Academics · Study Skills · Free tool

The words every
subject expects.

Forty academic words, a few minutes a day. Recall each one, type it into a sentence, pick the right form from its family, and write your own, on a schedule that brings words back just before you forget them.

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Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Study skills kit, $29 for 21 items.

40academic words
4kinds of practice
6review gaps

Today's words

Choose your sets, then start. A session takes five to ten minutes.

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Progress and sentences stay in this browser on this device; nothing is sent anywhere.

Why it is built this way

Three findings from memory research, put to work in each session.

Retrieval beats rereading

Pulling a word's meaning out of memory strengthens it more than looking at it again. Every card here asks you to recall or use the word, not just see it.

Spacing beats cramming

A word you get right comes back after 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 and then 30 days; a word you miss comes back the next day. Ten minutes most days does more than an hour once.

Families and parts multiply

Knowing that analyze, analysis and analytical share a root, or that spec means look, turns one word into several you can read. Each card shows the family and the parts.

What this resource is

These are the words teachers use in every subject and rarely teach: analyze, infer, significant, consequence, structure. Knowing them well makes directions, textbooks and test questions easier to read.

Part of Academics · Study Skills in the Caveat Suite

Start today's session
Outcome
Forty academic words you can define, recognize in a sentence, change into the right form and use in writing of your own.
Who it is for
Students in grades 6 to 12, and English learners at an intermediate level and up. Teachers and tutors can use it for warm-ups.
Format
A browser practice tool. 40 words in four sets: Explaining ideas (10), Evidence and argument (10), Cause, change and effect (10), Parts and structure (10). Print a study sheet, download progress, or save a file.
Access
$5 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Study skills kit ($29) and the Academics Suite pass ($149), and 1 more bundle. Saved in this browser only.
Time
Five to ten minutes a session; about four weeks of most-days practice to bring all forty words to the long gaps.
Space
Academics · Study Skills primary space
Support
Questions or a problem with this tool: team@caveatacademic.com

Sources

  • Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., and Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing Words to Life (2nd ed.). Guilford Press. The three tiers of words.
  • Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238. The idea of words common across academic subjects.
  • Roediger, H. L., and Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255. Retrieval practice.
  • Cepeda, N. J., and others (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354-380. Spacing.
  • Leitner, S. (1972). So lernt man lernen. The box system for flashcards.

The word choices follow the general idea of academic word lists; every definition, example sentence, practice sentence and word-part note is written by Caveat and does not reproduce any published list's definitions. The review gaps are our own schedule in the Leitner tradition, not a published standard.