← Templates
US Citizenship · 64 cards · Free

Reading Vocabulary for the naturalization test: read every word aloud

In the reading test the officer shows you up to three sentences and you must read one correctly out loud. Every word that can appear in those sentences is on one official USCIS list, and this deck is that list.

What this deck teaches

The reading portion is a speaking task, not a comprehension task: you are judged on reading a sentence aloud correctly, not on explaining it. That makes it an unusually good fit for a voice app — you say the word and hear immediately whether it came out right.

The list is grouped the way USCIS groups it: people, civics, places, holidays, question words, verbs, and function and content words. Working one group at a time helps, because the words in a group tend to appear in the same test sentences.

USCIS does not publish the actual test sentences, only the vocabulary they are built from. Once these words are comfortable, try saying them inside your own short sentences — that is as close to the real task as you can rehearse.

How to study the reading vocabulary with VoiceCards

  1. Play the list in Listen mode. Let the deck read the words to you. Say each one back as it plays; the goal is that no word on the list is unfamiliar when you see it in a sentence.
  2. Say each word aloud in Speak mode. See the word, say it out loud, and let the app grade how it came out. Pronunciation is what the officer is actually judging, and you cannot hear your own mistakes by reading silently.
  3. Work one category at a time. The list is grouped — people, civics, places, holidays, verbs, function words. Take one group per session; the words in a group show up together in the test sentences.
  4. Come back to the ones that trip you. Star anything you stumble over and replay it the next day. These lists are short enough that a week of daily passes covers all of them.

Sample cards

Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
American flag
American flag
America
America
Presidents’ Day
Presidents’ Day
How
How

Get this deck

Open VoiceCards, tap Add a deck → From a link, and paste this URL:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13-BVS5BdH1VQJQYeW1e6sPHBCIY0hcnkEqAW0dk2u5I/edit

Do not have the app yet? Install it first, then come back and import the deck.

More decks to memorize

Naturalization Writing VocabularyEvery word that can appear in the English writing portion of the test.Bible Verse MemorizationForty essential King James verses, memorized out loud and hands-free.Bible - GenesisAll 1,533 verses of Genesis, memorized out loud and hands-free.Bible - ExodusAll 1,213 verses of Exodus, memorized out loud and hands-free.Bible - LeviticusAll 859 verses of Leviticus, memorized out loud and hands-free.Bible - NumbersAll 1,288 verses of Numbers, memorized out loud and hands-free.

Browse all templates →