<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Vocabulary Building Book
Review: I bought the Word Smart II paperback to help me with GRE words. But, the "GRE Hit Parade" in the back of the book falls short of expectations. Most of the book contains vocabulary words each with a brief definition and a couple of sentences showing uses. But, many words on the GRE Hit Parade are not expanded upon. The GRE Hit Parade itself is merely a terse listing of definitions. Therefore, those studying for the GRE are much better off with a GRE review book rather than purchasing this one.The one good thing about the GRE Hit Parade was the advice to build 10 words a day. I used this technique and found it helpful. But more detailed explanations of these words with example sentences was needed.The publisher, The Princeton Review, has another book out: "Cracking the GRE" which also has a GRE Hit Parade. It is a slightly more concise listing, but it is about as useful. Vocabulary lists are only supplementary to regularly learning vocabulary words from readings anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: Very basic vocabulary
Review: I bought this book to study for the GRE based on good reviews listed here, but I have to say I'm very disappointed. Just from skimming through the text book I've found that I already know at least two thirds of the words listed. I'm amazed that they included such simple words like: mode, consolidate, ethics, and access. The words are not sorted by difficulty, but alphabetically so it's not very useful for me to study from. Maybe if your vocabulary isn't so great and you are taking the SAT this book might be useful for you.I would recommend Kaplan's Word Power Third Edition instead and skip to the 2nd section. You'll learn much more from this book.
Rating:
Summary: good for cramming
Review: I hate memorizing lists of words and their respective definitions. Even though they have one or two sentences to show you how they are used. My favorite method is to read them in context. This will probably only be done by reading copiously. Reading the Princeton word (Junior) was fantastic. I wish they could make one like that, but at a higher level. The Junior book had great cute stories and the most amount of new word learning anyone can have from reading so little.
Rating:
Summary: good for cramming
Review: I hate memorizing lists of words and their respective definitions. Even though they have one or two sentences to show you how they are used. My favorite method is to read them in context. This will probably only be done by reading copiously. Reading the Princeton word (Junior) was fantastic. I wish they could make one like that, but at a higher level. The Junior book had great cute stories and the most amount of new word learning anyone can have from reading so little.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Vocabulary Building Book
Review: The WordSmart series is excellent. I worked through WordSmart I and then I worked through this book. I can use more words and I can use words better since studying WordSmart II.
<< 1 >>
| 
