How to retain MDCAT vocabulary
MDCAT vocabulary is one of the most difficult things in the syllabus of the test. With almost 850 words, each having lots of synonyms, it’s quite difficult to memorize so many things. The number of multiple-choice questions included in MDCAT from vocabulary is 10, which means ‘fifty marks’ and you can score 50/50 in this portion if you make vocabulary portion interesting for you and invest the right amount of time in it.
The first thing that you need to understand is that your brain is not very efficient when it comes to storage of vocabulary words. The brain is not designed to store alphabets and words. Your brain stores information in the form of images and/or stories. When you invest time rata-fying the word list without images or accompanying stories, know that you're over-burdening your brain and you won't get any fruitful results. Understand this important thing in detail in this video lecture by Sir Ammar A. Ayub
Given below is a step by step guide on how to ace vocabulary portion of the test.
1. Get vocabulary words in printed form:
Surprisingly, this is gonna help you A LOT. Before starting your preparation for vocabulary, get these words in printed form, even if you have guidebooks that have all the words written in them. After getting these words in printed form, you can highlight the difficult words, thus an easy way to shortlist things. Also, while revising vocabulary, you wouldn’t have to hide the meanings of words and it becomes easier for you to learn their meanings orally.
Nearpeer.org has a unique way of making you prepare for MDCAT Vocabulary. Our enrolled students get PDF files that have Vocabulary word, synonyms, different use case sentences, and interesting accompanying pictures. All of this is in form of video lectures as well. Make sure you check out our Online MDCAT Program.
Here’s the link for MDCAT UHS syllabus that you can use to get these words in printed form:
http://www.uhs.edu.pk/mcat/etsyllabus2018.pdf
2. Do vocabulary on a daily basis:
Learning vocabulary is gradual. You have to start vocabulary preparation for MDCAT from the day one if you want to get all the questions correct in this portion. Do at least 30 vocabulary words daily and in this way, you’ll be able to revise these words at least 3 times before the test which is more than enough. So, make vocabulary a part of your daily routine.
3. Make sentences with vocabulary words:
This is a very creative way of learning vocabulary and it makes vocabulary a lot more interesting to study. You can pick some words and use them all in a sentence or even use a whole paragraph using vocabulary words. You’ll be able to retain the meanings and the sentence usage of these words for a long time.
For example:
- He was a great photographer who used Montage (mosaic/collection) in his pictures but nary (not one) a person hired him and instead of trying to mitigate (alleviate/reduce) his pain, his mordant (sardonic) neighbor made fun of him.
-Ali, who has a jocular (funny) and jocund (jovial) personality, went out on a junket (journey) by a jitney (tourist car/car for hire).
- The dulcet (melodious) song sung by the diva (famous singer) was being doted (admired) by the effervescent (excited) a lot.
-The policeman asked the witness, who was a robust (strong, sturdy) man with a ruddy (reddish) complexion, to recapitulate (repeat, reiterate) what he saw.
Nearpeer MDCAT vocabulary course is based on using such sentences to explain the meanings of words to students. Watch the video using the link given below:
https://www.facebook.com/nearpeer.org/videos/586157955068439/
4. Group words with similar/opposite meanings:
Most of the times, some words within MDCAT vocabulary are synonyms/antonyms of each other. You can group such words together and it will become a lot easier to go through a large number of words within a short time, especially during the last days of your MDCAT preparation it will help save your time. For example:
-Abstruse, arcane and elusive almost carry the same meaning (Puzzling, incomprehensible)
-Collage, potpourri, and motley almost carry the same meaning (mixture, assortment)
-Pampas, steppe, sward, arboreal; all are botanical terms related to plants in one way or another.
-Acumen (wisdom), sagacity (wisdom), perspicacious (wise)
-Exhortation, Impetus, Stimuli, Galvanize have almost the same meaning. (Motivate/motivation)
5. Shortlist all the difficult words:
Highlight all the difficult and complicated vocabulary words in MDCAT vocabulary list. It is especially important when you have a limited amount of time, you’ll go through all the difficult words only and save your time. For example, out of the sixty vocabulary words starting from letter A, almost 35 are very difficult while the other 25 are comparatively easy and you already know the meaning of them.
6. Use mnemonics:
Mnemonics help in memorizing a lot of boring stuff and vocabulary too is one of them. It helps you a lot in the long run. So try to memorize words using different mnemonics for example:
-Admonition sounds very similar to admiration and they both have the opposite meanings. So you can co-relate the two words like
Admiration: appreciation, commendation
Admonition: reprimand, criticism
7. Take vocabulary tests:
Test yourself again and again because you learn better from mistakes than you do from cramming. If you’re doing vocabulary on a daily basis and you’re testing yourself on regular basis, it’s the best way to retain their synonyms for a long time. Given below are the links of some vocabulary quizzes that are available for free on our website.
1. https://www.nearpeer.org/quiz/347
2. https://www.nearpeer.org/quiz/463
3. https://www.nearpeer.org/quiz/464
4. https://www.nearpeer.org/quiz/465
5. https://www.nearpeer.org/quiz/467
You can find many more quizzes like above on our website using the link given below:
https://www.nearpeer.org/entry-test-preparation/mdcat/english-(mdcat-2018)
8. Last days of revision:
During the last month before MDCAT, increase the number of words you’ll learn on a daily basis because you’ve already done most of the work. After having gone through the individual meanings and sentence usage of all the words, you should spend the last days of MDCAT preparation on revising what you’ve already learned. So do almost 80-100 words on a daily basis during the last month.
9. The Nearpeer Way:
All above-mentioned things sound too difficult to handle? Then try the Nearpeer's way. Nearpeer lets you prepare in ways in which your brain can actually assimilate the words without you putting in extra effort. Our instructor, Sir Ammar does all the hard work for you so that you just have to sit back, relax, and take his lecture. At the end of the lecture, you'll be master of the words you went through! See how we do this by clicking here.
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