Email exchange with PWNtheSAT while on phone with very nice supervisor of credit report website.

Attempting to get charges reversed:

Me (to PWN): Is this the proper use of specious?

PWNtheSAT: I wouldn't say specious for that...specious is really more about arguments.

Uh Oh.  Whoops.  Hopefully she didn't notice.

Me: What about spurious? 

PWNtheSAT:  :) yeah that works

Spurious charges now reversed, I can return to the reason for this blog post:

What's the Best Way to Learn Vocabulary for the SAT?

In a line:  Make abundant use of the words in your everyday life.

And if your brain refuses to remember a word?  Ask the smartest person you know to use this word in a personalized sentence for you, with real life context. Then free associate.

Below are a few of my free association words that I couldn't remember for the life of me, until I employed this "Smart Friend Real Life Context" strategy:

• Phlegmatic -- Alfred Hitchcock

• Temporize -- Administrator

• Supine -- Yoga

• Chary -- Wary

• Avuncular -- Uncle

• Salvo -- Boy

• Truculent -- Truck Driver

• Portent -- Falling Stars

Now? Seared, forever. <3

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

The vocabulary aspect of the SAT remains my favorite part of this whole project. I'm referring here to both the "Vocabulary Section," as well as the Critical Reading passages.

I never tire of learning new words, parsing words I already know, or being reminded of words I want to bring back into rotation. Take, for example, my list this week:

• inchoate
• recondite
• dirge
• mawkish

(All from actual SATs...Love.)

And while I can't lay claim to knowing even close to all of the vocab on the SAT, I actually haven't gotten any of the "vocab questions" wrong on test day (miraculously).   I probably just jinxed myself.

But here's the weird, subtle, issue with the words on the SAT that I want to shed light on:

The simple words give me more trouble than the sophisticated ones because they often require a "dictionary definition," while I'm thinking in vernacular terms.

Take, for example, the word "nonplussed." I was sure it meant "unfazed," (right?), and answered the question accordingly, without it even occurring to me that there was another, older (more proper?) definition.

I got the question wrong.

The College Board was looking for the "bewildered," or "not sure how to respond" definition of the word.

I was relieved to discover that I was in good company about the meaning of this word:

Meghan Daum, writing in the Los Angeles Times, was disappointed by Barack Obama's use of the "unfazed" sense of the word when he said of his daughters' response to media scrutiny, "I've been really happy by how nonplussed they've been by the whole thing."

Here are a few other words that might not mean what you think they mean:

• Irregardless is not the opposite of regardless.
• Peruse might surprise you as well (hint: it's the opposite of how most people use it).
• And cynical doesn't really mean pessimistic.

But here's the example that should really drive this point home: The word "bug" -- I bet you can't imagine not knowing what it means, right?

Well try this on for size:

The good news is that there wasn't even a question about the word. The bad news is that I perseverated over it's meaning while reading the passage, and lost precious seconds. (Don't you do that!)

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

Olfactory:   Adj. or Noun.     Concerning the sense of smell.

"Heading into NYC.  Am anticipating an olfactory wonderland out there. I may distract myself diagramming sentences from today's paper."

No idea whether this word shows up on the SAT, but I like it anyway.

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis

From what I can tell, the SATs are universally loathed.

But I ask you, what is so wrong with learning some new vocabulary words? Or even just bringing back into rotation some long forgotten or infrequently used words?

Here are a few of my favorites:

Jejune -- "There was something innocent about it, something ill-formed and jejune, the fingernails bitten to the quick like a child's." -- The Glass Room by Simon Mawer (curtesy of @AnnLeary)

Perspicacious -- "There is something not quite right about Will Sheff playing a solo show. Across six albums – the latest, I Am Very Far, is released in May – his band Okkervil River have blossomed into a thrillingly dynamic outfit who embed their leader's prolix, perspicacious lyrics in muscular rhythms and surprisingly playful melodies." -- The Guardian

Opprobrium -- "Now, perhaps Republicans calculated that Katie Couric’s opprobrium would cause voters to punish Republicans for a shutdown. Not an unreasonable calculation." -- National Review by Peter Kirsanow

Jingoistic-- "Call me jingoistic or pollyannaish, but tax day is one of my favorite days of the year. I have no problems ponying up to Uncle Sam, and my personal politics aside, I'm pretty sure that whatever the case may be, dodging the IRS is never a good idea. -- by Clifton Yates Washington Post

Raiment -- "The former army officer’s change in raiment and rhetoric has helped boost him into first place in polls ahead of the first round of voting April 10." -- Bloomberg News

(Is this not fun for everyone?) Would LOVE to hear YOUR favorite words.

Illustrations by Jennifer Orkin Lewis