101–110 of 331 posts
They ought to include some fake but plausible words to correct for cheaters. (Perhaps they do?)
Some of those words had a definite brillig quality.
ObScore: 36000, 32yo male US-english native speaker. There were a few more I'd seen but wasn't really sure enough to define. I maxed out the SAT verbal section (and got 1 wrong on math, which was enough to drop to 780/800) back in the 1990s.
It isn't surprising that there isn't any technical vocabulary. Most technical vocabulary falls into one of the following categories: a) Acronyms b) Overloading of existing non-technical words c) Names and other proper nouns d) Phrases longer than one word
There's actually an argument for excluding highly specific vocabulary (some corpuses explicitly exclude textbooks for this reason) because knowledge of them doesn't correlate as well with overall vocabulary.
19,600. I'm willing to accept this, although I'm not going to lie -- I'm very upset at myself. I'm used to scoring 99th percentile in every standardized test; it's kind of a shock to realize that I'm nowhere near the median of even my age group , let alone the general populace (I'm 20). That said, I'm currently reading A Dance with Dragons and there are tons of words in this series (A Song of Ice and Fire) that I'm n…
I also thought I had an unfair advantage early on because I knew a lot of words from playing Blizzard games all my life. Sorely disappointed :(.
19,600. I'm willing to accept this, although I'm not going to lie -- I'm very upset at myself. I'm used to scoring 99th percentile in every standardized test; it's kind of a shock to realize that I'm nowhere near the median of even my age group , let alone the general populace (I'm 20). That said, I'm currently reading A Dance with Dragons and there are tons of words in this series (A Song of Ice and Fire) that I'm n…
Using big words make a good communicator not. The point of using a language is to communicate. Using esoteric words only a fraction of the population knows defeats this purpose.
If anything, given the same amount of practice but with a smaller vocabulary will make you a better communicator, IMHO.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't say the ONLY people. This could be the next 'IQ test' where it seems the near opposite, the lesser intelligent ones are who are obsessed with them. Going by magazines, common forwards and so on it seems the average man loves a good self-quiz.
But to remove some of the bias, we'd need approximately equal numbers of above and below average people to be going to the trouble of answering the quiz. And in the back of my mind, I thought that the bulk of quiz magazines were sold to women, no? (Though I'm probably being too pedantic...)
19,600. I'm willing to accept this, although I'm not going to lie -- I'm very upset at myself. I'm used to scoring 99th percentile in every standardized test; it's kind of a shock to realize that I'm nowhere near the median of even my age group , let alone the general populace (I'm 20). That said, I'm currently reading A Dance with Dragons and there are tons of words in this series (A Song of Ice and Fire) that I'm n…
They ought to include some fake but plausible words to correct for cheaters. (Perhaps they do?)
Some of those words had a definite brillig quality.
The thing that always surprises me with this sort of test is how many words I half-know: I recognise the word, I have a (correct) general sense of what it means, but either I couldn't articulate an accurate definition or the definition I would give is an uncommon usage and I hadn't come across the more common meaning(s).
Following the rules strictly (so I didn't tick the half-known words), I came in slightly below average for my age, assuming the trend continues beyond the 32 years that their table currently gives.
For comparison, if I also included the words I half-knew, I gained nearly 4,000 new words and went up about 20%.
This also shows how extremely time-consuming it is to learn a second language. I started in school, 10 years old, am moderately well educated (some college drop-out), and use English on a daily basis. I also watch most movies in English (very seldom for people in a German speaking country to do), read some English novels, and also most non-fiction books I have are in English. Internet use is nearly English only.
Still, I probably have the vocabulary of an average 12 year old native speaker. After 17 years of learning and using the language, and at least 10 years of that using it _daily_.
Ouch.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No one getting high scores did so because of or despite their education. They did it by having the sort of brain that happens to retains words like uxoricide and reading copious quantities of material in which such abstruse words are employed. I got a high score and went to public schools in the US, and didn't finish college either.
A proper (classical) education is generally widely accepted to have a dramatic positive influence on ones vocabulary.
It's likely that education improves one's vocabulary, however there are a lot of variables there. People who go to good schools likely come from families where learning is important in any case, are wealthier, etc...