Your Very Own SAT Study Guide for Social Good

We know the SATs are coming up on May 7th, so to help you prep we thought we'd define some juicy words for you and bring them to life in action-based context.

• abrogate—to abolish, usually by authority. The school board abrogated our right to have music education, and now we're appealing to the county government.
• dither—to be indecisive. Because there are so many, we dithered about which cancer charity our benefit concert should help.
• ephemeral—short-lived, fleeting. I'm afraid her interest in clean water will be ephemeral. After three months I predict she's run away from that village to work on some other project.
• fastidious—meticulous, demanding, having unattainable standards. Principal Lopez thinks I'm a fastidious club leader for requesting a green prom, but I know that we can decorate in really simple ways.
• ignominious—humiliating, disgracing. It is ignominious for a person to be caught with bottled water at an environmental club meeting.
• jubilant—extremely joyful, happy. The kids were jubilant as they opened their gifts that we collected at the toy drive.
• pariah—an outcast. After Brad ate a goldfish in front of the student body, he became a social pariah for being an animal abuser.
• ruse—a trick. Some people could be standing on a melted polarized cap and still think the idea of climate change is just a ruse created by the science community.
• solipsistic—believing that oneself is all that exists. I guess we received no donations from the neighboring high school because those students are all solipsistic.
• ubiquitous—existing everywhere, widespread. It seems like fundraisers are ubiquitous in college life; I see people collecting money everywhere.
• vacuous—lack of content or ideas, stupid. It was hard to get people to vote in this election because all of the candidates seemed vacuous. No one addressed the problems of the community.