Sentence completion tasks on standardized tests are a measure of a student's understanding of both syntax and range of vocabulary. There are thousands of unfamiliar vocabulary words that could potentially appear on the SAT. To save everyone involved having to buy out the notecard aisle at Staples to make thousands of flashcards, I'm going to make this a lot easier...
Remember those episodes of Dawson's Creek where Jack would say things like: "I don't believe in perfect love. But I do believe that there are people whose lives are inextricably intertwined"? <= When was the last time you heard a sophomore in high school say that? As Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein asserts, very few adolescents would compromise their status in a peer group by using scholarly or erudite vocabulary in a social setting -- and what setting isn't social in high school?
Of course, direct vocabulary instruction will always improve comprehension, so whatever vocabulary is being covered in school is a great place to start. Ask your child's teacher or check the school's website for information about vocabulary instruction. If teachers post the week's vocabulary, try to use it in conversations. Words like esoteric or argot might not come trippingly off the tongue during dinner conversation or on your morning commute, and if so, go with what you know. A great place to start is to suggest a word to your child when he or she uses an adverb such as very, really, so or extremely before an adjective. So if he says "I'm so hungry," you might respond with, "If you're really famished..." or if she says "I was really annoyed," you could ask "How irate were you?" It's best to engage, but not to correct when it comes to cultivating vocabulary.
The skill of figuring out what a word means -- or trying to problem-solve to get the definition before looking it up -- is also of great value. When test day comes, the dictionary won't be around, so encouraging guessing at the definition and walking your teen through the deconstruction of a word is actually of equal or higher value than just looking it up. Petitioning your child to help you think of the right word is another sneaky but effective strategy. It helps them understand that words have nuances and that not every thesaurus option is ideal. One of my college professors was a real aficionado of the word pejorative. He used it all the time. The first few times he used it, I tried to look it up, but it has a unique spelling. I was looking up prejorative -- which isn't a word. Years later, finding that definition, even when I misspell the word, is a cinch. But back then, until I kept hearing the word in context, I couldn't figure out what it meant.
The research on vocabulary tells us that repeated exposure to words ensures retention of them. Students need to use their vocabulary words in speech and writing or they will lose them. But they also need to learn how to problem-solve to determine the meanings of words when they don't have a reference source close at hand. If they learn how to walk themselves through that process, they will feel much more secure on test day.
