Old Words, New Words

I caught a glimpse of a link for an online vocabulary test. What the test does is to gauge a person's vocabulary range. Though it is relies on an honor system as it only asks if you know at least one meaning of a word, it does give an idea of where you stand compared to the rest of the population and compared to people your own age. The scores given are the expected number of words that a person knows.

I took the test, and my scores were a bit higher than the median for my age group. I don't have an idea of the score distribution for my age group, but I comparing my score with the median, I think the difference might be statistically significant. The other score comparison showed that I'm in the upper 15-percentile of the population.

The way the scores were estimated, it should be noted that the median scores increase with a person's age group (meaning, the older you are, the higher the expected score).

My regret about this test is that compared to my age group, my ranking looks to be decreasing. At least, I think that if I got evaluated in the same manner when I was entering college, I should have a vocabulary range in the top 10-percentile rank. I have no way to prove that now, which is just too bad.

I really think that my vocabulary is not as broad as it should be, if only I had kept on reading books. Actual books made of paper which you hold in your hand, somewhere in front of your face, and read at leisure.

I find that most of the articles I read on the internet do not challenge my vocabulary. Articles on the internet do not have the breadth of vocabulary of their paper equivalents because there is no need. Or if there were, the articles would be of the technical kind (hence with a completely different vocabulary and language), and for the most part have been dumbed down in order to be understood by the population at large.

I really need to get back to reading.

On the other hand, I am very much amused about a TV show I avidly follow. Their use of English is such a breath of fresh air. They use words like debacle, and expressions like "that's a ripper", "you're in a world of hurt." I really enjoy the way they use the language. It's a welcome change of pace.