When we talk about how to study words, we aren’t discussing whether you use flashcards or word lists. We’re talking about how you should be thinking while studying vocabulary. Most importantly, you must study. So if using flashcards gets you to study words, do that. If setting a strict schedule of learning 20 words a night gets you going, then do that. Just manage your time so that you spend time studying vocabulary, and make an effort to use the words you learn.

Reading is probably the best way to learn vocabulary, but it is a long-term solution. So if you’re reading this paragraph three weeks before taking the SAT, it probably won’t help you that much to start reading several novels right now. But if you have a few months, start reading books, good magazines, and newspapers. When you run into a word that you don’t immediately know, see if you can guess what it means from its context. Then look it up in the dictionary and find out if you were right. If you knew the word: terrific. If you didn’t, try to make a sentence using the word so that you remember it. By reading, you will increase your vocabulary, and also become skillful at figuring out words in context, an important skill for reading comprehension passages.

Making up odd associations between a word and its meaning will almost always help you remember new vocabulary. For example, if you cannot remember that “archaic” means “old-fashioned or outmoded,” you might build an association in your head between archaic and Noah’s Ark, which is also very old. This system is not very precise or sophisticated, but once you get the association in your head, you’ll probably never have to look the word up again.

The SAT verbal section is primarily a vocabulary test. But that isn’t a very specific description. To study well for the SAT vocabulary, you should have some understanding of what kind of vocabulary test the SAT is.

So what kind of vocabulary is the SAT? Not a very good one. When you take a vocabulary test in school, you probably have to know the definition of the words precisely. For the SAT, you don’t have to know the meaning of the words to the same specificity. SAT questions do not ask you to produce the dictionary definition of a word. You need only have a rough understanding of a word. Take, for example, the words “acclaim” and “accolade,” both of which appear on the SparkNotes list of 1000 SAT vocabulary words.

Both acclaim and accolade generally refer to honors given to excellent people or things. The words do differ slightly, however. Acclaim is like praise or applause, given by a multitude to an individual. An accolade more often involves special distinction from one person to another. An accolade is more of a thing than acclaim is. So there is a difference between the two words.

Why did we tell you this? Because you should ignore these differences for the SAT. The SAT will never require you to make a decision based on a sentence or analogy that acclaim is more correct than accolade, or vice versa. On the SAT, these words would be treated as absolutely identical and interchangeable. For example, you won’t see a sentence completion like this:

We could make a pretty good case that accolades is the better choice here, but many people might argue with us. The SAT wants to avoid arguments and controversy. It will never put two words in the sentence completion answer choices that are so similar and force you to decide which one is better.

However, for analogies, the SAT probably will include two answer choices with similar meanings:

In analogies, remember, the important thing is the relation between words, not the words themselves. So while acclaim and accolade are equivalent words, in this question only distinction : accolade embodies the relation of degree found in DISAPPROVAL : CONDEMNATION (condemnation is an extreme form of disapproval, just as an accolade is an extreme form of distinction).

You don’t have to know all the particulars about the words you study. All you have to know is their general meaning and degree. All you need to know about acclaim and accolade is that both mean an extreme sort of praise. As long as you know that approval, appreciation, and praise mean the same thing to a lesser degree, you’re pretty much set.

In the end, the fact that you only have to know the general meaning of a word and its general degree can shorten your study time. For the SAT, don’t try to learn every nuance about a word. Don’t even try to memorize the exact definitions we provide. Just get a good understanding of what the word means in simple terms. In fact, figuring out how to define a word in your own simple terms is probably the best way to ensure that you’ll remember its definition.

Have you ever had the experience while listening to a CD that you know what the next song on an album is, even though you would never be able to recite the order of songs on the album if you weren’t listening to it? Studying words is similar. If you learn words only in the pattern in which you study them, you might not be able to remember them out of that context. Try to break up the pattern of the words as you study—make flashcards that you can mix up instead of just using a static list.