No one getting high scores did so because of or despite their education. They did it by having the sort of brain that happens to retains words like uxoricide and reading copious quantities of material in which such abstruse words are employed.
I got a high score and went to public schools in the US, and didn't finish college either.
At one point, the sun was generally widely accepted to revolve around the earth.
It's likely that education improves one's vocabulary, however there are a lot of variables there. People who go to good schools likely come from families where learning is important in any case, are wealthier, etc...
(Just over 30,000.) Personally, I learned far more of those words from reading George R.R. Martin or Guy Gavriel Kay than anything in my liberal arts education.
At a certain point, somewhere in the middle ranges of these scores, formal education at even the best schools will stop having any effect on your vocabulary. It becomes more a matter of where someone's interest lies. Do they read? A lot? Outside of the usual curriculum?
And at the upper end, it's more about personal predilections than anything else. Are rare words like little gems that you save and collect?
Actually, I immediately knew what "uxoricide" meant, not because I could recall seeing the word, but because of my education, which included four years of Latin in high school. ("Uxor" is Latin for "wife", and "-icide" is a very common suffix for "killing".)
So, I beg to differ. Education can definitely help. Bravo to you, though, for building your vocabulary on your own.
Clearly my American public school education has served me well. >_<
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