tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84425881193271714252011-04-21T18:41:56.696-07:00The untraditional vocab blog.Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01765227617378606598noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442588119327171425.post-27271364370852454912008-07-07T11:58:00.000-07:002008-07-07T18:58:07.388-07:00Deservedly, it's time SAT Vocab received some <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">lovin</span></span>' attention. <3<br /><br />After considerable subconscious rumination over a decade since writing and releasing the book, I have come to a stalwart conclusion that the methodologies we introduced were not as dynamic over time as we first envisioned.<br /><br />1998: SAT Vocab was hatched as a side project while Ivan &amp; I (I'm Ben) were getting ready to take the "old" SAT. Even though English was our first language, we still had trouble 'digesting/memorizing' the shear amount of information presented to us in a non-intuitive "traditional" fashion -which felt more like a wild foie-gras force feeding marathon- --than something that would aid in the retention of tricky vocabulary.<br /><br />Fueled by frustration, we experimented with different methods, but with little avail -little sparks here and there- definitely no Newton's Apple. Ultimately, we rolled all the crumbs together, and came up with a cognitive method that dealt with the abstractness of a word, by anchoring it to a parallel sentence in which the dichotomy of term and meaning were explored together. At the time, this method seemed revolutionary as compared to brute memorization.<br /><br />During the late 90s, the internet was still in its infancy, what I like to call, "One Dimensional". The net wasn't flat, but it was boring like remembering words with flash cards. Internet on a 33.6K dial up was pure torture (more like 9-12k/s). We had ISDN at school, but the Apples with 'grinched' RAM completely killed the experience [How much RAM do Apples at school come with? Do they skimp nowadays?]. .MP3 was an experimental format and took a few hours to download, if the phone wasn't picked up -which almost never happened, and if you were disrupted, the process would need to restart RAWR!<br /><br />more tomorrow...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8442588119327171425-2727136437085245491?l=vocabguy.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01765227617378606598noreply@blogger.com0