Customer Reviews

Hot Words for the SAT (Barron's Hot Words for the SAT I)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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. (...)

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.

I am a mom with a 10 year old who is begging to study SAT words. (Don't ask why...she just really wants to learn them) I saw this book being used by the 10th graders at the local private school and I was very impressed. The organization of words into groups with similar meanings is fabulous. It really helps you to talk about those "shades of meaning" that you get with different word choices. Of course, these are not the most difficult of the SAT words, but I think it is perfect for the average to above average student. The highly gifted child who is taking the SAT as a senior should probably know the majority of these words already, but for most students I think it is perfect.

HERE IS THE TRUE SECRET to the vocab section. Go through the entire 10 test prep book and underline each and every word that you do not know. (The college board book with the cheap grey paper, costs about 20 bucks). Then make 3x5 cards. By the time you have gone through all 10 sample tests, you will know all the vocab you need to know. This is how my 12 year old got a 750 on the verbal last year.

I have used this book in my high school junior English classes, and for most students it is very helpful. It's true that it's harder to write quizzes on the words because of the cluster method, but that's a teacher's problem, not a student's. The clusters do help them remember words that are related. I've talked to SAT prep instructors who highly recommend this book. Unless you're a vocab star, give it a try.

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.

This book helped me learn the words necessary to achieve a noteworthy score on the SAT.
The book is broken up into 35 lessons. Each lesson revolves around a theme to which all of the listed words relate to. This helps the reader remember the words easier.
At first, I was skeptical. This book seemed like a bunch of words lists to me. But the grouping of similar words actually helped me remember more words. Looking over the book, there are only about 10 I don't know of the 350+ words.
I would recommend this book to those who wish to improve their verbal SAT score.
P.S.-If you didn't know what laudatory meant, it's in the book.

I am a teacher of college bound sophomores and juniors. This book challenges them to understand how words can simultaneously have similarities and differences in meaning. Hot Words is novel in its approach of clustering words with similar meaning. I often hear my students say that this format helps them remember more words and I see the results in their writing. If you use this book to draw subtleties out of words with similar meanings it becomes a more challenging exercise but one worth the effort!

The structure of this book is amazing especially their ideas to cluster words. its a lot easier to learn words that way. But if u believe that ur vocab is really amazing or if uve learnt the words from Barron's Mega 3500 word list then don't go 4 this book.
Basically this book is for those of us who dont have an A in their english vocab and who can't (or won't even consider) learning 3500 words.

This book expands vocabulary like no other. It is great for students who are wishing to expand their vocabulary to become better writers. It list words by category so they are easy to find. A must have for middle and High schoolers!

As a teacher of gifted (k-8), I find this book very valuable in helping my students increase their vocabulary. The organization of this book makes it easy to introduce new words or groups of words in meaningful categories. The first category "Cat Got Your Tongue" presents words that deal with speaking using a minimum of words (e.g. concise, tactiturn). This organization is fantastic for the teacher who wants to empower their students with vocabulary necessary for "test taking skills in highschool and college".