For french exams, my teacher says to use grammar techniques to identify the words or what the word could mean. For example if it says l'ecole est fatigant, you could work out the structure of the words. Also, he said it is very key in knowing you're vocab. My older sister used to sit down with her textbook glossary and i would test her for 2 hours straight a few times a week until she was getting it, each alphabet at a time.