VocabAhead uses pictures and sentences to help your child remember what a word means. The words are organized into groups of 10 with a review sheet after each set of 10 words. Each word contains the following:
- the definition
- the part of speech (verb, adjective, etc.)
- a cartoon with a sentence that uses the word
- a couple more sentences showing use of the word
- a list of synonyms
- a list of antonyms
There is no pronunciation guide in the book however. I can't really figure out how they chose to group the words. They aren't alphabetical and I don't necessarily see the 10 words in each set belonging together however I don't see this as a problem. There is an index with the words in alphabetical order so you can easily locate any word in the book. With 30 units, there are 300 words in this book.
Here are a couple of examples (Let me mention that the book contains only black an white drawings):
When you purchase the book, you can also download MP3's and videos of the words for free. The video/MP3 download file is rather large and takes some time to download These come in alphabetical order. The MP3's can be downloaded onto any MP3 devise (Ipod, Ipad, MP3 player, etc.) The MP3's are an audio of what is written in the book. The videos show the word and definition and then the picture you see in the book while someone reads what is in the book. There is no action so it's hard to really think of these as videos. The advantage of both the MP3 and video is that you are able to hear what the pronunciation of the word is and they both give you auditory learning. The extra advantage of the video is you can see the word while listening giving you a visual component to help you memorize the word.
The videos and MP3's were a bit dry. I would have loved to see the video have a bit of action and the reader be a bit more expressive. But I can still see the advantage of using both the MP3 and videos to add the auditory and visual learning capabilities. The website has numerous videos for you to check out here.
Precise Prince told me he thought the book was like a dictionary. Precise Prince reads the dictionary for fun sometimes so this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I simply had him study the 10 words throughout the week, using the videos and MP3's as he chose and then gave him the review at the end of the week. (I didn't download the MP3's on anything so he watched the videos and listened to the MP3's on our computer.) He did ok on the reviews though he usually missed a couple of words that were similar in meaning to one another.
Our opinion is that VocabAhead is a good resource that can be used to learn SAT words-with or without using the videos or MP3's. Precise Prince will continue to look through the book on his own, much as he does the dictionary. I should mention here that Precise Prince is a bit under the age this book is geared towards. He's 11 while this book is geared toward upper junior high and high school students studying for their SAT tests. I know we'll use this book as a resource when the SAT's get closer.
You can't buy VocabAhead directly from the website. Their product page directs you to here to Amazon where you can purchase the book for $12.95. VocabAhead also has DVD-Rom that contains 1000 SAT words with videos and MP3's. The cost starts at $24.99 on Amazon.
Click here to see what my fellow crewmates had to say about both the VocabAhead book and CD-Rom.
(I received a free copy of the VocabAhead book in exchange from my honest opinion. No other compensation was received.)
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