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Words in context — Worked example
Learn the best way to approach a words in context question on your SAT. Remember, it's not about fancy words, it's about understanding the context A "precise" word is one that means exactly what it should in a given situation: it will fit its sentence perfectly and reinforce the text's meaning. You can use the context clues to make a prediction, then look for the closest match to your prediction in the choices.
. Created by David Rheinstrom.
. Created by David Rheinstrom.
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- oh, don't be like me I was tricked to choose "common place".(92 votes)
- By reading the passage, you can see that the study "challenged" the view that "female participation in hunting was _____". This, along with the text that states "as many as half of the hunters...were female" implies that the previous view was that females did not go hunting. So "commonplace" cannot be the correct answer. The correct answer should be synonymous with "rare" or "uncommon".(11 votes)
- i am so bad at words in context questions! i always pick the wrong word! Any tips?(6 votes)
- Hey , do not look at the options before answering. Read the passage and try to fill the blank with your own words that suits the passage. Then , look at the passage and match the word that matches to your word.(17 votes)
- But if they were as many as half why were they considered negligible ?(9 votes)
- In this case, the correct interpretation of the passage is what matters. If you read carefully, towards the end of the passage, you will notice that the connotation feels as if the author is almost surprised to admit that statement. Essentially, at first, the prediction appeared to be much lower than what was actually found out to be true. Sometimes, it is statements like these that can throw off a reader. I would suggest rereading the passage carefully and fully understand the context of such phrases.(12 votes)
- I don't get why it is low?(4 votes)
- So in the second half we can see that the participation was seen to be high, and in the first half we can see that this undergrad study challenges the old thought. So we can infer that the participation was thought to be low, but was in fact very high. Hope what I said makes sense.(18 votes)
- Sometimes I don’t know the meaning of more than a word, in this case, what do I do?(11 votes)
- Can anyone answer me please? The questions in the digital SAT test would be shorter like ones in the video above? Like in the Bluebook? No more longer as it used to be?(4 votes)
- Yes, that is correct. The questions for the digital SAT are no longer long passages like they used to be. To be specific, the passages will be anywhere between 25 and 100 words.(12 votes)
- do we have to look at context clues first?(0 votes)
- Yes, it is how you are able to find the question that needs answered. Without context clues, you might as well be guessing.(13 votes)
- If you were able to eliminate 1 or 2 of the answer choices and end up with 2 to 3 unfamiliar words that are hard to distinguish, what should you do? Every now and then, I run into this situation causing me to have to guess and hope to get the right answer through pure luck. Is there any advice any of you would give to avoid this?(3 votes)
- what happens if i cant predict an answer? or dont know the exact word to use? anyone have any tips on what to then?(4 votes)
- Wait is clearly says the "half" of the hunters were female so why was the answer not A? C and D can go away since they're obviously wrong.(4 votes)
- I also thought this at first, but the word that you have to look for is for the original idea that they had: females didn't hunt. Answer A would mean what the new idea is: females did hunt. C would represent the old idea, which is what we're looking for.(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Narrator] Hello. Hello. Let's take a look at this question from the
reading and writing test. Let's begin with the question stem. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and
precise word or phrase? And let's skip the answer choices for now 'cause I want to talk about strategy. I'll work through this
question slowly a bit later in the video, but if you'd like to read it to yourself
now, pause the video. The question stem is asking
me to complete the text with a word or phrase. So that tells me I'm dealing with a words in context question. You can safely expect several words in context questions on test day. And to answer these questions successfully you need to identify the most logical or precise word or phrase in
the context where it appears. So what does that mean, the most logical and precise word? We're looking for a word that reinforces the meaning of the text. It's not about choosing
the fanciest sounding word or the word that sounds important. In order to succeed at a
word in context question you have to understand the context. It's equally important to
understand the rest of the passage as it is to understand the
words in the answer choices. So how do we do that? Time for some strategy. Step one, read the text carefully, covering up or ignoring
the answer choices. You'll look at them later. These passages usually
state their key idea not just once, but twice. One of the times the
blank will play a key role but the rest of the passage
will tell you what you need. As you read through the passage look for transition words or phrases which can help us figure
out what the key idea is. Now, define that key idea. Try to step two, summarize
the text in your own words. I know, I know there's a blank in the text so your summary is also
gonna have a gap in it. That's okay. So then using your summary
and those context clues the third step is to make a prediction. Make up your own word or phrase that plugs into that blank, into that gap. And then finally uncover the choices and match your prediction
against those choices. Let me make this concrete by going back to the question and putting this strategy into practice with our
prehistoric huntresses. First, with the answer choices covered. I'm going to read the text
carefully and not skim it. You don't wanna skim these prompts because they're full of context clues. As an undergraduate
researcher in anthropology Jennifer C. Chen contributed
to a groundbreaking study challenging the accepted view that among prehistoric people's
female participation in hunting was blank. Okay so I'm looking at this sentence and I'm seeing words like
groundbreaking and challenging. There's an accepted view about female participation in hunting. The groundbreaking study is challenging. I wonder what that view is. Well, what I know for sure
is that the second part of this text is going to
tell us, so let's move on to the second sentence to see
if there's more clues there. The research team's review
of data from late Pleistocene and early Holocene burials
in the Americas revealed that in fact, in fact, as many as half of the hunters in
those populations were female. So I think the most important thing in this sentence is that phrase. In fact. In fact, as many as half of
prehistoric hunters were female. Okay. So that's cool. New research is challenging
a more traditional view that female humans didn't
hunt in pre-history. But in fact, a lot of
female humans hunted. I think I'm ready to make a prediction. The accepted view is probably
that female participation in hunting was low. That's my guess about
what fills in the blank but the study reveals in fact, that it was pretty darn
high, as many as half. So let's look for a word
that matches with low in the choices, challenging
the accepted view that female participation was low. Time to unveil our options. Okay, choice A, commonplace,
well that's the opposite. It means high or frequent, right? Cross it out. Satisfactory. Female participation in
the hunt was satisfactory. That doesn't match low. Choice C, negligible. That means like barely there
or small or unimportant. And that sure feels like the
best choice right off the bat. But let's check the choice
D just to make sure. But I got a good feeling I'm gonna put a check mark there. Choice D, inevitable. That means unavoidable. So that also cuts against the key idea of female
participation being low. We can eliminate this one. And that means that
choice C is our answer. Even if you're not quite
sure what negligible means you can trust your prediction. In this case you might know the other
choices well enough to see that they don't mean low. Here, we were able to use
some strong context clues to simplify the key idea the
passage was conveying. Let's talk about why
prediction is so powerful by way of a warning. Many students who just
read the passage, then read the choices and then
choose the one that sounds best make impulsive decisions
and get questions wrong. But when you take the time and care to make a prediction
based on solid context clues you force yourself to slow
down and understand the task and figure out what you're looking for before you start looking at the choices. This extra step can be a
game-changer for many students. Trust yourself. You might bump into words
you've never seen before. Before you go off choosing
the most abstruse, esoteric words just 'cause they're obscure and weird and long and you
don't know 'em, hold up. All that glitters is not gold. Those words might be shiny bait. Eliminate what you can based on the words you already recognize and then make your selection
from the remainder. If you can eliminate all
the other choices only then should you go with
the unfamiliar word. Good luck out there test takers. You've got this.