Preparation

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
The summer winds slowly down to the one month mark for the departure to France. As the days become more tense for my family, the trip becomes more of a reality. The clocks seem to speed up. My sister has been looking over my shoulder more. Dad's voice has been louder ringing through the house. Preparation takes its toll on anyone no matter what he/she does. Since I will be going into my junior year, I have been practicing for the SAT in January by making many, many, MANY flashcards to increase my vocabulary. However, the book has around 50 words for each page on over 100 pages. It was intimidating but keeping consistent in my studies will help me. My main goal was to begin and focus on the vocabulary and reading sections. Academic Approach is a great resource for the SAT and ACT.
One trick that has been helping me, inspired by the USA Memory Championship, has been using mnemonic techniques. We as humans are not programmed to memorize long sequences or words. But somehow we can recite exactly what happened in a 2 hour movie. It is as simple as visualizing the words or sequences. These mental athletes associate numbers with family members and anything in the world so that when they receive a long number, they can turn it into a little movie. All they have to do to remember the sequence is walk through the little story in their minds. "Moonwalking With Einstein", recommended by a teacher at my school, also shows the wonders and depths of your memory. But as impressive as that sounds, it stands true when they say that anyone can do it. I have been trying to visualize words for my vocabulary. When I review them later, I remember the image in my head that I associated with that word. Give it a try!