Customer Reviews

The Princeton Review Word Smart : Building a More Educated Vocabulary

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

 

 

This sets contains 5 CDs, each one goes over about 50 words. Good number of the words on these recordings seem to be on a high-school level, though.

The first CD covers the vocabulary related to: All or Nothing; I love you ... I hate you; The Naughty and the Nice.

The second CD coverts the vocabulary related to: The Long and the Short of It; The Mighty and the Meak; You Help Me, Then You Hurt Me.

The third CD covers the vocabulary related to: True or False; From the Sublime to the Ridiculous; Something Old, Something New.

The fourth CD covers the vocabulary related to: Alone or Together; Now You See It, Now you Don't; The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same.

The fifth CD covers the vocabulary related to: Park and Ride; Shadows and Light.

The recordings are very entertaining to listen to. After defining the words, they are dramatized, often in a humorous way, adding fun to the learning process.

I'm studying for the GRE's and taking the Princeton Review class in conjunction to listening to the CD. These disks contain several words that are also in the Hit Parade lists that we get from class. Hearing the words, meanings, and sentences using the words really help to learn them. They group the words based in similarity in meanings to help you learn. First, they give you the words, meanings, and use them in sentences. Then they follow by a story using the words. Then they say the words, with a pause so you can think about the definition, and then give you the definition and use the word in a sentence. I've definitely been using the new vocabulary more and more in my everyday speech. I wish Princeton Review would do something like this for ALL of the words from the Hit Parade and Beyond the Hit Parade lists. The only other really effective way I've found to really learn the words is to do a google search of each word, and just see how they're used in context.

I've used verbal advantage and imo, word smart is way better and not as dry.

A good buy for those trying to improve/increase their vocab. The two people speaking are pretty funny, and the skits are really corny. Overall, I would say if possible, buy a used version of this CD, because most people (if they are anything like myself) will probably only listen to the actual CD once (just to import onto their computers), then they can burn a copy of it later. Don't waste your money paying for the full set at full price. I wish I had thought of this earlier!

I bought this product with hopes of a more enjoyable way to expand my vocabulary. I tried to like this product (especially since it's a good chunk of money) and I gave it a fair amount of my time. In the end, I found it to be ineffective for these reasons:
- The script is boring. It tries to be witty, but really comes of as cheesy/corny
- I found myself constantly rewinding. The material just doesn't sink in. The stories and dialogue aren't memorable. Perhaps this is so because of the pace. I'd rather have fewer words and actually learn those words, than sweep through many words and have to backtrack. I'd say on average the amount of time spent listening to the material was TRIPLED because of rewinding.
- The voices are a bit stuffy and robotic to me

In the end I stopped listening to Word Smart. It was just too laborious.

I bought this CD to import to my iPod it doesn't work. I buy lots of books on CD to transfer to the iPod and this is the only one that can't be read on my computer. their packaging had no mention of copy protection or what kind of player the CD works on. I assumed then that it would work anywhere. I was wrong and now it's just gathering dust. Useless.

Great for building you vocabulary!! Love em'! Great examples and narration - I listen to them all the time!!

I bought this product years ago and listened to it alot. I listened over and over. The problem was that though I remembered the words and their meanings in the short term, none of it stuck. Years later I hear or read these words I listened to and I remember hearing them on the CD, but I don't remember their meanings. I think the reason for this is because the CD is a bit boring which meant I had to force myself to pay attention to what I was listening to because my mind kept drifting. What made it boring was that the voices on the tape sound humdrum and sound as if they are reading a script.. Almost robotic. They don't sound like they're REALLY talking for the most part. You know how you sometimes call the bank or some other institution with Automated phone systems and if a human comes on you are alert and hear everything, but when you hear an automated message your mind just drifts & zones out at the sound of the scripted message and then suddenly you hear "...press 3, if you want to make a payment press 4.." And you're like OH WAIT, WHAT WERE OPTIONS 1 & 2? I wasn't paying attention I missed it.! And then you have to hang up and call again and sometimes if you're tired or have other things on your mind it happens AGAIN!! These CDs were like that for me. The CD sounded too automated and boring and it just didn't stick for me no matter how often I listened. If you can easily focus through a boring CD this can work for you. Also if you are one of 10% of people in the world who are Auditory learners - meaning you learn best through auditory means, this would also work for you. (80%+ of people are visual learners while between 6-3% are kinesthetic learners.) If you're going to listen to it while driving (I never did) then maybe it might work because there's not too much stimuli around while driving and maybe it'll be harder for you to drift mentally- I don't know. But I easily fell asleep while listening to this stuff and wasn't able to retain much. Since then I used another program that worked 100 times better.

I am quite interested in this product, but WITHOUT a list made available on line of the words covered, I am not going to buy this. I dont want to buy this and find out I know most of them! So PUBLISHERS BEHOLD: if you want to really sell this product you've gotta let us know WHAT FEATURES (e.g. words)IT HAS. This is sales 101. Best, Jimmy.