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Latest post Sun, May 24 2009 5:19 PM by cwtch. 4 replies.
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Lucus Ong  +  745473 Sun, 24 May 09 02:59 PM

here are only three months before my exam I need to memorise at least 5 thousand words. it's better if I can memorise more than 10 thousand words. I hope you can suggest some ways which can help me memorise words with fastest way.

as my exam contains two comprehensions which have a lot of terms and written by native speaker.sometime they areprofessional article. the words inside will be very difficult.

I can't understand every paragraph.

please give me some suggestions.

great thanks in advance

Joined on Wed, Apr 29 2009
Malaysia
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Clive  +  745476 Sun, 24 May 09 03:06 PM
Hi,

The idea of sitting down to try and memorize that many words seems ridiculous to me.

10,000 words is about the complete vocabulary of some native English speakers.

 

My general advice is just to try and read as much English as you can.

 

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004
Canada
Veteran Member 29,581
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MrPedantic  +  745482 Sun, 24 May 09 03:12 PM
It is a difficult task.

 

You could record the vocab in blocks of e.g. 75 a day, maybe with one block per MP3 file, saying first the English word, and then the translation in your own language, with a pause between them, beginning with the most common words, and grouping the words by theme.

 

Play back the MP3s when occupied in some physical task, e.g. travelling, cooking, eating, and try to think what the meaning is, before you hear it on the recording.

 

Good luck!

 

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Veteran Member 12,592
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AlpheccaStars  +  745582 Sun, 24 May 09 04:33 PM
Vctory: That is a very tall order!
Do you have a list of words to learn?
I think the best way is to learn related words together. Synonyms and opposites are obvious relationships. Also put words together that are related to a particular subject.
Make sentences about a fun topic using the words you have picked. Put these sentences and words on flash cards and carry them with you. It's best to study in many short sessions. Your brain will get tired after a long study session.  Practice with friends.
You will have to use a word at least 20 times to learn it. Some words will be harder - these I call "devilish words."


Understand your most effective learning style. Some people learn best by hearing or listening, some by seeing, some by doing - like touching and moving. If you do a combination of learning styles, then you will learn faster and better.
So you can sing your sentences or words - fit them to your favorite music. March, walk, jump, or run to your word-music. You can record them and play them back.
When you eat, practice with food and eating words and sentences. You can taste words, too.
Writing is a good way to learn.
You can make dialogues and short plays with words - these are fun to do with friends. Make a big drama, like a soap opera. Write the dialog on flash cards-you can put a different color on the cards for eash part.
If you use flash cards, put them into different boxes - call the boxes "words I know", "words that need a little review", "words that need more review", "words I don't know" and "devilish words" When you learn a word, put its card away in the box it belongs in.  Always go back and review the old words to refresh your memory.
If you learn best by listening, go to youtube and try to find fun videos with good speakers who use a good vocabulary. This way you can pick up new words to learn. And you also have the sentences and context.
Some people post youtube videos and ask "what is the person saying at 49-52 seconds?". You can do that if you don't understand the entire video.
There are some good youtube videos on specific vocabulary, for example, this one.

But I think you have too many words as your goal. A very educated university professor in the US has a working vocabulary of about 15,000 words. High school graduates have a vocabulary of less than 10,000 words.


Good luck!

A-s

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cwtch  +  745631 Sun, 24 May 09 05:19 PM
Clive
“Hi,

 

The idea of sitting down to try and memorize that many words seems ridiculous to me.

10,000 words is about the complete vocabulary of some native English speakers.

 

My general advice is just to try and read as much English as you can.

 

Clive

 

I agree.  You may try flash cards for words that you find yourself looking up repeatedly.

Joined on Mon, May 18 2009
Full Member 279
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