Customer Reviews

400 Must-Have Words for the TOEFL

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book does offer a nice variety of academic vocabulary. The fact that it is not only organized by academic discipline, but also by theme is a real bonus since iBT TOEFL draws topics from various disciplines. It also provides grammar and usage in the context of a text. This allows the learner to experience the "target words" in context. It's well done.

You should get this book, if you want to get successful in toefl.. It is nice.. Besides that, Barrons Essential Toefl Words book is very nice also, you should at least study this two books. But I never recomend Kaplan Vocabulary book(sthng like this)..

This is a very nice book for studying for the TOEFL. I agree that the 400 words that are listed in this book are must-have words for preparing for the TOEFL. But there are two things this book lacks. First, there are only one or two example sentences per each words. Secondly, there is not much practice problems. These two shortages make what's in the book so simple. To describe this book in two words: Too Simple.

I am a professional English teacher, and have used this book with two of my students who are preparing for the TOEFL. The level of the book is kind of upper-intermediate, and the 400 words are quite useful, and your students will encounter many of them again later when they take the real TOEFL. The headwords are explained well and become even more understandable after reading the example sentences. Also, different parts of speech are given.
Sometimes it seems to me that some of the example sentences which are used to illustrate the words' use require either having lived in the US for some time ("As usual, their holidays were ruined when their in-laws' views on politics collided with their own."- In my experience not many foreign students know about the US tradition of arguing about politics during Thanksgiving and Christmas), or heavy use of a dictionary ("Before injecting a painkiller, the dentist rubbed CLOVES on a woman's GUMS to NUMB them."- I don't think things should be dumbed down, but these kinds of sentences limit the usefulness of the book for self-study), or simply a teacher to stand there and explain to you the context behind such sentences. Another nice thing is that the units are short- in self study, you could go through a unit in 35 minutes and learn 10 new words with good example sentences.
To sum up, it is a good introduction to the kind of words you will see on the TOEFL if your level is not quite enough to independently sit down and start with practice tests, but is no substitute for the practice tests themselves. If your level is high enough, you may want to just take the bull by the horns.
I hate to close with a complaint, but the cover of the book proclaims that there is a complete review of roots, prefixes, suffixes and more, and there is no such thing in this book. For that reason I subtract one star, and give this book a three.

Fine for lower level students but needed a book that includes words that are more complex. My students need a challenge to move on.

It is amazing book , when i read it I get a good score ibT TOFEL
I recommend buying this book it is really useful book

This book is simple, clear, complete, useful. Gives you a complete list of so common words to enlarge your vocabulary. It is cheaper than many other books and it gives you many words divided in topic's section. It is a good choice for those students that have to do an English exam to gain the English Proficiency certificate.

Just one weekend studying this book was very productive to my vocabulary. The lessons are so well connected that catch your attention for hours!

It's a great weekend lecture to complete your previous preparation for the writing test. It is very helpful to build everyones vocabulary.

This book which contains 400 of the must have words for somebody
studying to pass the TOEFL test is well-laid out with good examples.
The TOEFL is a very difficult test, especially for foreign students
who have not experienced college-level English vocabulary, let alone
understand how these big words can be delineated within sentences
that force you to make a comparison to determine which is the most
correct answer. This is a useful tool in that it focuses on the
most important words to study. The other more difficult part of the
TOEFL test concerns listening to a spoken English sentence and de-
termining the meaning. This requires a multi-level understanding of
how the English language is translated from the visual to the auditory and the inherent mental gymnastics that must occur with
some precision in the cerebrum. By studying this book and the sentence examples, it helps to train the mind to do just that. This book is far from being a panacea to passing the test, but with ardent
study, this book will get you over some of the humps to passing this
test. Good luck .. buy it, it's not that expensive of an investment!