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Title: Tooth and Nail: A Novel Approach to the New SAT by Charles Harrington Elster, Joseph Elliot ISBN: 0-15-601382-7 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 12 January, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.15 (26 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A good idea, but it has its hits and misses....
Comment: I was required to read Tooth and Nail for my etymology class. The whole purpose of this class is to learn vocabulary for the SAT. While my verbal score did increase, it wasn't because of reading the book. The idea is a good one: using words in context is one of the best ways to learn words, in my opinion. But, as many reviews have already stated, it was extremely tedious having to flip through the back of the book just to see what the word means. I noticed that the longer I read, the less I flipped through the back.
The authors call Tooth & Nail a mystery novel, yet the "mystery" part only compromises the last 40% or so of the book. The preceding stuff is just garbage -- extremely slow exposition. There is even a chapter (the "radio chat" for those of you that have read this book) that serves ABSOLUTELY no purpose, other than to cram in words. That's fine and dandy, except one thing: the less interesting a book gets, the less likely you'll finish it. You can tell that the authors haven't visited a college campus for a while (yet, I think they put forth valiant effort trying to make it seem real.)
Indeed, I augmented my lexicon from taking etymology, but most of it was from a wordlist book. Contrary to what many people say, word-books are a good way to learn lists of words, so long as they provide exercises---this is what I recommend instead of (or at LEAST in addition to) this book.
Rating: 2
Summary: Good for the clueless....
Comment: When I first saw this book, I was excited with this "novel" approach. My friend said it was good, so I started reading.
What I found, however, was that 95% of the words I already knew. I'm studying for my SATs, so I know a sizable amount of words. I was hoping to learn new and challenging words.
Some of the words are absurd. Words like biased, indifferent, spontaneous, captivating, articulate, tentative, convey, intiated, diverse (i just happened to flip to a random page (p.25) and am listing some bold-faced words) appear a billion times on the pages. Some of the words were new to me, like masquerade (which I doubt I will find on the SAT). Most of the words however were elementary and definately did not improve my vocabulary.
When I first read all those 3 star reviews I didn't want to believe them, so I tried the book anyway. Needless to say I am disapointed.
Aside from other problems that I won't mention (but other customers have, such as the lack of a plot or the flipping to the back, which you wont need to be doing very often if you're studying for the SATs), this book's vocabulary is very limited.
To sum it up, if you're looking to study for an examination and want to learn challenging words, try another book (personally I've been trying to memorize word lists and have ordered Kaplan's Ring of McAllister, another novel). If you don't know anything, don't want to study word lists, don't want to try other SAT vocabulary novels, or just want to review some basic vocabulary words such as adjacent, complex, nuture, diversity, bizarre, dominant............, well then this book is for you.
Rating: 3
Summary: Learning words in context is the best approach
Comment: Learning words in context is a great idea. It's the only method that works. This book was released in 1994 and for several years was the only one of its kind. But there are three new additions in this format--from Barrons, Kaplan, and A. J. Cornell Publications. Some people have complained that with this book it's problematic to have all the words at the back, in a glossary--because you have to keep stopping to find them back there. I agree with that. At least one of the above-mentioned books--The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder--places the definitions on the same page as the words, and it seems to work well. Perhaps the next edition of this book can be reformatted that way.
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Title: The Ring of McAllister: A Score-Raising Mystery Featuring 1,000 Must-Know SAT Vocabulary Words by Robert Marantz ISBN: 0743235207 Publisher: Kaplan Press Pub. Date: 24 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Simon's Saga for the SAT I Verbal by Philip Geer ISBN: 0764122002 Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Pub. Date: 08 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Vocabulary Cartoons: Building an Educated Vocabulary With Visual Mnemonics by Sam Burchers, Max Burchers, Bryan Burchers ISBN: 0965242285 Publisher: New Monic Books Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Vocabulary Cartoons II: Building an Educated Vocabulary With Sight and Sound Memory AIDS by Sam Burchers, Max Burchers, Bryan Burchers ISBN: 0965242269 Publisher: New Monic Books Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder by Mark Phillips ISBN: 0972743901 Publisher: A. J. Cornell Publications Pub. Date: 13 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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