Try to cram as many new words as possible into the same sentence all used correctly. Be as silly as you want to! Nobody has to read them but you, and if you would like, a group of friends that you're studying. This really helps.
How to elbow your way into a subject
I don't speak Latin or anything, so much of my understanding of roots is inferred. However I studied Spanish through the AP level, so I have some idea of romance languages. Nonetheless, my primary technique for memorizing vocabulary is just noting relationships between words I encounter in attempting to understand their source. Surprisingly, it's sometimes easier to memorize both a word and its root than just the word alone.
This skill of finding relationships between words is very directly related to that required to make puns
All words should be defined in tool tips and also they should be clickable links to jump to the corresponding location in the document
they should also be grouped by Word origin
perhaps a flowchart or graph like data structure could visualize relationships between words. This tool is in existence on dictionary.com
history/story behind various words also helps you remember it
Grandiloquent [language] -- using excessively florid language -- synonym: florid -- grand plus loquacious, meaning talkative
Florid [language] -- language that uses unnecessarily fancy, or flowery, words -- synonym: grandiloquent -- flor means flower in Spanish, hence flowery
[Hitler was a] demagogue [incited lynchings] -- public figure who appeals to the people's prejudices -- synonym: rabble-rouser -- dem: from Greek demos, meaning people. See also democracy, diamond demographic
democracy
demographic
sagacious -- very wise -- sag is similar to Sage, as in "Sage advice" or Sage as in wise man, such as is referenced in the Tao Te Ching
Immutable -- unchangeable -- mut is the same as in mutate, to change. Prefix Im-, like in-, means not
opulent -- expensive and showy -- op sounds similar to the expensive jewel Opal
Gerrymandering -- to divide the election districts unfairly in order to give a certain party an advantage -- Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry unfairly redrew State Sen. election districts for the advantage of his party. The resulting electoral lines look like a salamander.
Candor -- frankness, openness -- similar to candid, candle, candidate. Comes from Latin candidus, meaning bright. Candidates used to wear white robes