Illustrated Word Smart: A Visual Vocabulary Builder

by Tom Meltzer, The Princeton Review, The Princeton Review

FROM THE CREATORS OF WORD SMART AN EASIER AND BETTER WAY TO LEARN VOCABULARY Ever look up a word in the dictionary and forget what it means a week later? *Here's a breakthrough approach!??Includes 250... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375751890
• ISBN13: 9780375751899
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Princeton Review
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Fun way to learn new words

The book has only about 250 - 300 words (250 are offered as key words which are illustrated and other related words are mentioned in a box underneath the illustration). Words are arranged in 17 sections and each section is followed by several drills where you can test your understanding of the words. At the end of the book are puzzles for more word fun.

Start With This Book

This book is the best vocabulary builder I have come across; it is great for the SAT. The Illustrated Word Smart has the added bonus of containg some GRE vocabulary as well. Visual space and creativity made it easy for me to learn 250 words in two weeks. My only problem is that there are not more difficult illustrated vocabulary books after this one.

THE BEST WAY TO MEMORIZE

I recommend this book wholeheartedly. Simply put, it's just the best way to memorize vocabulary words. For example, I used this book the summer before eighth grade to prepare for a high school entrance examination, and I still remember the pictures and the words I memorized that summer (I'm a rising sophmore now). It's incredible!! This book is especially great for visual learners. The humorous pictures with the captions provide great mnemonic devices that become engraved in your mind. This book is an invaluable tool for anyone. I would choose this book over the regular WordSmart or any other vocab books out there that are in dictionary format. You won't regret buying this book. I definitely didn't!!!

Works better than any other method I've tried!

English is a second language for me, I'm preparing for an MBA program while working full-time. I don't have much time to grow my vocabulary: 15-30 min a day; I can't afford using a method that is not efficient. This book is the most efficient one I've tried so far! It is entertaining too: the pictures it uses are just too funny, it will be IMPOSSIBLE to forget them and words they describe! I can't wait to buy the next book in this series.

Pretty good stuff

Visual vocabulary books are better, period. Maybe I was a bit reckless in saying that, but the truth is that the majority of students -myself included- are visual learners. Hilarious cartoons backed up by mnemonics and eye-ease presentation in addition to the typical, aiding Word Smart phonetic pronunication is a great combination for building a erudite vocabulary. Some other people, that may not be visual learners but practical or aural learners could resort to audiobooks for effective vocabulary building, for example the Word Smart SAT Hit Parade audiobook - that also features 250 words near identical to the ones in this book. Finally, I would like to comment that an improvement to the book would be to add sample sentences to each word, yet not too dominating over the cartoons themselves - they may also be incorporated into the cartoons. Also, Word Smart should publish more of these Illustrated versions, as 250 words may prove to be insufficient for full SAT Verbal preparation. Another few volumes would be of immense help for the test, hopefully as many words as the non-illustrated versions have to offer. Word Smart I and II (the non-illustrated versions) are practically unhelpful as it is alphabetically organized, hence rote memorization is required. In comparison, this book, Word Smart Illustrated, all 250 words have been molded into my long-term memory, thanks to the help of the cartoons and presentation of the book.