Vocabulary is a very important aspect of the PSAT reading and writing exam. Being able to recognize the meaning of words is essential to comprehend what you read. The more you stumble over unfamiliar words in a text, the more you are to lose track and not understand the meaning of the passage. To succeed in this exam, you need need to familiarize yourself with technical words in a wide variety of fields, masting each field’s vocab. You must learn to use these words and understand them in context. You can reuse them until they are a common word in your language. Below are some techniques to improve vocab.

Long-Range Strategy

The only effective long-range strategy for vocabulary building is to READ. Read many different fields - art history, physics, technology, geology, etc. Extensive reading is the absolute only guaranteed way to make your vocabulary grow.

However, as you read, remember to take some time to acquaint yourself specifically with the links of words you must know to do well on the PSAT. No matter how much little time you have before the test, you can still familiarize yourself with the sort of vocabulary you will be facing on the PSAT.

• First, do a quick internet search for the top 300 commonly confused words on the PSAT, ranging from everyday words such as ample and meek to less commonly known ones such as esoteric and pervasive.

• Next, proceed to master and understand these words. Start by printing out this list and checking off the words you think you know. Then look up all 300 words and their definitions and try to understand their meaning. Also, look at some example sentences so you better understand the context they are in. Pay particular attention to the words you thought you knew, but actually didn’t know. These are even more important since u don’t want to miss them on the test.

• Finally, keep practicing this list as much as you can and try to have someone quiz you on the definition and the term.

  As we know from the previous chapter and questions, the PSAT often stumps students with questions based on unfamiliar meanings of familiar-looking words. By practicing these terms, you can not only be prepared for the test but also permanently improve your vocab.

A plan for using the word list

1. Set aside a definite time each day for the study of a list

2. Devote at least one hour to each list.

3. First, go through the list, looking at the short, simple-looking words. Mark those you don't know. In studying, pay particular attention to them.

4. Go through the list again, looking at the longer words. Pay particular attention to words with more than one meeting and familiar-looking words that have unusual definitions that come as a surprise to you. Many tests make use of these secondary definitions.

5. List unusual words on index cards so that you can shuffle and review them from time to time.

6. Use the illustrative sentences in the list as models and make up new sentences of your own.

Check the flashcards attached to this note for all 200 words.