Guides / Vocab-in-context trick
The vocab-in-context trick most students get backwards
Cover the choices, predict your own word from the sentence, then find the closest match.
Most students read the four answer choices first, then test each one against the sentence. That's backwards, and it's slower. Cover the choices, reread the sentence, guess your own word for what's missing, then find the choice that's closest to your guess.
Why the common approach fails
Vocab-in-context questions on the digital SAT almost always use a word with a common, everyday meaning and a second, less common meaning that fits the specific sentence. If you read the choices first, your brain anchors on the word's most familiar definition before you've even reread how the passage is using it. That's exactly the mistake the question is built to catch.
Reading the choices first also means evaluating four different words against the sentence one at a time, which takes longer than forming one prediction and scanning for a match.
"The committee's decision to table the proposal until the following quarter left several board members visibly frustrated, though the chair maintained the delay was merely procedural."
As used in the text, "table" most nearly means
Cover the choices first: the sentence says the decision pushed the proposal to "the following quarter" and calls it a "delay," so the predicted meaning is something like "postpone." Choice A is the common furniture meaning, the trap. Choice D goes too far: "reject" isn't supported, since the chair calls it procedural, not final.
Get more of these, sorted by your weak spots.
Free daily practice, no account needed to start.
Start today's challenge