Vocab in Context — Core Skills

Vocab in Context: The Basics

Part 1 of 2 — One Skill, One Idea

Some SAT questions take a word out of a short paragraph and leave a blank. Your job is to put the right word back.

Here is the good news: you do not have to already know the word. The paragraph tells you what belongs there. You are matching a word to a meaning the sentences hand you.

The one move: find the clue

Every one of these paragraphs contains a clue — the part that explains or describes the blank. It is usually right next to the blank, often after a colon or a semicolon, or in the very next sentence.

Read the clue. Say the answer in your own everyday words. Then look for the option that means about the same thing.

Worked example

Reviews of the diner were ______. Customers said the food arrived cold and the wait was over an hour.

Step 1 — Find the clue. The second sentence is the clue: cold food, long waits.

Step 2 — Say it plainly. People did not like it. The reviews were bad.

Step 3 — Match. If the options were glowing, negative, mixed, brief, the answer is negative, because negative means unfavorable — bad. "Glowing" means very positive, which is the opposite of what the clue describes.

That is the whole skill. Clue → your own word → match.

One shortcut that helps a lot

Before you look at the choices, decide if the blank is a good word or a bad word. Just a plus sign or a minus sign in your head. That alone knocks out half the choices most of the time.

Vocab in Context: Practice

Part 2 of 2 — Run the Steps

You already know the move. Here it is as a short checklist you can run on any of these questions.

The checklist

1. Cover the choices. Read the paragraph first. The choices can pull you off track before you know what you are looking for.
2. Find the clue. Look right after a colon or semicolon, or in the sentence next door. That is where the explanation usually sits.
3. Plus or minus? Decide whether the blank should be a good word or a bad word. Write a small + or − next to the blank if that helps.
4. Say your own word. Fill the blank with plain everyday language — "bad," "grew fast," "made clear." Your word does not have to be fancy.
5. Match, then check the rest. Find the choice closest to your word. Read your choice back into the sentence to be sure it sounds right.

Two signal words worth knowing

• but, however, although, yet — the next part goes the opposite direction.
• because, since, for example, in fact — the next part goes the same direction, and usually explains.

Those little words are free information. Circle them.

If you do not know a word in the choices

That happens to everyone. Cross out the ones you do know that clearly do not fit, then pick from what is left. A confident guess between two choices is a good outcome.