I was once a kid (until now) who had a hard time grasping words that I was reading, even though I’ve read it a couple of times before, and teachers would always say “Just look it up in the dictionary, honey” which I always did! but in 30 seconds or so, it’ll just *poof* in my mind, so I find ways to make them stick. And now I am sharing some of them with you so you won’t have to stick your nose in a dictionary like all kids do? Just me?
I will be dividing them into 3 levels (easy, medium, and hard) according to how much time this tip will take and its cost (which is not that much).
LEVELS:
EASY: Time:10% | Cost: you don’t have to spend a dime.
MEDIUM: Time: 50% | Cost: so-so costly
HARD: Time: 75% (?) | Cost: costly
Level: EASY
PAPER, FOLD! FOLD!
Materials:
Piece of paper
Pen
Dictionary
Procedure:
First, fold the paper you have into even strips. (mine can do 8 but you can do even smaller columns if you want)
label each column “words” and “meanings” alternately.
List the words in the first column, then write their meaning in the column after. (you can look at the dictionary for the first column of meaning or not if you want to practice your stock knowledge.)
Afterward, fold the first column for the word back so the column for "meaning" is the only one showing, then answer the 2nd "word" column.
Then repeat the folding and answering.
Rate of effectiveness: 7/10
QUIZLET
This is under easy level because you're just literally typing it out and it manages everything for you.
For those who are not familiar with Quizlet, it's an app or website where you can just put the terms you want to study, and then the app will create the practice tests, flashcards, and grading for you.
I use Quizlet not just for vocabulary but also for studying quizzes, so rather than creating flashcards I can just swipe it on my Quizlet.
There are many ways you can study your words on this app, you can use flashcards, write tests where you type the answer, a test that consists of standard assessments like true or false, and even matching types!
I use Quizlet 30 minutes before I sleep because studies say that it's best to review before going to sleep.
Materials:
Cellphone or Computer
Quizlet app
Procedure:
Rate of effectiveness: 9/10
NOTE: you can also use Merriam-Webster's Dictionary application. It has games and is perfect for learning synonymous words but you can’t manipulate it according to what words you want to stick in your brain stem. But it helps nonetheless.
LEVEL: Medium
Picture Book
This is probably the most useless one but as a visual learner, this is what helps me the most.
Because it includes pictures!!!
It's in the medium level because its time consuming to compile.
Materials:
Here's how I do it.
So from the words that I got from the books that I read, be it textbooks or fiction. I list them in MS Word, or Google Docs (if you want it traditionally then on paper, but it can be time-consuming and too much hassle) then add a small description and some pictures. That's it, I learn better when I can see what it looks like so I add some images with the word and then study from time to time.
Rough example:
Rate of effectiveness: 8/10
LEVEL: Hard
Fishbowl Method
Time consuming. But really helpful
In this method, you have all day as the procedure, but it's really simple actually.
So to really stick a word in your brain you have to undergo these three levels which are mastering the form or spelling, the meaning, and the use or the context, which this method is gonna go over.
Materials:
Procedure:
List the words on tiny strips of paper
Put it in the bowl beside your bed or someplace where you can always see it.
Every morning, you pick a word from the container, search for its meaning and make it your “word of the day”. By that I mean you will have to use the word for the rest of the day according to its meaning.
Example: the word is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
"Good morning Jeff! looking supercalifragilisticexpialidocious today!"
Rate of effectiveness: 8/10
Read books lol
Reading good old textbooks won't do you any harm. I agree, you do get a word or two from reading books, and then going over some words constantly could make you learn that word but that's not really the smart way. Vocabulary books work like magic, well not really, but it gives you that AHA! The moment every time you learn something new. In addition to that, words will surely stick if the books are used properly. how? try the procedure, it's fun!
One of the books that I recommend and that helped me a tons, is Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis. Why? Because it teaches you words from their etymology, meaning if you come across words with "dis-" it could mean something negative or bad because dis means negation.
So words like disorder means no order and disappear means it's missing.
I said you would have that AHA! Moment because there are words that have funny origins like the "chauvinist" named after Nicolas Chauvin who is extremely patriotic and thinks his country is the best of all, hence the word chauvinist.
Procedure:
Note: I put this under costly but you can definitely find PDFs of vocabulary books online, including the book that I recommended.
Rate of effectiveness: 10/10
And that is it, folks! how to make 'em words stick in your brain like a leech on a rainy day.
I hope these things help because they did to me.
Let me know which one you would like to try, write it down in the comment section below.
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