Knowing the answers to questions is important, but if you don’t understand the questions being asked, you won’t be able to answer them correctly. One of the aspects of vocabulary development that’s often overlooked is a focus on the words that are frequently used as part of the instructions on a test or the explanations in a textbook. This is particularly important for people who are learning English as a second language: the information that is being requested might be part of what they know, and know well, but because the question uses words that are unfamiliar, they’re not able to respond.

The following academic vocabulary words are often used as part of instructions or explanations on common tests such as the GRE and SAT. Study these words so that you’ll be able to give the correct answers.

speculate (verb) / speculation (noun)
When you are asked to speculate, it means that you are required to use the information that you have been given and come up with your own conclusion about something. This type of question is most often found on tests that have essay sections, where you are asked to give your own opinion on a topic.

plagiarism (noun) / plagiarize (verb)
One thing you don’t want to do on a test is plagiarize someone else’s answers! To plagiarize means to copy someone else’s work, quoting them directly without referencing the original words or results.

summarize (verb) / summary (noun)
To summarize means to take all of the essential meaning or facts of a specific block of text and to restate it in a few short sentences. You will be asked to do this as part of the reading comprehension sections on tests.

paraphrase (verb or noun)
Paraphrasing is like summarizing, but with one important difference: to paraphrase means to restate a concept using your own words, not just by repeating some of the sentences in the text that you have been given. This type of exercise will require knowledge of synonyms and antonyms.

analogy (noun) / analogize (verb [uncommon])
The analogy section of the SAT often confuses people, as the format of these question is not common (outside of the test environment). An analogy is a comparison between two things, showing how they are similar. In the analogy portion of a test, you will be required to look at two pairs of words and to  find the word that completes the second pair, using your understanding of the relationship between the first pair. In the next post, we’ll go into analogies in more detail.