Product Description

Updated and expanded to reflect the vocabulary and format of the current SAT’s Critical Reading section, Hot Words for the SAT presents and defines more than 365 words that frequently appear on SAT exams. The book is divided into 35 lessons, each consisting of dozens of illustrative sentences and a thematic word cluster. Each cluster contains words having similar meanings or words that apply to similar circumstances. Also included are new pronunciation keys for each word, memory tips, expanded review exercises following every five lessons, and an alphabetical word index. College-bound students who successfully complete the book’s exercises and master these words will expand their lifelong vocabulary and improve their chance for acceptance at the school of their choice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11426 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780764136320
• Condition: USED - GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Inside Flap
(back cover)
Brand New in the 3rd Edition—

Customer Reviews

SAT Verbal Breakthrough
This book is a must buy!!! I've been an SAT instructor for a long time and this is the best book for the verbal section! This will boost your vocab like nothing else!!! There are three sentences made for each vocab word so you "really" understand the meaning of each word. It's not just a list of words and their definitions and you have to memorize it. Words being used in sentences really aid the memory and will totally boost your scores on the SAT!!! I highly recommend it. (...)

Popular Book, Reliable Concept, Some Mistakes
I am a full time SAT tutor and have almost all my students study this book. It is perhaps the most popular book of its kind, and for good reason-- Carnevale's effective approach to acquiring new SAT words. She presents words by theme. For example, the first chapter's theme, Cat Got Your Tongue? presents "Words Relating to Using Few Words or Being Quiet." They are: brevity, concise, laconic, pithy, quiescent, reticent, succinct, taciturn, and terse. I find that studying words in categories, as presented in this book, is an effective way for students to (1) learn more words and (2) internalize the sometimes subtle differences between synonyms. The book also has several sentences for each word to illustrate the word's proper context.
On the other hand, there are several mistakes in the book. For example, the introduction refers to the books approach as yielding, "expoential vocabulary growth" (the "n" in "exponential" is missing). In chapter 9, the book says correct use of "miserly" is "Using a sheet of paper on only one side is a sign of a miserly individual."
These mistakes take away only slightly from the book's value since the concept is so solid and the words appear so often on tests.

Good Words, Bad Form
The vocab in this book is very appropriate for a low scorer who must raise their score, but if you are a high scorer you will be unimpressed by most of the words. I ended taking out about 5 words from each of the 30+ lessons and making my own word lists, not to say that those words didn't help me. My score rose 70 points, but I also made my own word lists and flash card using words from here and 10 Real SATs.

The exercises are awful. The other words in the analogies are more diffcult than the vocab. I ended up ignoring all of them.

If you are looking for a quick way to study for the SAT vocab, then buy flashcards. In the end that was the most useful format.