SAT Authentic Vocabulary List
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Summary
SAT True Vocabulary is a focused word list compiled by New Oriental SAT teachers from the passages in the official guide, with example sentences taken from the original texts so that learners can memorize words in their real contexts and in familiar scenarios. The book covers about 2,200 words from ten sets of official guide practice tests, each containing five reading and four writing passages, giving fairly comprehensive coverage of SAT vocabulary.
Editor's review
The book's main feature is that it puts vocabulary back into the context of real test passages instead of listing words in isolation. The editors selected about 2,200 key words from the reading and writing passages of the ten official guide tests and paired them with original example sentences, so learners can connect meaning and usage within familiar exam contexts. For students who have already worked through some official questions but still struggle to recognize words quickly, this question-based organization reduces the frustration of memorizing words without being able to use them. It works best as a review tool: do the questions first, then return to the corresponding entries, which is more effective than rote memorization from the start. Note that it covers key words within the official guide rather than the full SAT vocabulary, so it is best used for a first pass through core words; broader reading is still needed to expand peripheral vocabulary.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Students who have started working with official SAT guide tests and need to reinforce core vocabulary alongside them
- High school students who forget words easily and want to deepen memory through authentic test sentences
- Learners in the early stage of SAT preparation who want to focus on high-frequency key words rather than blindly memorizing an entire word book
- Teachers of SAT reading and writing who can use it as supplementary material for vocabulary instruction in class
Not a good fit for
- Complete beginners who have not yet encountered SAT question types and need to learn the exam structure systematically first
- Test takers who want full coverage of the SAT vocabulary range and maximum word count
- Learners who prefer to build vocabulary naturally through reading original works and dislike word lists
Reading tips
- Do the reading or writing questions for a set first, then review that set's entries and recall meanings from context.
- Work through one test's worth of words each day in batches, mark words you repeatedly get wrong, and review them quickly the next day.
- Copy collocations and part-of-speech changes from example sentences next to each entry instead of memorizing only Chinese definitions.
- In the two weeks before the exam, focus on marked words and redo official questions to test how quickly you recognize vocabulary.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 编委会
- 序言
- 前言
- 使用说明
- Text 01
- Passage 1 The Strangeness of Beauty
- Passage 2 Money Can't Buy Love
- Passage 3 Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyri
- Passage 4 Three Guineas
- Passage 5 Space Mining: the Next Gold Rush?
- Passage 6 Whey to Go
- Passage 7 Dark Snow
- Passage 8 Coworking: A Creative Solution
- Passage 9 The Consolations of Philosophy
- Text 02
- Passage 1 The Professor
- Passage 2 Can Economics Be Ethical?
- Passage 3 The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains
- Passage 4 Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Address
- Passage 5 How 500-Meter-High Undersea Waves Form Is Revealed
- Passage 6 Librarians Help Navigate in the Digital Age
- Passage 7 Tiny Exhibit, Big Impact
- Passage 8 Environmentalist Otters
- Passage 9 A Quick Fix in a Throwaway Culture
- Text 03
- Passage 1 The Schartz-Metterklume Method
- Passage 2 Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobil
- Passage 3 Feather
- Passage 4 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- Passage 5 Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder Is Possibly Cau
- Passage 6 Shed Some Light on the Workplace
- Passage 7 Transforming the American West through Food and Ho
- Passage 8 How Do You Like Those Apples?
- Passage 9 More than One Way to Dress a Cat
- Text 04
- Passage 1 The Balloonist
- Passage 2 The Great Inversion and the Future of the American
- Passage 3 Frankenstein's Cat
- Passage 4 Reflections on the Revolution in France
- Passage 5 Source of Mysterious Medieval Eruption Identified
- Passage 6 Ghost Mural
- Passage 7 The Hype of Healthier Organic Food
- Passage 8 You Are Where You Say
- Passage 9 Creating Worlds: A Career in Game Design
- Text 05
- Passage 1 The Folded Leaf
- Passage 2 Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism
- Passage 3 Why Organic Agriculture May Not Be So Sustainable
- Passage 4 Why You Shouldn't Trust Internet Comments
- Passage 5 The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
- Passage 6 Prehistoric Printing
- Passage 7 Thomas Nast, the Crusading Cartoonist
- Passage 8 Rethinking Crowdfunding in the Arts
- Passage 9 An Evolving American Tradition
- Text 06
- Passage 1 Nawabdin Electrician
- Passage 2 Public Trust in the News
- Passage 3 Decoding a Flower's Message
- Passage 4 Address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield,
- Passage 5 What Tech Is Next for the Solar Industry?
- Passage 6 A Necessary Resource for Science
- Passage 7 A Little to the Left, but Not Too Much!
- Passage 8 The Physician Assistant Will See You Now
- Passage 9 Gold into Silver: The “Reverse Alchemy” of Superhe
- Text 07
- Passage 1 Silas Marner
- Passage 2 How Technology Is Destroying Jobs
- Passage 3 Why Birds Fly in a V Formation
- Passage 4 Enfranchisement of Women
- Passage 5 How the Higgs Boson Was Found
- Passage 6 NASA: A Space Program with Down-to-Earth Benefits
- Passage 7 Professional Development: A Shared Responsibility
- Passage 8 The Evolution of Slow Food
- Passage 9 Was the Hoax a Hoax?
- Text 08
- Passage 1 The Angel's Game
- Passage 2 Why Null Results Rarely See the Light of Day
- Passage 3 Salt Stretches in Nanoworld
- Passage 4 The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
- Passage 5 What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses
- Passage 6 Compost: Don't Waste This Waste
- Passage 7 A Lion's Share of Luck
- Passage 8 Court Reporting: Humans VS. Machines
- Passage 9 Fire in Space
- Text 09
- Passage 1 The Bonesetter's Daughter
- Passage 2 How the Web Affects Memory
- Passage 3 What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet, an
- Passage 4 A Speech at the Second Anti-Slavery Convention of
- Passage 5 A New Antibiotic Found in Dirt Can Kill Drug-Resis
- Passage 6 Survival in the Hostile Environment of NW Rora-1
- Passage 7 Free Public Transportation
- Passage 8 Wet Plate Photography: An Old Technique Makes a Ne
- Passage 9 Digging up Cities
- Text 10
- Passage 1 The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel
- Passage 2 The Conundrum
- Passage 3 Pleasant to the Touch
- Passage 4 March of the Flag
- Passage 5 Life under the Sun
- Passage 6 How a Cat in a Hat Changed Children's Education
- Passage 7 Keep Student Volunteering Voluntary
- Passage 8 Marsupials Lend a Hand to Science
- Passage 9 An Employee Benefit That Benefits Employers
- 附录
- 附录一：SAT数学常见词汇
- 附录二：SAT数学常见概念
FAQ
Is the vocabulary in this book enough for the SAT?
It covers about 2,200 key words from ten official guide tests, representing core high-frequency vocabulary that helps learners build basic word recognition. SAT reading may still include some words beyond the official guide, so after mastering this book, continue expanding through extensive practice reading; do not treat it as your only word list.
Can I memorize this book directly without having done the official guide questions?
You can read it directly, but the results will be weaker. The example sentences come from real test passages, so if you do the corresponding questions first and then review the entries, it is easier to remember usage through context. At minimum, complete some official questions first or look up words while doing questions, rather than memorizing the entries as an isolated list.
Are the example sentences in the book identical to the original SAT passages?
According to the source material, the entries are paired with example sentences from the original official guide passages, with the goal of showing how words are used in real exam contexts. Focus on the collocations and surrounding logic in the example sentences, not just the Chinese meanings, as this better matches what the SAT expects of vocabulary understanding.
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About the author
新东方国外考试推广管理中心
Author
The New Oriental Overseas Examination Promotion Management Center is a collectively attributed institution under New Oriental, with an editorial and publishing focus on preparation for overseas examinations and the development of study-abroad skills. Publicly available information is limited: currently only three titles are known in the library, covering SAT vocabulary, writing, and inspirational growth, with the common category being inspirational growth. Judging from the existing titles, its editorial content centers on SAT real-word accumulation and writing breakthroughs, balancing practical exam preparation with learners' mindset development, and its language style tends toward instructional expression aimed at student readers. Representative works include SAT Real Word List, Elite Talk, and SAT Writing Full Breakthrough, indicating that the center attends both to test-taking skills training and to accompanying readers' growth through inspirational content. Because public information on the institution's history and staffing is lacking, this introduction offers only an objective overview based on the library's titles and common categories, without additional extrapolation.
