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Words in Context — Quick example

A quick example of an SAT Words in Context question. Created by David Rheinstrom.

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  • blobby green style avatar for user Ebube Ezike
    I feel like I need to know meaning of some words before I can answer some questions cuz when I took the exercise I mada a prediction and couldn't match it to the choices cuz I didn't know the meaning of the words in the choices. So do I need to know words before I answer words in context questions
    (5 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Uzakbayeva Yasmin
    Guys, should I use other SAT prep books to prepare? Because I know that they are not in digital format. But, I feel like I need more practice
    (1 vote)
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  • male robot johnny style avatar for user Louis10x
    Guys this is a more general question, why is the difference between the units 2,3, 4. It seems like all the exercises are the same between all the units, does someone know the difference?
    (1 vote)
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  • male robot hal style avatar for user husanovshahobiddin21
    Do u guys have any either method? or way to do this type of questions ?
    (1 vote)
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    • female robot grace style avatar for user StudyBuddy
      Well, I would just say to do a lot of reading before the test and every time you run across a word you don't know, look it up and write the meaning down. That really helps for me when I'm learning new Spanish vocab. That would help to increase your vocab. But yeah, when I did the question, I honestly didn't know what "epitomizing" meant. But I did know that "transcending" fit the point/purpose/meaning of the text. So I picked that one.
      Did this help?
      (0 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user jaydenawuku1234
    How did he conclude that the key word they were looking for was crossing?
    (0 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user noorhalamoudi2006
    My prediction was the word overlook, and none of the choices meant that. If none of the choices fit my prediction, where do I go from there?
    (0 votes)
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    • hopper cool style avatar for user Studious Maximus
      There are two fixes to this problem, one is short term while the other is long term.

      First, the short term fix, re-read the passage to see if you missed any context clues that obscured your prediction, in this case, while overlook has a connotation of transcending/crossing in it, the more direct word prediction would transcending/crossing, as that flows better with words such as boundaries.

      The second fix is to read more, a lot of instincts that one develop for word choice is often seeing countless examples of words used in sentences, sometimes complex and sometimes simple. Further, reading increases your vocabulary drastically, allowing your predictions of the words to be more nuanced, and eliminate the necessity to take a guess after eliminating 1 to 2 choices.

      But it all comes down to practicing, while it may seem daunting now, I am confident to say: you got this!
      (3 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user dannammq
    Why did he know that the answer was going to end in "ing"?, i mean all the answers ended in "ing". But if they hadn't, how can i figure out that?
    (0 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user vikthor9966
    I didn't know the meaning of last two either. But the thing that helped me to guess correctly was all three choices were adjectives and transcending felt like it would fit there better
    (0 votes)
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  • leaf green style avatar for user Crowbar Jones
    I don't know the two words in the choices C and D. Of course I can make a guess, but in the real test, I will not have enough luck to guess correctly in five times.
    My point is, why do the SAT try to test so difficult vocabulary? If a candidate has to guess to choose the answer, then the context will mean nothing. I think the choices should not be strange and weird words that are hardly used even in academic articles. A typical good student should be able to know the meaning of all the words in the choices. They should only try to harden the context, if necessary, by choosing the more difficult passages that are more challenging to fully understand.
    (0 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Hazadoor
    Dude this is so difficult can someone help me none of this makes any sense. How am I even supposed to solve these questions when I don't know the definitions? I would never have known what epitomizing or transcending means
    (0 votes)
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Video transcript