The summer between my sophomore and junior years in high school was very busy. A fuller outline of my activities is for another time. In anticipation of looming college boards and other standardized tests, I decided to improve my vocabulary. In my usual style, I went at it hammer and tongs. First, I got a copy of 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary. This book by Dr. Wilfred Funk and Norman Lewis is still available. It was originally published in the 1940s, has undergone several editions and has been widely imitated. Each chapter which should take about a half an hour to complete covers a specific topic. There is a list of relevant words; each is presented (with definitions). There are numerous tests and exercises included to help with the learning process.
Every evening right after dinner, I would sit with my pad of paper and pencil and complete another lesson. I would meticulously review the previous days lesson before going forward. It was a valuable exercise, and I gained quite a lot of language proficiency from this structured vocabulary learning.
This strategy was not enough for me. I wanted more, and more I got in the form of a box of 1,000 English vocabulary flashcards. The box took me longer to work my way through. I was still working on it well into the school year. My method was to take a small number of cards, 25 or so, go through them carefully learning the definition and spelling. Then, I kept the mini-deck in my pocket and would pull it out and periodically quiz myself during the day whenever I had a free moment. If I got the word right, I would place the card at the back of the deck. I always had a blank colored-paper card to separate those I had learned from those I had not yet mastered. Any word that I did not get right was put just in front of the colored paper spacer. Each day I would replace the learned cards with new vocabulary cards. I must say that this was an amazingly successful strategy. When I finished the box, I gave it another go, just to ensure that the learning stuck.
I ultimately obtained similar boxes of flashcards for both Latin and Greek vocabulary and used them to improve my ability to sight read both of these languages. I majored in Classics in college and went on to earn a PhD in Classics -- Greek and Latin. The boxes of vocabulary flashcards were a key learning tool for me.
Might I say the results of this endless self-improvement efforts paid off. By the time I took my the standardized tests, I had developed a very large vocabulary, and I excelled at standardized tests.
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