Vocabuleasy - A Simple Way to Improve Your Vocabulary
Part of what makes learning new words at school so challenging is simply the AMOUNT they try to shove down your throat. It’s ok - it’s perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed by new vocabulary.
What if I told you there’s a simple way to improve your vocabulary?
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Instead of driving yourself crazy cramming for every test, why not slow down and add a little proactivity to your studying? By adding 5 minutes to your daily school schedule, you can improve your vocabulary WAY faster.
Part of what makes learning words difficult in school is that it often becomes a memorization exercise. You memorize the word for a spelling test or for a unit test and then it’s gone as soon as you start the next section. While memorization is a step towards knowledge, it’s not the ultimate goal.
Create a master list of every new word you come across.
This will help the words absorb into your regular vocabulary instead of compartmentalizing them into certain subjects.
Review is the secret to learning anything. BUT the more you change up your review systems, the faster things will sink in. It will also be more likely for that knowledge to be versatile. Your brain is very good at memorizing patterns, and if something is always reviewed in the same order in the same context, you won’t necessarily be able to access that knowledge outside of that fixed pattern.
By integrating your vocabulary across subjects, everything you learn will be significantly more likely to be engrained with less effort.
Review your master list regularly.
This doesn’t mean you have to read the whole list every time you sit down to study. Dedicate 5 minutes every day to read through and review a section of the list. This may sound like barely any time at all, but even a short review session will make a huge difference. Short frequent bursts are better at engraining things into your longterm memory than longer sessions.
You’ll still have to review for tests, but by adding this step, legitimate review will take significantly less time. Only certain words will still need more brain power instead of every single one. Following this slower learning process will help anything you learn stick in your brain longer after your test.
Want to go rogue?
If you’re really serious about improving your vocabulary and you don't want to limit yourself to what your school is giving you, check out this great flashcard series. Flashcards are a fantastic way of adding vocabulary because it’s easy to group them and only review the ones you need/want to go over.
Check them out here: