6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Laughed my way through the vocab!, December 14, 2006
This review is from: Comic Vocab: Laugh Your Way to a Better Vocabulary (Audio CD)
I couldn't have imagined actually enjoying learning vocab words! Some of the jokes were great, and the imagery is still stuck in my head. This is definitely the way to go if you want to remember vocabulary. Highly recommended!
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clever and, dare I say, didactic! Not a prodigal purchase., December 21, 2006
This review is from: Comic Vocab: Laugh Your Way to a Better Vocabulary (Audio CD)
So, I've wanted to improve my vocabuary for a long time. I've bought the "expand your vocabulary" books, and they're all sitting in a box under my closet, providing endless enjoyment for my cat but, alas, no benefit to me (or my verbiage). Why, you might ask? Because too many of these approaches are either boring ("Word Smart" for the GRE"), involve too many words for me to remember at a time ("Tooth an Nail" for the SAT, a rather novel approach to the problem of vocabulary...literally), or are simply irrelevant, causing them to leave no permanent imprint on my brain.
Enter "Comic Vocab" - finally, a vocabulary strategy that is actually relevant enough to deliver results! I would strongly recommend this to anyone who's interested in improving his/her vocabulary. Before I prattle on further, here's a list of pros and cons to the CD:
PROS:
1) It fulfills it's promist to entertain you; I definitely laughed out loud (and scared my coworkers).
2) The strategy rests not only upon creating funny stories relating to vocab words but also upon using rhyming schemes, which make the jokes that much more memorable. For example, for the word "moxie," the comic tells a joke about a girl named "Roxy" who is "foxy." This double pronged approach makes it more likely you'll retain the meaning of the words.
3) Along the same lines, the strategy is varied. Some jokes rely on rhyming schemes, while others are said in a memorabe tone of voice (such as that of a small child or of a commercial). Because of this, i'm not only prevented from being bored but i'm more likely to remember the words.
4) As mentioned before: cool extras on website!
5) The words are grouped together in an entertaining, memorable way (my personal favorite: "quick, call the fasion police!").
6) A word on this strategy in general: I find it preferable to books because it alows you to learn words while muti-tasking! I listened to this CD a couple different ways - first while I was editing digital pictures at work, second when I was cleaning my kitchen, and third while in the shower. I could never do that while studying from a book.
CONS:
1) If you are listening to this on a CD player, it's hard to skip around if you hear a word you already know since the tracks each have 5 words that are played in sequence.
2) Comedy is subjective; understandably, I found a few of the jokes/voices grating.
3) There aren't as many words/definitions as you'd find in a big book (but i think the CD makes up for it in that you are actually going to remember these words).
In general, Thirsty Brain LLC and "Comic Vocab" succeed due to the relevancy and memorable nature of their strategy. I'm looking forward to the next CD!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, something I can't fall asleep to!, December 14, 2006
This review is from: Comic Vocab: Laugh Your Way to a Better Vocabulary (Audio CD)
All the test prep companies seem to have a vocab CD. Some even attempt to make it interesting (pretty much in vain). I was pleasantly surprised with comic vocab. The voices on the CD were hilarious, and while it wasn't competing with Seinfeld for comedy, it was definitely amusing and memorable. In fact, I have some of the images running around in my head as I'm writing this. I was happy with the word selection, and actually saw two of them on a practice GRE exam today (thus my motivation for writing this review). None of my other vocab cd's have extra material online either. Overall, the best I've found thus far.
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