The Indispensability of Vocabulary

Learning vocabulary is boring. At least I think so, and anecdotally I'd hazard that most of you studying for your standardized tests agree. Even under the most enjoyable of circumstances--when you are simply trying to expand your lexicon at your own pace, and to broaden your appreciation for and knowledge of your own language or another, simply learning word after word after word can be tedious.


One major reason that vocabulary building can seem like a waste of time is that, almost certainly, you will learn many words that won't be on your test, and fail to learn some that will be there. Thus, when you're bored out of your skull flipping flashcards on the crowded subway, there's apt to be a little voice in the back of your head asking "what if you don't even NEED this word?" It's hard not to feel like you're wasting time when you may very well not need much of the vocab you have learned for your test.


That having been said, though, vocabulary practice must be a major part of your preparation for tests like the SAT, GRE, and GMAT, and even for less vocab-intensive tests like the LSAT. This is so because these tests grill you on your lexicon in ways that are both direct and implicit. For instance, on the SAT and GRE, you must be able to complete sentences with missing words based upon the context of the sentence. There is no way to complete these tasks if you don't know at least enough vocab to whittle down the choices. Other tests, like the LSAT, doesn't test vocabulary explicitly, but treat you as if you were a native speaker of Americanized English, with a native's knowlege of idioms, expressions, and rhetorical patterns.


So since you have to do it, the only answer is to do it as painlessly and as efficiently as possible. That's where Kaplan and your instructors come in. Here are a few pointers:


Use Flashcards: Boring? Yes, but they're convenient, and you can use them during periods when you're not doing anything else anyway (like riding the train home from work). Keep a stack of cards in your pocket, and flip through them any time you have a spare couple of minutes. If you know a word, put that card aside; if you don't know a word, return that card to the back of the stack so that you see it again. Keep going through the cards, eliminating ones you get right, until there are no cards left. Shuffle the cards periodically so that you don't memorize them in sequence.


Read Tough Publications: Boring? No, because you get to pick a high-level publication that interests you. It can be World Affairs, The Economist, or even something less academic but still well-written, like Vanity Fair or The New Yorker. The bad news is that it takes a long time to improve your vocabulary skills this way, and you won't be learning the specific words that Kaplan has recommended you learn for your test. However, the good news is that you not only improve your vocabulary by reading, you also raise your comprehension, and even general conversation skills.


Learn Words in Blocks, not by Definition: Even if some of the words in your group have different nuances, or are different parts of speech, this is a useful method. You are likely to remember that "instigate" means something like "cause," for instance, whereas memorizing the full definition would be more time consuming. If you can also remember that the word "instigate" usually has a negative charge (i.e., a pejorative nuance), you're on your way to a strong showing on test day.

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