MAV words stands for McKinney Academic Vocabulary and is a district-wide initiative that all three MISD high school campuses participate in.

Every student in each grade level of high school takes part in it. Students are given a list of 10 PSAT/SAT vocabulary words every three weeks in their English class.

“I think its kind of pointless that we’re doing this, I don’t see a good reason for it,” Junior Nathan McCown said.

They are tested every six weeks over 20 words, coming from the two previous lists they had received.

The goal of this is to teach students PSAT and SAT words and build their vocabulary skills.

“I guess it does expand my vocabulary but it’s insipid,” Nathan McCown said.

By the end of the school year, each individual student will have learned 120 new vocabulary words. A student starting their first year of high school will learn 480 new words by the time they graduate.

The students’ test scores are compared between the three MISD high schools to see which one is academically better.

Written by Sydney Sabetpour