Even with months of preparation, you'll encounter unfamiliar words on the SAT. The good news: the test is designed so that context clues in the surrounding text help you figure out what a word means.
The College Board's SAT practice guide confirms that "Words in Context" questions test your ability to determine meaning based on how a word is used — not whether you memorized a definition.
Here's how to practice: when you see an ambiguous word, don't panic. Read the full sentence and the sentences around it. Look for signal words: "however" and "although" suggest contrast, "moreover" and "furthermore" suggest continuation, "consequently" signals cause and effect.
For example, if a passage says "The evidence did not substantiate the claim; critics argued the data was insufficient," the context tells you substantiate means to support or prove — even if you've never studied the word.
Khan Academy's SAT practice includes hundreds of these context-based questions. The more you practice, the faster you'll spot the clues.
When evaluating answer choices, eliminate options that seem plausible in isolation but don't match the passage's specific context. The SAT loves testing whether students can distinguish between a word's general meaning and its precise meaning in a given sentence.
This is why reading widely matters — the more contexts you've encountered a word in, the more natural it becomes to read the clues the passage gives you.