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Summary: A "must" for pre-SAT students!
Review: "Word Power" was required reading my sophomore year in high school, and I'm so thankful it was! By learning the roots to thousands of words, I was more prepared for the SAT and ACT. I strongly believe that "Word Power" gave me the tools to become a National Merit Scholar and score quite high on both standardized tests. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in communicating effectively!
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Summary: A most wonderful book of valubale information
Review: A simple and enjoyable book to read with an enormous amount of knowledge contained within that can be consumed with ease. The book uses consistent methods giving a review after each session.
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Summary: Thorough
Review: At first I thought he was spending too much time on scientific words and medical terminology, but it is amazing how this book flows. Explaining anthropologist, you learn about misanthropes, misogynists, gynecologists and obstetrics!! The key to enriching your vocabulary is understanding word origins and roots and Mr. Lewis does an excellent job of explaining. I guess that's why his book has been in print for 50+ years. Another thing I like about this book is the repetition which really helps to ingrain it into memory. There are matching quizzes, fill-ins, and other questions which help utilize what you have just learned.
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Summary: SAT/GRE Verbal builders
Review: Buy "Word Power Made Easy" by Norman Lewis and "Word Smart II" put out by the Princeton Review. The former is a book with all kinds of vocab building excersises, and it also has a lot of info on word roots and origins. Some of the words you will already know, but you will learn thier roots which helps with words you don't already know. I was amazed at how quickly I learned these words following the lesson plans (usually about 15 minute mental excercises). I like the presentation and a lot of the words are the type you think you know but don't completely understand. This is a great place to start studying as it will give you a better understaning of the English language and the all important word roots for figuring out those obscure words you have never heard before (about 90% of english words are "borrowed" from other languages, primarily greek and latin). "Word Smart II" is a classic vocab builder with tough SAT/GRE type words listed alphabetically. (There is also a "Word Smart I" but I haven't checked it out.) I found it harder to learn this way; you have to be pretty motivated and have a lot of repitition to help you remember the words. To get started on raising your score RIGHT NOW, go to ... (a website) and click on Word of the Day (WOD). Then click on subscription info and fill in your email address. They will email you a new word of the day (almost all GRE/SAT words) every evening around 9pm (pacific). The WOD always tells you a story about the word and how in came into English usage (this helps me remember what the words mean). Go back and look at the archives of past WOD too. You WILL see some of these words on the test, I promise! Just remember, you can raise your score dramatically (I raised mine about 120 points using these methods), you just have to work at it everyday. Good Luck!
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Summary: Try it once, its guaranteed
Review: Do you know the meaning of "george"?Do you know the meaning of "Companion"? What is a 'Pantry' car? Get to know of all these from this book. A rich vocabulary builder. Its unimaginable which gives meaning to the words we use in the daily life. Enjoy reading!!
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Summary: Word Impotence Made Universal
Review: First of all, if you want a good vocabulary and a cultivated syntax, you should instead be reading literature. Any good development of "word power" will be done apart from any didactic approach. Compare a college graduate with four years of Spanish to anyone who has lived in a Spanish society for even one year, and you'll understand my meaning.
BR>The chapters are studded with undue egalitarian propaganda and preachy judgements of personality types. For example:
"Me first - This man's attitude to life is simple, direct, and aboveboard-every decision he makes is based on the answer to one question: 'What's in it for me?' If his selfishness, greed, and ruthless desire for self advancement hurt other people, that's too bad. 'This is a tough world, pal, dog eat dog, every man for himself, and I, for one, am not going to be left behind!' He's an egoist." (1st ed p20) I thought this was about vocabulary; not about ethics.
But there's more:
"leave me alone - ...he minutely examines his every thought, feeling, and action. Probing, futile questions like 'What do other people think of me?' 'How do I look?' and 'Maybe I shouldn't have done that,' are his constant, nagging questions, for he is unable to realize that other people do not spend as much time and energy analyzing him as he thinks.
"He may seem unsocial, but his greatest desire is to be liked and accepted... He is an introvert." Now Mr Lewis appears to be dabbling in psychology. How could he know that one who achieves his goals alone, apart from the confusions and exigencies of social life, might be "constantly nagged" by a need for social acceptance?
But here, we cash in:
"let me help you - He has discovered the secret of true happiness-concerning himself with the welfare of others. Never mind his own interests, how's the next fellow getting along? - He's an altruist." (p21) My goodness. This is what Mr Lewis is trying to teach his readers, not vocabulary improvement.
He also subordinates correct usage to pop colloquialism, as in his sample question, "Who are you waiting for?" He hails this as correct.(p154) Notwithstanding his ending a sentence with a preposition and his childish, unsupported defense of it, everyone should know that "who" is subjective, and "whom" is objective. It is just that simple, and there are no exceptions. But Mr. Lewis is unencumbered by correct usage, proudly proclaiming that to talk with formality is to try your friendships. God how he harps on this subject, his boyish outcries leaping from the pages. He takes a formal, correct sentence and, with all the ad hominem in his arsenal lashes out against the tyranny of correctness, in favor of decadence, disestablishment, and anarchy of usage. He tries to be an iconoclast of sorts, not realizing that he leaves his followers with only one rule: anything goes.
Should it be important that a person be able to express him/herself clearly, succinctly, irrevocably? Apparently not. Is it any wonder, therefore that a gradeschool teacher would be admonished for racism over use of the word "niggardly"?
If you use this book as a guide and one day find yourself listening to a speech of Dr Martin L King or Sir Winston Churchill, marvelling at the beauty of usage, but saddened by your own comparative verbal impotence, you may thank Norman Lewis.
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Summary: Very good
Review: I am a high school student and used this book as an aid to studying for the SATs. I must say it was a great help and I used it about a month before the test. I scored in the 98 percentile of the verbal section and I really suck at English too. It's all because of this book, I highly recommend it to high school students. It will also help in classes because you won't have to read with a dictionary anymore. 5 stars.
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Summary: Word Power Made Easy
Review: I first discovered this book in High School, when my English teacher made us read it. To be quite honest, I had mostly forgotten about it until recently when someone asked me how I had such a vast vocabulary. I remembered this book and had to buy it again and refresh my memory. This book doesn't just teach you words and their meanings (that's called a dictionary); it teaches you how to figure out the meaning of a word. Word Power Made Easy (WPME) takes a big word and breaks it down to its roots, explaining how that word came to being. Amazingly, this book also helps with foreign languages (at least latin based), because if you can break down English words and figure out their meaning, it makes it that much easier to break down an Italian or a Spanish word and discover that the roots for both the English and the Italian are similar enough. There are tests for you to practice on and by the end of the book, you feel as if you can understand anything a pretentious person might say to you. The most fun I've had is that now the pattern of word creation has been explained, I can create my own words for things that are undescribable and other people will know and understand what I'm saying. A little like Edgar Allen Poe.
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Summary: Excellent learning tool
Review: I had to make a decision over which book I wanted to buy to improve my vocabulary, and I had to choose from far more expensive books than this one. In the end, as I was skimming through this book, I saw how amazingly wonderful and entertaining the book is. I've only read the intro and done a few exercises, and believe me, it is so helpful. Don't be misled by other books with extravagant exteriors, in this case, really don't judge a book by it's cover. Although at first sight I didn't want to buy it because it simply didn't look as "nice" as the others, I'm glad I sat down and made that choice. You won't regret it.
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Summary: Top Notch Book
Review: I originally purchased the 1979 revised edition back in 1985 to help me expand my vocabulary knowledge in order to take the GRE (Graduate Records Examination) for acceptance into a college Graduate program. The GRE exam tests in two major categories, vocabulary and mathmatics. I'm a professional engineer and have strong mathmatical skills but weak vocabulary skills. I was worried about the vocabulary section of the exam and decided to purchase this book to help me pass that section. Because of this book, I was able to obtain a score high enough for acceptance to the graduate program. I don't think I would have done well enough without it. The book helped me to learn the root of many words so that when I'm confronted with new words, even words not covered in the book, I'm able to figure out its meaning. I'm currently purchasing the latest edition of this book so that I can retake the GRE exam (scores are only valid for 5 years at the school of my choice) to obtain another degree. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to improve their vocabulary skills!
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