I have found studying word roots to be a great way to help me increase my vocabulary. This is partly because the examples on a word root list tend to be grouped so that words with similar sound and meaning are together, but mostly because it makes it easier for me to remember the new words I come across.

The underlined words are generally "SAT-level" words. This probably means that they have been on the SAT I Verbal several times, but high school students don't tend to know them.

This page grew out of an extra-credit project I did for Mrs. Gebhart's English 3 class. I later searched the Internet for a similar list and was surprised that there weren't a whole lot. After finishing this page, I noticed only one useful list (http://www.freecollege.com/vocab.htm), but it's HUGE, so you might want to look at this less complete list first. [Update 3/23/00: www.freecollege.com is currently down. vocab.htm is mirrored here.]

As a side note, I also found reading Tooth and Nail to be useful in preparing for the SAT I Verbal. Tooth and Nail is a novel with SAT-level words in bold, and a glossary in the back. Since it gives the reader a chance to see the words used in context with the definition handy, it is very useful for improving vocabulary. And, the story isn't too bad either :)

Good luck :)
Jesse Ruderman

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