Rating: 
Summary: Works better than any other method I've tried!
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent idea
Review: For me, trying to remember words without pictures is a waste of time. When I was studying for SATs I memorized about 600 words. How many of those words do I still remember for the SAT I have to take this october? About 20. About the same time I got a similar book, Vocabular Cartoons which contained 300 words with illustrated cartoons. How many of those words do I still remember? 300. This book is practically the same, except I also like how it has a little history of the words on the bottom of every page. I like it the pictures are really big so they stand out in your mind. But, and this is a pretty big but: the pictures themselves are pretty bad. Almost every picture is of a person with a huge smile. So it is hard to discern the words in your mind.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent idea
Review: For me, trying to remember words without pictures is a waste of time. When I was studying for SATs I memorized about 600 words. How many of those words do I still remember for the SAT I have to take this october? About 20. About the same time I got a similar book, Vocabular Cartoons which contained 300 words with illustrated cartoons. How many of those words do I still remember? 300. This book is practically the same, except I also like how it has a little history of the words on the bottom of every page. I like it the pictures are really big so they stand out in your mind. But, and this is a pretty big but: the pictures themselves are pretty bad. Almost every picture is of a person with a huge smile. So it is hard to discern the words in your mind.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: I have read many books throughout my life, but this by far has been the greatest and most helpful book I have EVER read. Mere words in this review can not begin to explain how immensely this book has affected my academic career. In high school, when I took the pre-SAT for the first time, I got a 340 on the verbal. YES, that's right! a 340! Since English is not my first language, my vocabulary was EXTREMELY limited. My goal was improvement, but knowing that I had read very little English when I was young, I had to figure out a QUICK way to raise my score. After learning the words in this book, in a very twisted way I have yet to completely understand, my writing ability also dramatically improved. In conclusion, you are a COMPLETE FOOL if you take the SAT or the GRE without first extensively studying this book. Your future is very important, don't risk it. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST WAY TO MEMORIZE
Review: 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!!!
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST WAY TO MEMORIZE
Review: 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!!!
Rating: 
Summary: It's actual a good book
Review: I was surprised to see that my vocabulary improved. The mnemonics coupled with the visuals are great techniques to facilitate long term memory. I thought the cartoon characters in the visuals were drawn terribly and just look down right UGLY. I didn't enjoy remembering ugly faces of cartoon characters. This book also does not use any of the words in a sentence. This is a major error because it's important to understand how these words are used in context. It also enforces yet another technique in remembering words. Overall, the book is pretty good. Comparing on other vocabulary builders, these non-visual builders give you the word, its definition, and how the word is used in one or more sentences. Perhaps, if your lucky, they give you some synonyms, antonyms, and the word origin. Princeton Review's visual vocabulary builder gives you a word (ie sanguine), its definition (optimistic; cheerfully confident), a mnemonic (SHE SANG WE WILL WIN), and a visual (a horrificly drawn effervesecnt cheerleader with an huge smile). It sometimes gives you word origins. I suggest you use the ingenious mnemonics and visuals from this book and use another book (ie the dictionary), which uses the word in several sentences.
Rating:
Summary: Fun way to learn new words
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Start With This Book
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Works better than any other method I've tried!
Review: 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.
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