Merced College Prep2Test Workshop
Prep2Test
 The purpose of this presentation is to provide future
students a brief review before taking the Merced
College Accuplacer test. This presentation is not
designed as a comprehensive review. Our focus is on
refreshing the student’s knowledge of targeted
elements of the Accuplacer placement test.
 This series was compiled based on assessment of
students during our Prep2Test Workshop and
feedback from those students.
Down and Dirty Vocab Strategies
1. Rating Words
 Academic Word List
2. Context Strategies
 Synonyms/Antonyms
 Substitution
 Affixes
Why study vocabulary?
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The Accuplacer test will have college level academic
vocabulary.
Example:
• “Anxious to ensure that America would depart from
European traditions regarding religion and royalty, the
early U.S. could be described as a place that focused more
on work than on the entertainment offered by spectacle
and ceremony in the Old World.”
You need to have a strategy for recognizing vocabulary
and dealing with it in a test situation.
Making sense of how you connect to words.
Strategy: Ratings Words Using the AWL
The Academic Word List
The AWL is made-up of five hundred and seventy word
families that are frequently used in academics.
• The first four subsists are where the most frequently used academic
words are listed.
• A word family is a group of words that share a common base.
• Ex: Create(noun), creator(noun), creativity(adjective),
creation(noun), creature(noun)
• The “Big” idea? Learn the shortest version of the word and you will be
able to recognize it in its other forms.
Strategy: Ratings Words Using the AWL
 The AWL can be found online at
 http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwor
dlist/publications/awlsublists1.pdf
Strategy: Ratings Words Using the AWL
 Look for words that you don’t know in the AWL and
choose words that have a level 1 or level 2 rating.
Choosing words that you already know (4’s) or words
that are basically familiar to you (3’s) will not help you
with this test. The idea is to quickly identify words that
you don’t know and have a mental reference to them
when you take the test.
 Level 1 –Words I’ve never heard of
 Level 2 –Words I’ve heard of but have never used in a
sentence
 Level 3 –Words I know, but could use a refresher before
using it in a sentence
 Level 4 –Words I know well, can use in a sentence, and
could teach to someone else
Strategy: Ratings Words Using the AWL
 Review the AWL and highlight words that are 1’s and
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2’s from sublists 1-4.
Write a simple definition in your own words for each of
your chosen words on a flash card.
Make a list of the words and tape it to your mirror, put
it on your refrigerator, or take a picture of it with your
camera phone so that you can study it every day for at
least fifteen minutes.
Use the flash cards with your friends and family.
Take the time to write the words or make personal
associations with the words every day.
Using context strategies helps you to guess the meaning of
words while you read.
Strategy: Words in Context
Synonyms are words that have the same or similar
meaning as the target term.
 Punctuation clues such as commas, dashes, or
parentheses may also be used to signal a synonym.
 Words that signal synonym clues include:
 and, or
Strategy: Words in Context
Antonym Clues are words that have the opposite or dissimilar
meaning as the target term.
 Words that signal opposite meaning are also called contrast
clues.
 Words that signal antonym clues include:
 different from, differ, but, yet, however, although, even
though, nevertheless, while, whereas
Strategy: Words in Context
Substitution
 If you encounter a word that you don’t have any
reference for, anther strategy is to substitute a word
that you do know into the sentence that makes sense.
 Be careful that your replacement word doesn’t change
the meaning of the sentence and that it is in the same
tense.
 During the test read the sentence with the substituted
word out loud to yourself to make sure that it works.
Strategy: Words in Context
 Prefixes are units of meaning attached to the beginning of
words to modify meaning.
 If you can recognize word parts, then you may be able to
work out the meaning or function of difficult words.
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Example: Antebellum
 Bellum=War
 Prefix Ante= Before
 Antebellum=Before War
Strategy: Words in Context
A root word is the main part of a word that
contains its core meaning.
 Sometimes the root can be a word on its own as
in nearly (near is the free root word).
 Sometimes it cannot stand alone as in the word
corrupt. The root “rupt” is not an actual word in
English. In this instance affixes must be added.
 Prefixes and suffixes can be added to root words
and they may modify either the meaning of the
word or its grammatical function.
Strategy: Words in Context
Suffixes are attached to the ends of words
 They modify meaning and show how to use the word in
the sentence.
 noun suffixes are -ence, -ance, -or, -er, -ment, -list, -ism,
-ship, -ency, -sion, -tion, -ness, -hood, -dom
 verb suffixes are -en, -ify, -ize, -ate
 adjective suffixes are -able, -ible, -al, -tial, -tic, -ly, -ful, -
ous, -tive, -less, -ish, -ulent
Strategy: Words in Context
Prefixes-Roots-Suffixes
 Learn the basics=Learn hundreds of new words
 Here are a few lists to start your review:
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/less
on_images/lesson1042/teachers_guide.pdf
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/pri
ntouts/content-area-roots.pdf
Strategy: Words in Context
Use inference skills when there are no definitions,
synonyms, antonyms, or examples to provide the meaning of
unfamiliar words. Basically when all else fails, determine
what you can infer based on the information presented.
 Often referred to a “general sense” of the word or idea.
 Inference clues do not have specific signal words.
 the reader must draw an inference or conclusion from the
information given.
 Everything that the author wrote should lead you to an idea that
is supported by details presented in the article.
 Don’t use any outside information. It may lead you to making
an incorrect inference.
You have reached the end of this
presentation. For more quick
review guides, please look at our
Prep2Test website.
http://www.mccd.edu/PREP2TEST/