Studying Fool, I Am

Lately I've had a renewed interest in studying for Scrabble.

The reason is manyfold. The primary reason is that my ISC rating has stagnated at the 1325-1400 range since February. I have always figured that I would slowly keep improving with the more games that I play. But I've definitely hit a plateau. I would like to think that I hit a lucky streak earlier, so that my "true" strength has been catching up with it. It is true that I haven't dipped below 1300 in quite a while.

For whatever reason my ISC rating has plateaued, it has been frustrating to get to above 1400 only to drop back down everytime I threaten to break it. It feels like there is a velvet rope at 1450 and I'm not allowed to pass until I get better, which means learning more words.

So I've been making more flashcards. A few weeks ago I made some cards with the V and W fours. I know I've got most of the threes now, so it's time to move on to the fours. And I realize their importance. Unfortunately, the fours are only slightly more fun to study than the threes, which weren't fun at all.

I also made some new flashcards that has all of my unlearned sixes that contained J, Q, X, or Z. This has been the most exciting set of flashcards since my set that had the fours and fives of J, Q, X, Z. The four and five set probably improved my game more than anything else. Maybe these sixes will give a a similar, if less dramatic, push. Unlike the fours, these are very fun to learn. How can you not smile when you find words like JERBOA and BEZOAR? How about OXALIS and QUANGO? I also have the hooks printed (thank to LeXpert) so I might have some future bingos in there.

I've also found a new interest in stem study, in particular, stem "families", which I think I will write about in a new post.