Master General Academic List in 7 Days
What is General Academic List (GAL)?

The General Academic List (also commonly known as the Academic World List (AWL)) consists of vocabulary that students are likely to encounter across all academic fields. It includes the most common 1000 words in academic texts, excluding the 2,000 words of West’s General Service List. This list was first compiled by Dr. Averil Coxhead in 1998 at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Original list had 570 words. Since then, 430 more words were added to the list to help students to read large variety of academic books.

With this list, high school and university level students are likely to be able to master academic material with more confidence and speed, wasting less time and effort in guessing words or consulting dictionaries than those who only know the basic 2,000-words from GSL, which characterize ordinary conversation.

Knowledge of this type of vocabulary is also an important factor in achieving high scores in any standardized test such as SAT-I, IELTS, TOEFL, and ACT as well as writing exams for any college admission test. These tests are often prerequisites to entering colleges in the United States and in other countries.

In addition, these words include vocabulary of everyday usage, equally useful to those who do not have academic goals. The GAL does not, however, include technical words which are specific to a given field. Nor does it contain words which are of general use and very high frequency.

In the following example sentences, the academic words are shown in bold:  

• During various stages of a planning process, review and revise the goals and objectives in the plan elements to ensure that they do not contradict one another.
• Discussion and analysis in this area has covered a number of discrete issues, including the effect of shifting trade patterns on employment levels.
• Teachers identified aspects intrinsic to the task of teaching, such as their interactions with students and their capacity to influence student progress and achievement.
• This emphasis on improving student outcomes will persist in the immediate future as the dominant factor in determining the success or failure of education reform strategies.
• New challenges, opportunities, and demands are necessary to ensure that creativity and motivation do not fade away.

It is very clear that no student at an English-medium school or university can hope to achieve academic success (or read a serious English newspaper or magazine) unless he or she knows a considerable number of such words.

After knowing these words from above list, you will able to do academic level readings across all academic fields and will able to write fairly complex text in an academic setting.
 
Please use these steps to know all academic words fast in 7 days:

• Step 1: Listen all 1000 words without looking at the list. For many words ( such as know, psychology, Adjective) spellings are different from their pronunciations. For this reason, you must NOT look at the list while listening. This is very important so your brain can embed the correct pronunciation for life for each word. Each listening will take about 90 minute.
   
• Step 2: Wait 24 hour then listen all 1000 words again — with looking at the list. Why wait 24 hrs? Waiting of 24 hrs is important. Because, according to language researchers, we move words from our short term memory into long term durign sleep. But, we also need to meet a word about 3 to 7 times† before it can becomes part of our long-term memory. After listening the words total of 7 times, they should become part of your long term memory with correct pronunciation.
   
• Use flashcards trainer to go through all words to memorize any difficult words faster, if they are available.
   
• For long term memory and retention of proper pronunciation/accent for life, listen to the whole list once a month for 12 months and once a year for life.
   
• Each listening and going through word list via flashcards trainer will take about 1 1/2 hour (90 minutes). You should know all words in GAL in about 7 days.

 That's all. After knowing all words, you will able to read most academic books (and other general books) easily.

Note: If you have more time, try to repeat above steps for General Service List (GSL) 1000 words (not included in GAL) and General Test List (GTL) 1000 words also not included in GSL and GAL. This will help you master all 3 word lists with 3000 words in about 21 days. After this, you will not need to master any other vocabulary list.