Helpful Exercises for More Word Power and Better Test Scores

Recognizing and knowing the more than 1,000 words you should know in high school is a great first step. Now you must use the words and thus actively expand your vocabulary. This list was composed after research and communications with numerous secondary and college educators. But, as the saying goes, “The most important letter in E-D-U-C-A-TI- O-N is U.” What youdo is crucial. Again and again, actions speak louder than words — at least, actions are the best amplifiers of the power of words.

The exercises that follow here can improve your vocabulary. These activities will help you focus on particular numbers of words, but if learning ten or twenty words a week is not an attainable goal, shoot for five. The quantity of words is not as important as the process involved in learning the words and the power you will gain through strengthening your vocabulary over time.

Exercise #1

Go back over the previous pages, and use a highlighter to identify twenty words that you find intriguing (that is, greatly interesting or curious). This might be because of their definition, because you want to try them in your next writing assignment, or because you think they are cool. Whatever your reason, create a list of twenty words you wish to know and use.

On a separate page, list these twenty words along with two synonyms and two antonyms for each.

Lastly, write a paragraph using as many of these words as possible.Make it meaningful, easy to read, and focused on a single topic. A nonsense collection of twenty words, no matter how cool or impressive, isn’t what you are trying to create.

Exercise #2

Next, you can complete a dictionary exercise using ten different words from the list in this book. Although you do already have a mini-dictionary in your hands, for this exercise you’ll need to use one of the heavyweight editions. Look up each of the ten words on your list, and see how it is defined.

Then:

Look up and down the dictionary page where you found each word, and identify just one more intriguing word. For each new word, identify two synonyms and two antonyms.

Write a list of your new ten target words and as many of the synonyms and antonyms as you find interesting.

Again, write a paragraph using as many of these words as possible. Yes, make the paragraph meaningful!

Exercise #3

Choose one of your favorite magazines or newspapers. If you selected a newspaper, focus on one section that you regularly review and also on one that you rarely look at. For some, the regular section could be sports, and the other could be business, or travel and leisure. If you choose a magazine, review the entire periodical.

Highlight ten words in your reading that you don’t recognize or cannot define.

Using a dictionary, or this book, look them up.

It’s a good habit to look up words you don’t know as you read. Don’t be embarrassed. Do it!

Exercise #4

All of the more than 1,000 words in the main section of this book are good to know for improving your speaking, writing, and test-taking abilities. But about 25 percent of those words are especially good to know when you are taking a standardized test like the SAT. All of the 255 words in the next list are defined earlier in this book andhave also been identified by several SAT preparation books as commonly used in that standardized test.

After you’ve read through the main word list section and done some of the exercises here, take a look at the words in this list, in groups of ten or twenty at a time. Write down your own brief definition for each, and use each one in a sentence. (Be creative!) Put a checkmark next to a word if you are not sure of its meaning.

Then go back to the main word list, and check the definitions and sentences there against your own. Pay special attention to those words you didn’t remember, or where your definition doesn’t match the one in this book.

After you’ve gone through the entire list (ten or twenty words, once a day) put it aside. Then, some weeks or months later — ideally, a few days before taking your test — take a look at the following list again. Whenever you see a word whose meaning doesn’t immediately come to mind, look it up in the main section of the book.

Words You Should Know in High School

abate abdicate aberration

abide abject abstruse

accrue adroit aesthetic

aggrandize alacrity amalgamate

ambivalent ameliorate anachronism

anathema ancillary animosity

antipathy apocryphal ardent

arduous ascribe aspersion

assiduous augment auspicious

avarice axiom bandy

barrage beleaguer bellicose

belligerent bequeath beseech

bilk bombast boorish

bovine brusque capitulate

capricious catharsis cavalier

chagrin charlatan chicanery

circumlocution circumnavigate circumvent

clandestine clemency colloquy

collusion comely commensurate

compunction congenial conjecture

conjure construe consummate

contravene convivial convoluted

copious corroborate covert

credence credulous culpable

cupidity debilitate deciduous

deleterious delineate demur

depravity deprecate despondent

despotism diabolical diatribe

dichotomy didactic diﬃdent

diminutive disconcerting disparage

disseminate diurnal dogmatic

droll ebullient ediﬁcation

eﬀrontery egregious elite

elocution eloquence elucidate

emphatic endemic enervate

enmity epicure equanimity

erudite esoteric espouse

estrange evanescent exacerbate

exculpate exhort exonerate

fastidious fatuous ﬁasco

foible fractious garner

garrulous goad gregarious

guile hackneyed hapless

harbinger hierarchy hyperbole

iconoclast idyllic ignominious

immutable impervious impetuous

impugn incendiary incessant

incipient incontrovertible inculcate

indefatigable indolent inexorable

interpolate inundation invective

jingoism juggernaut juxtapose

laconic laggard lambaste

languid lugubrious magnanimous

malaise matriculate mercurial

mitigate moribund nemesis

neophyte nocturnal noxious

nuance nullify obesity

oblique obsequious obtrusive

obtuse obviate onerous

opaque ostensible ostentatious

paragon parsimony patrimony

paucity pecuniary pedestrian

pejorative perfunctory peripatetic

pernicious perspicacious pilfer

pithy pittance placate

plethora polemic pontiﬁcate

portend prescient pristine

proﬂigate propinquity proselytize

prudent prurient puerile

pugnacious quagmire querulous

quixotic ransack recalcitrant

remedial replete reprobate

respite restive reticent

rhetorical ribald ruminate

sagacious sanguine scintillate

sentient serene skullduggery

spurious subjugate sublime

succinct surreptitious sycophant

synchronicity tacit tantalizing

tenable tenacity throng

tome travail trepidation

trite ubiquitous umbrage

unctuous urbane utilitarian

vacillate vacuous voracious

writhe xenophobe zenith

This exercise, and the previous three, will all pay off sooner than you think. You’ll be sitting in an examination room one day — test booklet open, sharpened number-two pencils at the ready — and you’ll find that a number of those difficult and obscure words found in the analogies, reading selections, and other questions are no longer so difficult, at least not for you. But that’s just one of the great things that will happen when the words you should know in high school eventually turn into the words you doknow in high school.