Importance of Vocabulary for ACT
How Important is a Good Vocabulary for ACT Test?
Importance of Vocabulary for ACT
Vocabulary is an important aspect of any language. If you have a good vocabulary, you will be able to communicate your thoughts to others without any barrier. In various English tests, vocabulary is asked exhaustively either in direct context or through English usage. As far as ACT is concerned, direct vocabulary questions are not a part of the examinations. However, the test emphasizes on English usage. So you can expect some questions based on vocabulary, to be asked in indirect context. This examination asks questions on English usage like sentence completion, sentence structure and the usage of Grammar. In the Reading section, four passages are given and based on the passages, your views are asked. If you do not have a good knowledge of vocabulary, it might happen that you will not understand the passage correctly due of lack of understanding the words and their usage. Therefore, in order to understand the usage of words in the passages of the test, you need to emphasize on learning vocabulary.
There are a number of books available in the market which contain thousands of words and information about their usage. Also, there are many websites which offer exhaustive lists of words that you will be required to know, if you want fare well in the examination. It is not practical to cram up all the words with their usage in one go. There has to be some strategies to learn vocabulary so that you retain what you have learned.
Few tips are mentioned which will help you in developing your knowledge of words, with regard to this examination.
1. Read a Lot
The first thing that you need to do is to read a lot. Read anything and everything that you find worth reading. Be it a newspaper's editorial section or a sports magazine or a journal on world economy, just read on. It is very likely that you will encounter few new words. Note down all of these words with their usage. Collect 5 such new words everyday.
2. Prepare Flash Cards
Put these new words with their usage on a flash card. Everyday prepare one flash card with 5 new words and their usage.
3. Carry Flashcards Everywhere
No matter if you are waiting for your public transport or you are just relaxing; carry a new flash card everyday. Quickly scan it whenever you get time. This way you will learn 5 new words every day.
4. Hit the Bed Thinking Words
Everyday before you go off to sleep, recall all the five words you have learned during the day and try to write a short passage which will include at least 2-3 newly learnt words. This strategy has two benefits, first you will learn new words with their usage and second it will help you in cracking the Reading section of ACT easily. It will also help you in the Writing test, if you plan to take it. Also it is observed that people usually retain whatever they read or listen just before sleeping. So this can be a good strategy to develop your vocabulary.
5. Do Not Forget to Revise Weekly
All that you have learnt during the week will go in vain if you do not develop the practice to revise. For revising you can try this strategy of dividing your week into week days and weekends. On the week days, you try collecting and learning new words. On the weekends you take out all the flash cards and without seeing the word meanings and usage, you tell the meanings. You can again write a passage and see how many new words have been incorporated in the passage by you. This will help you to boost your confidence related to usage of words and vocabulary.
Thus, it can be concluded that in order to have a good score in the test, only knowing the meanings of words is not enough. You must know how to use the words and for that good vocabulary is the key to success.