in this crossword, the clues are the parts of speech and definitions for the words. you will find a word list at the bottom to help. if you want to know the answer to a row or column, leave a comment with the number and the word you think works, and i’ll let you know if you are right.

these words are from our sat flashcard deck which you can download on your android or iphone. we also have a web version.

across

2. adjective: enhancing each other’s qualities (for two things or more).
5. noun: state of uncertainty or perplexity especially as requiring a choice between equally unfavorable options
6. adjective: extremely painful
9. a verb: in a blunt, direct manner
13. adjective: highly complex or intricate
15. verb: treat or speak of with contempt
16. verb: to gradually increase in size or intensity
17. adjective: lasting an indefinitely long time; eternal; everlasting
18. verb: speak, plead, or argue in favor of; noun: a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea
19. verb: compete
21. adjective: having precise or logical relevance to the matter at hand
22. adjective: having never been done or known
23. adjective: spending money carefully

down

1. noun: a clever plan to turn a situation to one’s advantage
3. verb: to strongly urge on; encourage
4. verb: reject with contempt
7. verb: to flood or overwhelm
8. verb: spend thoughtlessly; waste time, money, or an opportunity
10. verb: assign to a lower position
11. adjective: feeling anger over a perceived injustice
12. adjective: likeable; easy to talk to
14. noun: an example that is used to justify similar occurrences at a later time
15. verb: think about carefully; weigh the pros and cons of an idea
20. adjective: poor enough to need help from others; adjective: completely wanting or lacking

word list

the crossword puzzle was created with the help of discovery education’s puzzlemaker tool.

thanks!

the post sat vocab crossword 7 appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

in this crossword, the clues are the parts of speech and definitions for the words. you will find a word list at the bottom to help. if you want to know the answer to a row or column, leave a comment with the number and the word you think works, and i’ll let you know if you are right.

these words are from our sat flashcard deck which you can download on your android or iphone. we also have a web version.

across

7. adjective: making a show of being pious; holier-than
8. noun: a hater of mankind
9. adjective: dull and lacking excitement
10. adjective: openly distrustful and unwilling to confide
12. adjective: marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
13. adjective: making less guilty or more foran
14. verb: be a hindrance or obstacle to
17. adjective: (sometimes followed by “to”) causing harm or injury
18. verb: gnaw into; make resentful or angry
21. adjective: without fault or error
23. adjective: two things are fundamentally different
24. verb: expose as false ideas and claims, especially while ridiculing
25. verb: collect information bit by bit

down

1. adjective: revealing
2. verb: hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of
3. noun: the highest point; culmination
4. verb: expel from a community, residence, or location; drive away
5. adjective: seemingly contradictory but nonetheless possibly true
6. adjective: unreasonable; unscrupulous; excessive
11. adjective: showing understanding and ready comprehension of other peoples’ states and emotions
15. adjective: fraught with danger
16. adjective: warlike; inclined to quarrel
19. adjective: completely stocked or furnished with something
20. noun: belief in something
22. adjective: friendly

word list

the crossword puzzle was created with the help of discovery education’s puzzlemaker tool.

thanks!

the post sat vocab crossword 6 appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

in this crossword, the clues are the parts of speech and definitions for the words. you will find a word list at the bottom to help. if you want to know the answer to a row or column, leave a comment with the number and the word you think works, and i’ll let you know if you are right.

these words are from our sat flashcard deck which you can download on your android or iphone. we also have a web version.

across

2. verb: to wander aimlessly
4. verb: come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
5. adjective: describing a lively atmosphere
7. noun: a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea
10. verb: try to gain favor by extreme flattery
11. verb: make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically
14. noun: a pause from doing something (as work)
15. adjective: showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience
16. adjective: plentiful; pouring out in abundance
19. adjective: to have a very strong desire for revenge
22. noun: a slight or superficial understanding of a subject; a small amount of something
23. adjective: difficult to capture or difficult to remember

down

1. adjective: so old as to appear to belong to a different period
3. verb: pass on or delegate to another; verb: grow worse (usually “devolve into”)
6. adjective: very hungry; approaching an activity with gusto
8. adjective: tastelessly showy; cheap and shoddy
9. adjective: ill-tempered and not inclined to talk; gloomy; adjective: resistant to guidance or discipline; stubbornly persistent
12. adjective: having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; not easily aroused or excited
13. adjective: dull and uninteresting
16. adjective: eager to fight or argue; verbally combative
17. verb: damage the good name and reputation of someone
18. adjective: not easily irritated
20. noun: an angry speech
21. verb: reduce in worth or character, usually verbally
22. noun: one who spends money extravagantly

word list

the crossword puzzle was created with the help of discovery education’s puzzlemaker tool.

thanks!

the post sat vocab crossword 5 appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

let’s dispel these myths as much as possible and get to the heart of the matter—really, how hard is sat writing?

“how hard is sat writing if i never learned how to hold a pencil?”

very, very hard since you have to write an essay and bubble in answer choices. honestly, you have bigger problems than the sat. but you are just being silly. let’s move on.

“how hard is sat writing if i write lots of text messages?”

probably pretty tough. most text messages lack proper grammar and most spelling rules are obfuscated to meet the character limits of a message. lol and fomo abound, and strong examples of sentence variety do not. without strong examples of english writing conventions, you will be a in tough spot on the test when you have to write an essay and answer questions about comma splices. if this is the only type of writing you do, you will find the sat writing very challenging.

“how hard is sat writing if i write on facebook and tumblr, like, all the time?”

if you keep including the word “like” in your writing, you are going to have trouble scoring well on the essay. but maybe you will fair well on the multiple choice section. it really comes down to the types of things you are writing and who is reading. if your friends are reading your writing, they probably care very little about the conventions of written english, and rarely, if ever, point out errors in your use of prepositions.

ultimately, it is great that you are writing so much. at least you are taking the time to write your thoughts and share them with the world, but you may need to brush up on your essay formula and how to respond to the prompts on the test to make sat writing a little easier.

“how hard is sat writing if i write essays in school?”

now we are getting warmer. the essays you write in school are the best corollary for the sat writing section. the demands that your teachers place on your writing are the same demands placed on you by the sat graders. you have to organize your ideas, take a stand on an issue, and support your stance with examples. both your teacher and the college board expect you to follow the rules of grammar and punctuation.

but just because you write essays, you may find it hard to actually spot grammar errors in other people’s writing. can you identify run-on sentences easily or subject-verb agreement errors? if not, keep writing for class, but also take the time to review the common conventions of good writing and the common grammar errors tested to make sat writing a little easier.

“how hard is sat writing if i am a published author?”

first, congratulations on your publications! if you happened to be a published author, you will find the writing section easier than most. but that does not mean it will not be hard. for one, writing a book or article is quite different than what you are expected to do on test day. also, published authors have editors that check for grammar and style errors, and many other people are involved in the process of publishing a book. so you might have more work to do.

no resting on your laurels in sat writing. you may know how to organize your thoughts, be convincing, and work under a deadline, but sat writing requires more. you need to learn about the essay prompts, understand common wrong answers, and common grammar points that are tested to make the sat writing not as hard.

“how hard is sat writing if i am william shakespeare?”

shakespeare would probably fail the writing section of the sat—maybe the whole test for that matter. although a masterful playwright and maybe the most famous english author, his style of writing is not an asset on the sat. much has changed since late the 1500s—idioms, style conventions, timed tests, and smart phones would cause shakespeare serious trouble.

so shakespeare is not who you should aspire to be on test day. be yourself. write in your voice. support your opinions. follow your gut. these are the keys to success and the ways to make hard sat writing easier.

the post how hard is sat writing? appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

let’s look at some of the different types of readers and how they would fair on the sat reading questions. by the end, you should have a better idea of how hard the sat reading is and what you will need to do to be a better reader.

how hard is sat reading if i never read?

never! really?!? the sat reading will be extremely difficult if you never read. but this can’t possibly be true because you are reading this sentence right now. no more silly questions.

how hard is sat reading if i only read tumblr and snapchat, like, a lot?

honestly, this type of reading will not help much in terms of sat preparation. aside from the obvious grammar and spelling liberties that people take when writing on tumblr or snapchat, one big difference is that what you read is probably wildly entertaining. the information is relevant to you and your friends and is something you went looking for. it probably involves some level of gossip or silliness—all things that we like.

the reading on the sat is harder than this type of reading because it is wildly boring, or at least that seems to be college board’s goal. when you like what you are reading, it is much easier to comprehend its meaning. getting to the end of a passage you enjoy is easy. but if you read something boring, comprehension and completion become much harder. you have to work more to understand what the author is saying.

if you are this type of reader, you’ll need to spend a little more time reading more advanced writing and it probably wouldn’t hurt to become more acquainted with the types of passages that are on the test.

how hard is sat reading if i only read modern fiction?

if you are an avid reader, this is a start. modern fiction can vary in terms of difficulty, but just the mere fact that you like reading and do it often will be an asset. but don’t expect reading all the twilight books to help you prepare for the sat. you still have the same issue that the tumblr readers had—reading for pleasure is not the same as sat reading. when you lose focus during a pleasure read, you take the time to go back and re-read. or maybe you just forget about it and keep reading. or you stop reading altogether. whatever your response during a pleasure read, your response will need to be different on the sat.

sat reading is hard because students have to remain focused on a long passage that is boring, even fiction-based passages can be boring. when students form the habit of losing focus and doing nothing, they find it difficult to complete a passage about ecosystems in regions of the amazon.

if you are this type of reader, you’ll need to spend more time working on your focus and active reading.

how hard is sat reading if i like reading my textbooks?

kudos! not too many high schoolers like reading textbooks let alone admit reading them for pleasure. thus far, your textbooks are closer to the level of reading you need for the test. the topics in your textbooks are similar to the topics on the sat, so you shouldn’t have to worry as much about focus.

but, reading a textbook is still not the same as reading on the sat. each was written for a different audience. your textbook was written to educate high schoolers, which means the writers spent time thinking about how to make things easy to understand for you. the sat passages were written to educate college students. thus, the material might be the same, but the writing styles, vocabulary, and sentence structure will be more advanced on sat reading.

if you are this type of reader, you’ll need to spend more time reading material that is at a college level.

how hard is sat reading if i read science journals and art periodicals?

you are reading above your grade level, and this will definitely help you on test day. the sat reading passages are more like the writing in academic journals, and the more you read at this level the easier sat reading will be. but just because you read at this level, doesn’t mean you can answer the questions on the passage.

if you are this type of reader, you’ll need to spend more time learning about common wrong answers and practicing your note taking skills.

the post how hard is sat reading? appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.

the sat is inherently not fun. that was never the test makers intention. they didn’t choose fun passages for you to read and there are no silly math problems. but that doesn’t mean that studying for the sat needs to be boring and drab like the test. right, mr. sat squirrel? the exact opposite it is true. you need to make studying fun so that you don’t mind doing it and you learn more.

the more fun you have, the more you will learn.

fun tip #1 learn vocabulary from song lyrics

i can’t take credit for this idea. i found song lyric vocabulary lists on vocabulary.com and thought it was perfect for us. it fits nicely into our mantra of having fun and learning. so start paying attention to the songs you listen to and make music an opportunity to learn new words. any words that you don’t know look them up. if you aren’t sure how to spell the word, or can’t make out the word in the song, look up the lyrics online. or better yet, use lyricplay on shazam to see the lyrics.

fun tip #2 spend time with the new york times

i know what you are thinking, “mr. sat squirrel, the new york times is not fun. news is boring.” but he is not talking about reading the newspaper (although you would definitely benefit from it). the times has a great blog called the learning network, full of fun resources for test prep. in particular, they have a section perfect for studying and fun, called fill-in. each week, a small section of an article is chosen and 10 – 20 words are removed. the game is to read through and put the words back where they belong—hence, fill-in the blank. this is another great way to practice reading for context, learn new words, and have fun.

fun tip #3 crosswords that teach

staying with the theme of games and the new york times, crosswords are great ways to review concepts and learn new ones, especially for math. instead of making flashcards for math facts, why not solve a crossword on mathematics, geometry, or algebra? instead of studying grammar terms in a test prep book, why not solve a crossword? i completely agree. nothing is wrong with doing a crossword. obviously, this will not be the only thing you do to study, but it is a way to break up the more grueling parts of studying and do a little review.

fun tip #4 play games with words

more games, more fun, more learning—sometimes you just want to do a crossword puzzle or play a matching game. there are a few websites that now provide users with flashcards and interactive games based on the lists that users create. magoosh has an awesome set of sat flashcards. quizlet is notable for these reasons. but i want to recommend another similar service at dictionary.com called word dynamo. they have a whole section dedicated to sat preparation. they have sets on the sat reading section, vocabulary words to learn, and even a section on writing. again, these fun alternatives to your test prep materials are just that—fun alternatives. these resources should not replace your test prep software or book. but they provide a little respite from practice problems and rote memorization.

the post sat squirrel makes studying fun appeared first on magoosh blog | high school.