September 23, 2005
Reduction to SAT
I made that fortuitous discovery that Busted, a novel by Emma Harrison – surely not this Emma Harrison? – is now online. And it’s a hypertext, because the definitions of the SAT words that appear in the novel – one of the SAT Vocabulary Novel Series – are all linked. Yes, you no longer have to use readymade books to study for the SAT.
While I haven’t yet had time to study up, I can tell at a glance that the series really manages to flout the English language with its fulsome prose. While some despair about high school students’ abilities these days, the authors appear to hold a rather sanguinary view of the possibilities of the written word. Can you imagine how reading a few of the books in this series will contribute to the enormity of your vocabulary?
September 25th, 2005 at 12:18 pm
It does seem rather forced. I’d say that despite some claims that the SAT words are “never” used, someone who reads extensively will encounter all of them numerous times. But rarely are you going to encounter a book with such a strange proportion of uncommon to common words, unless it was written by thesaurus. I’m not sure it’s even that conducive to learning the words, because you don’t get any real sense of how they would actually be used. I guess it’s better than reading a dictionary, but not by that much. Perhaps my thinking that the best way to “study” for the SAT is to read a lot of books during one’s childhood is a bit old-fashioned, though.
September 25th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
I should also point out that you want a reduction from SAT, or else you haven’t proven anything. =]