Confessions of a High School Word Nerd

Effortlessly acquire an SAT vocabulary through hilarious high school essays

Every year, 9 million American students expend large amounts of time and energy preparing for proficiency and entrance exams like the SAT, ACT, PSAT, and SSAT with a heap of vocabulary flash cards and a fat volume of repetitive practice tests. Each one of them, along with their parents and teachers, wishes that there was a less painful way to prepare for test day. There is, and this book is the solution: a collection of ten well-written, entertaining essays by recent college-graduates-turned-writers that honestly and amusingly recount wild, traumatizing, and hilarious high-school events, using common SAT words as a study tool.
(*gluteus: any of the large muscles of the buttocks; esp: gluteus maximus)

Confessions of a High School Word NerdIntroduction

1. Confessions of a Diligent Kisser
Laure de Vulpillieres

2. Confessions of a Rebel Trombonist
Chris Heaney

3. Confessions of a Road Hazard
Colleen Kinder

4. Confessions of a Summer-Camp Junkie
Chris Rovzar

5. Confessions of a Vagabond Swimmer
Arianne Cohen

6. Confessions of a Running Disaster
Tom Miller

7. Confessions of an Insane Intern
Kara Loewentheil

8. Confessions of a Ghetto Soccer Star
Lauren Keane

9. Confessions of a Homeschooler
Timothy Michael Cooper

10. Confessions of a Pigsty Prankster
Dave Finney

Glossary

Arianne Cohen is the award-winning author of Confessions of a High School Word Nerd, The TALL Book, and The Sex Diaries Project: What We’re Saying About What We’re Doing. Cohen’s work regularly appears in Marie Claire, the New York Times, Vogue, and the Guardian. Cohen has given talks around the world about self-esteem, body image, and healthy relationships. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University.

Colleen Kinder is the author of Delaying the Real World and the co-editor of Confessions of a High School Word Nerd. Kinder is also a travel writer and photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The New Republic and the Wall Street Journal. Her essays have been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing 2013, Readings for Writers, The Best Women's Travel Writing, and more. Kinder is a graduate of both Yale University and the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program. She teaches writing in both the United States and France.