donutsweeper | (no subject)

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http://testyourvocab.com

It's an interesting test wherein you check the box for each word you know at least one definition for but not ones you've seen before, but whose meaning you aren't exactly sure of, and it tailors itself to you as you take it (depending on how you answer on the first page of 40 words).

According to the site most native English adult speakers who have taken the test fall in the range 20,000–35,000 words while for foreign learners of English the most common vocabulary size is from 2,500–9,000 words.

My result was 35,000.

Interestingly, I was able to pinpoint exactly where I'd learned three of the words- a Daredevil comic book I'd read as a kid, one of the "Sharpe's" movies/books, and as the title for one of my very own barista!Sherlock fanfics.

Go see how you do!

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Awesome! That was quick and fun. I knew fewer of the words on the list than I expected to and yet still scored 35,500. Whoa!

Wowsa, that's great! The lists are interesting, aren't they?

Awww... I only got 34,800. Now I feel like an ignoramus :)

That's still better than the majority of people! Go look at the breakdown by age (http://testyourvocab.com/blog/2011-07-25-New-results-for-native-speakers.php#mainchartNative), it'll make you feel better.

31,500. I need to start reading dictionaries.

You're still well within the range and even on the high end it of. But, oh darn, a reason to be reading more, right?

OH NO NOT MORE READING

(although the idea of reading the dictionary makes me cringe a little. Wonder if I can find an unusual-word book instead...off to Amazon!)

You're probably better off just reading than reading specifically for increasing your vocabulary, but that said, you could see if your library has "I Never Knew There Was a Word for It" by Adam Jacot de Boinod, I read it a while ago and really enjoyed it.

I got 32,500. How interesting that the average person taking the quiz got a 700 on their SATs.

I wish I remembered my SAT scores, but was a long, long time ago. I do wonder if their results are skewed by only a certain type of person taking the test or not. Still, it was interesting!

42,000 words here.

(I read the dictionary for fun when I was little.)

Edited 2013-02-17 12:37 (UTC)

WOW, that's excellent!

The words are a bit random, I've noticed. I did it for my mum and brother last night and they had different words than me. So I tried again this morning and got a higher score, because the words that were there were words I knew.

I've learned a bunch of new ones, though, so that's cool. :-)

Yeah, the words do change a bit, although a few seem to always show up. I looked up some of the words too, learning ftw!!!

Heh, that was fun. I got 23,900 but then again, I'm a non-native speaker.

For a non-native speaker that's amazing! :)

32,300. Sadly, I think I would have done better in high school -- these days I read almost nothing but fanfic (or, for most of 2012, M/M fiction, which is essentially fanfic in terms of general quality and literary difficulty -- in fact, it's frequently worse) and it's definitely cut down on my vocab. I have a noticeably poorer facility with words than I did as a teen. Depressing, that.

The Sharpe's books! I only ever read a few of those (and I only saw one Sharpe movie, it was just so bad, the script was okay and the acting was fine but the music, dear god, it went from standard cheap classical background music to nationalistic Spanish anthems played by electric guitar?! wtffffffff) but I really loved the ones I read. Haven't met anyone who read any of those in a while. :D

I read all of the original run of the Sharpe's books (from Rifles through Waterloo) but only some after Cornwall started going back and writing the India period and filling in here and there in the timeline. As for the movies, the original set of them (Rifles and Eagle) are quite good, but unfortunately the quality goes WAY down as the production continued. Sean Bean in uniform though. :)

Sean Bean was the only reason I was interested in seeing the movies. XD I liked the books just fine on their own; I saw no way a film could improve upon them, especially not one made for TV. Not sure which film I saw at this point, either, it was so long ago -- I rented it through our library's inter-library loan, and it was on VHS. That's how long ago it was. Almost a decade, or perhaps a little more.

Not sure I have the stamina these days to make it through so many books, but I might have to revisit the Sharpe's series. There's one scene from one of the books that's always stayed with me -- I can't remember the particular book, or even the particular battle, but he ends up going sort of battle-crazy for a bit and then he remembers he's supposed to meet this girl -- can't remember if she was a consistent love interest or just for this book, god, it's been so long -- and all of a sudden thoughts of her jar him back to reality and that sudden switch from careless carnage to a return to respecting humanity and caring about people as individuals really gutted me. (Apologies if that didn't really make sense, I'm a bit tipsy and coherency is a bit beyond me.) I think a siege may have been involved as well? Might even have had something to do with the title. Maybe.

So. Did you have a favourite book and/or film? If I'm going to read, or reread, some of them, might as well start with the best. :D

hmmm that one doesn't ring a bell, but it's been more than a decade since I've read any of them, probably closer to 15-20 years.

My favorite of the films is Sharpe's Eagle, I think. Although Sharpe's Rifles is also excellent. They are also the films that keep closest to the books, which might be why they work best. (The other film which does is Company which is SAD)

Bookwise, if I remember right Gold, Rifles and Eagle are all pretty good. For h/c and great characterization, Sharpe's Sword can't be beat but it may need a bit of the history (so you know the recurring baddies) might be needed to be truly appreciated, although a five second gander at the wiki would probably work.

And I can pinpoint my knowing 'funambulist' to the Big Finsh Audio "Dead London" that I first listened to in 2009/10.

Yay for Doctor Who!!

...and now I have looked that one up too!

I'm vaguely considering retaking it a few times and looking up different words each time just to learn them. :)

I know what you mean :D

Learning FTW!

I do have the rss feed (http://wordsmith-daily.livejournal.com/) for wordsmith.org's daily word on my flist, which is something at least.

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