1. Read everything you can find to read.

Newspapers. Magazines. On-line articles. Novels, short stories, plays, poems – if the title to something catches your eye, pick it up and give it a try. Select non-fiction works in fields that interest you, or explore with a random choice from the library stacks and discover new topics you didn’t know you were interested in before. The more you read, the more new words you’ll come across, and you’ll have more of a chance to find the vocabulary words you’re studying used in context. Repetition leads to retention, whether you’re reading words that someone else has written, or writing them down yourself. Which leads us to step 2 …

2. Write down words you’re trying to learn.

By engaging the muscles of your hands and eyes while writing down a vocabulary word, you’re also engaging the synapses of your brain which control the nerves and muscles required to do the writing. This “kinetic learning” works by involving more of your brain in the process of vocabulary study, and the “muscle memory” will help you remember how a word is spelled. If you write down a word several times, using the correct spelling, it will be easier to remember how to spell it in the future. It will also help you recognize when a word is spelled incorrectly, which is an important skill for you to have if you’re preparing for a test such as the SAT or GRE, which often has sections in which you are asked to make corrections to a sentence or paragraph. And that brings up step 3 …

3. Practice for the test.

While the questions on each test are different, all of the standard examinations have the same general structure each year, using any or all of these topics:

• reading comprehension
• analogies
• synonyms and antonyms
• using words in context
• word definitions
• identifying and correcting spelling/grammatical errors
• essay questions

You can find sample tests on line or in one of the many books available for SAT or GRE study. If you practice these specific areas, using the format that you’ll be given on the test, you’ll be prepared to complete the test correctly, and being familiar with the format of a section will give you more confidence. More importantly, being able to immediately identify the purpose of a section will give you more time to concentrate on the answers.

Check back tomorrow for three more steps to success!