Customer Reviews

Illustrated Word Smart: A Visual Vocabulary Builder (Smart Guides)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!!!

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.

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.

I would not recommend this book as a study aid to learn vocabulary words for several reasons. Although the book's front cover suggests that somehow visual cues provided by this book will help you learn vocabulary words such as duplicitous, fastidious, and heinous it did not seem like that when I read through this book. The illustrations all seem to come from the same artist and are not particularly pleasing to the eye, at least not my eye. The basic template for all the words in this book contains an illustration of one or two people. When the conversations will simply say a line that is supposed to remind you of the word (usually doesn't include the word) that is meant to be taught. You cannot look at any illustration alone and relate it to the word that is supposed to be taught. The way the book attempts to teach the words is through pnemonic techniques made up by somehow combine the word and an inkling of the definition. This is a terrible book for people over the age of 12. Just get yourself a regular vocabulary book and avoid the tragic attempted teaching style this book has used. With good enough net surfing you can find the actual helpful stuff this book has, such as crossword puzzles, online somewhere for free.

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.

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.

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.

This book is the best vocabulary builder I have come across; it is great for the ISEE, PSAT, STAR and SAT. The Illustrated Word Smart has the added bonus of containing some GRE vocabulary as well. Visual space and creativity made it easy for my middle schooler to learn 250 words in two weeks. Love hearing expanded vocabulary usage in every day conversation. This is a fun and painless way to introduce new vocabulary and a way to review previous school lessons. My four children ages 15, 13, and 11 and 9, enjoy the pictures and humour - - they banter about the examples. But, most importantly--they remember the words!

Yeah, this book mught be useful if you have the vocabulary of a paper cup. I genuinely couldn't believe the words in this thing. Who is this for? Eleven-year olds? Seriously-AVOID.

Illustrations should be a great help with vocabulary acquisition, in theory. But in practice, unless you limit yourself to nouns, it takes some real inspiration to illustrate abstract words.

There is little inspiration in this book. Check out "assiduous" for an example of the artist's failed attempts to make difficult words more memorable.