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Vocabulary on the New SAT
The new SAT places greater importance on
testing the meaning of words in the context of
a sentence, paragraph, or passage. That’s why Analogies, the dreaded
question type that tested vocabulary knowledge in a vacuum, were
dumped for the new version of the SAT. Analogies looked something
like this:
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(The answer, by the way, is B; just as a
diabolical person does evil, an angelic person does good.)
On the new SAT, your knowledge of vocabulary is now directly
tested in the Critical Reading section via Sentence Completions and
a Reading Passage question type called Vocabulary-in-Context.
Here’s an example of each:
Sentence Completions
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The answer is D; glutinous means
“having the quality of glue; gummy; sticky.”
Reading Passages
The relevant lines of text from the passage are excerpted
directly below.
During his drip-paintings period, Jackson Pollack worked both feverishly and deliberately, flinging paint with abandon, but always according to a loosely preconceived scheme.
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The answer is D; feverishly means
“with intense emotion or activity.”
In both cases, vocabulary is tested within sentences.
Context matters and can help you figure out the proper meaning.
But context clues are only a part of the story.
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