Vocabulary and Language Conventions
Vocabulary and Language Conventions items test whether you can determine what a word means in context, unpack Greek and Latin roots and affixes, and recognize how figurative language and word choice create tone. Conventions items at this level also cover verbals, active and passive voice, verb mood, and punctuation used for effect - dashes, ellipses, and commas that change meaning.
Determining meaning from context
Read the sentence, then the sentences before and after; definitions are often restated ("a recalcitrant mule - one that simply refuses to move"). Look for contrast signals (unlike, although, rather than) that imply an antonym, and cause-effect signals that imply a function. Substituting a candidate word back into the sentence is the quickest check.
Roots and affixes worth knowing
- bene- good, mal- bad; cred- believe; dict- say; duc-/duct- lead; fac-/fect- make; spec- look; tract- pull; vert- turn; chron- time; phon- sound.
- circum- around, contra- against, ob- against or toward, sub- under, trans- across.
- -tion/-sion noun, -ous/-ful adjective, -ify verb, -ly adverb.
Figurative and connotative language
Simile compares with like or as; metaphor states one thing is another; personification gives human traits to non-human things; verbal irony says the opposite of what is meant; a pun plays on two meanings or similar sounds; an allusion references a well-known text, myth, or event. Connotation is the emotional shading: childlike (positive) versus childish (negative).
Worked example
"Unlike her reticent brother, who volunteered nothing, Priya described every detail of the trip."
What does reticent mean? Reasoning: unlike signals contrast, and the following clause defines the brother as one who "volunteered nothing." So reticent means reluctant to speak. Check: "Unlike her reluctant-to-speak brother" fits; talkative would break the contrast and contradict the clause.
Traps
- Ignoring the contrast word and picking a synonym from the wrong side.
- Choosing a word's most common meaning when the context demands a secondary one.
- Treating connotation as if it were denotation.
- Misreading punctuation: "My brother, who lives in Ohio, is a pilot" signals extra information, not that the writer has several brothers.