How Word Knowledge Is Asked

Word Knowledge moves faster than any other subtest, and a method matters least on the words you already know and most on the words you do not. This lesson is about the second kind.

The two forms

Form one, the word alone:

Abate most nearly means

(A) increase (B) lessen (C) confuse (D) permit

Form two, the word in a sentence:

The storm began to abate by nightfall.

(A) increase (B) lessen (C) confuse (D) permit

Same word, same answer. The difference is that form two handed you evidence, and a reader who ignores the sentence has thrown away the easiest points on the subtest.

When a sentence is present, read it first and read it fully. The sentence is not decoration; it is there because the test is measuring whether you can use context.

What "most nearly means" is doing

It is not asking for a synonym in the strict sense. It is asking which of four options is closest, and sometimes the closest is not very close.

Two consequences:

Do not reject the best choice for being imperfect. If one option is roughly right and the other three are wrong, the roughly right one is the answer.

Do not pick a word that is merely associated. For "canine", the answer is "dog", not "bark" and not "leash". Association is the most common way a wrong choice looks attractive.

Predict, then look

The single highest-value habit on this subtest.

Before reading the choices, say what you think the word means - in your own words, roughly, even one word. Then look for that among the options.

Reading the choices first is worse, because four plausible-looking words pull your sense of the word around, and the one you have seen most recently starts to feel right. Predicting first gives you something to compare against.

If nothing matches your prediction, your prediction was off, and now you fall back on the methods below.

When you half-know the word

Four tools, in the order they are worth trying.

1. Word parts. Prefix, root and suffix. "Benevolent" contains bene, meaning good or well, which is enough to eliminate any negative choice. This is the highest-yield tool and it has two lessons of its own.

2. Context, if there is a sentence. Look for the signals: a definition given in the sentence, a contrast marked by "but" or "although", an example introduced by "such as". Contrast is the most useful, because it tells you the word means roughly the opposite of something you do know.

3. Charge. Even with no idea of the definition, most people can feel whether a word sounds positive or negative. "Malign" sounds unpleasant, and it is. "Amiable" sounds pleasant, and it is. Sort the four choices by charge and eliminate the ones that do not match the word's. This regularly turns a one-in-four guess into a coin flip.

4. Where you have heard it. A word you cannot define you may still have met in a phrase. "Abstain" turns up in "abstain from voting", which gives you "refrain" without a definition ever being involved.

Eliminating on structure

Two patterns that are worth a glance before you commit.

Two choices that mean nearly the same thing are both wrong. The test has one correct answer, so if two options are near-synonyms, neither can be it. That is free elimination whenever it appears.

A choice that looks like the word is usually a trap. Words that sound similar are rarely related: "feign" is not "faint", "ingenious" is not "ingenuous", and "perpetrate" is not "perpetuate". The lookalike is deliberately placed.

Pacing

On the computer-adaptive version, Word Knowledge is 15 questions in 9 minutes - 36 seconds each, the tightest pace on the whole test. On the paper version it is faster still.

That is deliberate. The subtest is not asking you to reason your way to a meaning; it is asking whether the word is already in your head. The methods in this lesson are for the handful of words where it is not, and they only fit because most questions take five seconds rather than thirty-six.

The pacing plan that follows from that:

1. Answer what you know immediately. Most questions take five seconds. Do not slow down to feel thorough.
2. Spend the time you save on the words you do not know, running the four tools above.
3. Never leave one blank. On the computer version you cannot advance without answering anyway, and there is no penalty for a wrong answer, so an eliminated guess is free.

Banking time is the whole point. Thirty seconds spent on one hard word is time you have only because you did not spend it on the twelve easy ones.

What you can skip

• Other formats. Apart from five questions that ask what a root means, every item is one of the two forms in this lesson. There is nothing else to prepare for.

Where people lose points

Ignoring the sentence when there is one.

Reading the choices before predicting, and getting steered.

Choosing an associated word rather than a meaning.

Rejecting the best answer for being imprecise. "Most nearly" is doing work.

Falling for a lookalike.

Overthinking a word you actually know. First instinct on a familiar word is usually right, and second-guessing costs more points than it saves.

Work one in under a minute

His remarks were entirely superfluous to the discussion.

(A) essential (B) unnecessary (C) hostile (D) brief

Predict first. The sentence gives little contrast, so go to word parts: super means above or beyond, and fluous relates to flowing. Beyond what flows, which is to say beyond what is needed. Prediction: excessive, not needed.

Match: (B) unnecessary.

Check the others. "Essential" is the opposite, which is the standard trap. "Hostile" and "brief" are unrelated in charge and in meaning.

Where this leads

The tools named here each have a lesson. Word parts are the biggest of them, and they are what turns an unfamiliar word into a solvable one.