There are so many vocabulary words to remember for the SAT and ACT.
So how can students commit so many words to memory?
The trick is to make up a story.
For example, suppose the word is “raconteur,” which means storyteller.
You could think of raccoon -- a giant raccoon -- emerging from a park, stomping on all of the houses and building, crushing everything in his path.
That’s obviously a tall tale, told by a storyteller.
The more funny or violent the story, the more likely you are to remember it.
The story must be connected to the word in some way, as raccoon is similar to the beginning of raconteur.
Another word: abstruse, which means difficult to understand.
The first part is like “abs” and the second part is like “truce,” a ceasfire, end of military hostilities or agreement to end a dispute or feud.
You need to relate “abs” and “truce” to difficult to understand.
Well, let’s say your boyfriend, girlfriend or a friend fought with you over your big belly and had pushed and pushed you to improve your abs and wanted you do abs exercises three times a day.
But you come to a more reasonable truce to work out less.
Now picture yourself doing abdominal exercises, with a stack of documents four feet high – the truce agreement --- on your abs.
Picture the heavy stack of complicated documents pushing down on your abs as you do your exercises.
And think about how it’s such a complicated agreement. You can’t really understand this four-foot stack of documents at all.
Now you know: “Abstruse” means difficult to understand. By the way, it’s a word that comes up frequently on the SAT.
Let’s try another word that comes up frequently: Extol, to praise somebody with great enthusiasm.
Well, think of “ex” as in ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend or ex-friend or ex-anybody, even the ex-wife of a neighbor. Now think of “toll” as in a toll booth.
So you drive up to a toll booth, and this ex is at the toll booth and says you are so great, that you have beautiful features, such nice hair and awesome abs (thanks to your abs exercises from that agreement you couldn’t even understand.) It helps to have something visual, so amid the praise the person enthusiastically hands you a vase of flowers and a ring.
Extol, you’ll now remember, is to praise somebody with great enthusiasm.
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