SAT English Hack: Ignore the Choices for Vocab Questions

There’s a bullet-proof strategy for Words in Context Questions on DSAT Reading and Writing (English section) that helps you stay focused on the context instead fussing over the choices.

1. Ignore the Choices Initially:

The key strategy is to first read and understand the passage without looking at the answer options. This helps you determine the overall meaning and what kind of word logically fills the blank. The thing about reading the choices and plugging them in is that it wastes a lot of time, and it wouldn’t work when you don’t know the meaning of the word. So you might end up feeling frustrated not knowing the meaning and forget that your priority is to read and understand the passage.

2. Analyze the Passage and predict the meaning:

In the example questions in the video, the passage explains a new method aimed at modifying the link between actions and emotions. It details that when teens engage in activities that boost their mood, they start to feel more positive. Conversely, if they don’t adopt these activities, they might continue with habits that make them feel bad. In essence, the passage suggests that teens should engage in—or includemore of the positive activities. Naturally, the blank should convey the idea of “including” more positive activities.

3. Evaluate the Answer Choices:

So the final step is to go over the choices and find the the choice with the meaning closest to “include.” Unfortunately, all the choices are somehow relevant in some way. So your job now is to differentiate the subtle meaning differences.

• Enmesh: Conveys the idea of getting things stuck or trapped, which doesn’t match the context of encouraging more positive behavior.
• Combine: Implies merging activities into one large activity, which doesn’t capture the intent of simply including more positive actions.
• Incorporate: Means “to include,” which perfectly fits the context by suggesting that teens should add positive activities to their routine.
• Attached Refers to physically sticking things together, a literal action that misses the idea of integrating beneficial habits.

Since the passage’s intent is to encourage teens to add more activities that have a positive impact on their emotions, the best choice is “incorporate.” This option aligns with the idea of including these beneficial actions.

What if I don’t know the words in the choices?

For the SAT Words in Context questions, there is a big chance that there are difficult, advanced words thrown in the mix. In that case, we have a few quick tips:

• Elimination: Look at the words you know first and determine whether the meaning is close to your prediction. If not, eliminate them.
• Roots and affixes: Use the words that you can think of that sound or look like the choice. If you can come up of any, and use them to figure out a vague meaning, then you might get somewhere with your guess. But you have to be aware that this strategy is like shooting in the dark: the word you think of might not actually be related to the choices at all. Still, you don’t want to give up the chance of actually landing on the one that is! So definitely use this strategy when you have to.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, your performance on Words in Context Questions on DSAT Reading and Writing is only as good as your vocabulary. What these strategies do is to help you stay focused on understanding the passage and not get nervous about the difficult words in the choices. And having a cool mind is the only way you can finish the test without feeling anxious, so start practicing and incorporating these strategies from now on. And good luck!

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