Customer Reviews

Kaplan Word power, Second Edition: Empower Yourself! 750 Words for the Real World (Kaplan Power Books)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Intentionally learning new words is difficult. Which words are important? Which definitions should you focus on?

Preparing for exams requiring a certain level of verbal knowledge necessitates more than flipping through a dictionary. "Kaplan Word Power" is what the studious test taker needs.

There are 750 words presented amidst 55 lessons. With titles like "Thomas: Not a Temerarious Tatterdemalion" you will enjoy the game of learning what chapter names mean.

Kaplan prepared this book. This matters because they are experts at teaching test takers how to get higher scores on the LSAT, GRE and other major exams. They aren't the only ones capably doing it, but they are among the leaders. They have the experience to write this book.

The definitions are brief, only slightly more complex than a Scrabble dictionary. With each definition is enjoined with a sentence following the theme of title.

For example, tatterdemalion is defined as "a ragged person, always in tatters" accompanied by "Tatterdemalions everywhere foraged through the garbage for some food."

There are 10-15 quiz questions for each chapter. A significant appendix called "Root Juice" provides a useful collection and explanation of key Latin, French and Greek roots.

This is an effective way to shine up your vocabulary. I fully recommend "Kaplan Word Power" by Meg F. Schneider.

Anthony Trendl

editor, HungarianBookstore.com

After reading both this and Princeton Review's Word Smart to prepare for the GRE, this book is hands down the better book. The layout is much easier, the approach more fun and most importantly, the words covered here -at least in my experience- represented the GRE better.

Another handy thing is that the sections are organized into degrees of difficulty. This combined with the fact that 'frequent test words' are marked by a thunderbolt next to them helps you maximize your study time.

That having been said, you still get out what you put in. There's no way around it. GRE verbal is about memorization. Here's a strategy that I used to make the process easier and more fun. It can be applied to any vocabulary book

After one chapter, write down the words you had any trouble with on flash cards with definitions on the back, making sure to put the definitions in your words, not the books. As the chapters progress, shuffle the new flash cards in with the old and review them twice a day.

In addition keep a notebook and after each chapter write down all the words on the top of a new page. Below, create a paragraph (a story, essay etc.) using all the words in the chapter. At the end of each section of the book, write a new story or essay using only the words you remember.

A lot of work? Not really, considering it will be a lot harder to simply memorize from rote. And it will pay off come GRE time.

I have a two hour commute each day and I'm trying to utilize that time in some positive fashion. I'm studying for the GRE and was looking for something I could listen to that would contribute to this goal/project. This was a waste of money, since I knew 98% of the words. Also, a few words I thought were not very well described, and the sentances were contrived. The way they use two words with the same root in a sentance seems to be a sure fire way in my book to help someone confuse the two words' meaning. On the plus side, buying this CD set has now made me see the futility of this method of studying for the GRE, and saved me from investing in a more expensive CD set. If like me, you're studying for the GRE, my advice to you is to set aside time to read scholarly journals or essay collections, dictionary in hand.

I bought this book on the recommendation of the masters program administrator at a major university because my score on the verbal portion of my first GRE test was unacceptable (at least to me and I'm sure the university). I was somewhat leary about how a single book could select an accurate list of words from the thousands of potential choices and actually have the selected words appear on the test, but I had little time before my second test and I needed to prepare somehow.

The book is divided into 3 sections, 1) words you should know, 2) words for a good score on the test and 3) words for word geeks and a great score on the test. I studied with the book for 3 weeks before my second GRE test. The first section was truly words you should know and I spent little time on that section. The second section is where I spent 95% of my study time and the third section I merely glanced at as I'm not a word geek.

I'll let the results of my second test speak for the effectiveness of the book. During the entire verbal section of the test there were only one or two words I didn't recognize (I'm not saying I remembered the definitions of them all!!), but at least I recognized them and had something to work with. It's true that the verbal section has multiple components, only one of which relies heavily on knowing the definition of key words, but I raised my score on the overall verbal section 180 points from my first test. I credit the words in the second section of the book for most of this improvement. I don't know how the authors knew what words frequently appear on the test, but they were absolutely spot on, as I got a good score as advertised and the words in the second section of the book did indeed appear frequently on the test.

I wasn't sure what the first two reviews were talking about until I realized they were writing out the audio version of this title. Perhaps they're right about the CDs, but for this book, I would recommend it for those in high school, college and beyond. It's a fun, effective read and it's bound to get those less excited about learning new words on their own, to actually do so with enjoyment. What more could you want from a book? Those who tend to be overly bright may prefer those books that deal strictly with word and meaning or root origins, but for the rest of us, this is a refreshing change from those boring altenatives.

I admit that this book isn't a great deal of fun. It's pretty dry, but if you go over the words a few times, they'll stick. The book splits into 3 sections, so you can easily just choose to do the harder words or the easier ones.

It's definitely a must-buy book if you're looking to take the SAT I reasoning test. I'd say 95% of the words on the critical reading section were in this book, and it definitely helped me get my 800. This book is amazing, and I recommend it to anyone looking to improve their test scores or just vocabulary in general.

The format of the book is divided into three sections starting with words we should know, followed by moderately difficult words, and finally difficult, obscure, pointless words you'll probably never use but might get tested on. The sections are then broken down into lessons that include 15 new words each. Each word is presented with its definition and then used in a sentence, which combined with the rest of the examples, makes a highly cheesy story. At the end of the lesson, there's brief quiz. Now that I've described the book, here's what I think. The book is average. It does a good job of presenting the words, but is severely lacking in repetition exercises. The book seems to claim such exercises are ineffective and that each person should do what they need to to memorize them. That seems like a cop out. It would have been nice to get some more practice exercises. Also, the sentences used to give the words context are often poor examples due to the cheesy story line. I would give the book a look, it's certainly not the worst thing you can buy, but I'd do some comparison shopping.

I would recommend buying this book over "Word Smart II" for building your vocabulary. I'm taking the GRE exam soon and this is the text I'm using to study my vocabulary. It has three sections each slightly more difficult than the last. I would recommend starting in the second section if you already have a fairly good vocabulary. Maybe go back through the first section and pick up any words you may not know.

I bought this to study for the GRE. The CD's are really short and I already knew 90% of the words. This might help you if you were having a hard time trying to get a 500 -

The format of the book is divided into three sections starting with words we should know, followed by moderately difficult words, and finally difficult, obscure, pointless words you'll probably never use but might get tested on. The sections are then broken down into lessons that include 15 new words each. Each word is presented with its definition and then used in a sentence, which combined with the rest of the examples, makes a highly cheesy story. At the end of the lesson, there's brief quiz. Now that I've described the book, here's what I think. The book is average. It does a good job of presenting the words, but is severely lacking in repetition exercises. The book seems to claim such exercises are ineffective and that each person should do what they need to to memorize them. That seems like a cop out. It would have been nice to get some more practice exercises. Also, the sentences used to give the words context are often poor examples due to the cheesy story line. I would give the book a look, it's certainly not the worst thing you can buy, but I'd do some comparison shopping.