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Title: Vocabulary 4000 : The 4000 Words Essential for an Educated Vocabulary by Jeff Kolby ISBN: 1-889057-15-0 Publisher: Nova Pr Pub. Date: 01 February, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: to echo another reviewer: BE CAREFUL HERE!
Comment: first know what you're buying. i bought this book assuming it would be a vocubulary-builder, but instead it's more dictionary-like. and worse than those of a dictionary, its entries are little more than a few words long (and by a few words i mean one or two words). it never gives you the part of speech of any of the words, and it fails to note whether a word might have multiple meanings or whether its defintion is nuanced. some of the definitions are downright ambiguous! you're never given any usage examples, so if you come across an unfamiliar word you're likely to use it clumsily or self-consciously. some important words are also missing from this book (e.g., "epigone"). and you'll not find any guide to pronouncing any of the words, either. (how can kolby expect to do justice to 4000 or so words in but 160 pages?!)
all this said, i think this book can still serve some uses: first, it might make you aware of some words with which you were hitherto unfamiliar; second, it can can be handy as a quick-reference (as when you're reading and come across a strange word) although i'd recommend looking up the word in a good dictionary later on. this is about as useful as VOCABULARY 4000 gets.
if you're looking for a good vocabulary-builder, check out VERBAL ADVANTAGE, or princeton review's WORD SMART (the usage examples are funny), or 1000 MOST IMPORTANT WORDS (the entries in that one are beautifully-written; it's somewhat more literary than the other two, though it's just as helpful). but don't study VOCAB 4000 exclusively (in fact, don't STUDY it all; merely refer to it from time to time. STUDY the other previously-mentioned books or a good dictionary).
Rating: 3
Summary: Be carful IT IS A DICTIONARY
Comment: IT IS A DICTIONARY !!!! NOT A VOCABULARY BOOK
IT ONLY HELP ME TO GET A SPECIFIC WORD MEAN
Rating: 3
Summary: Better than average vocabulary builder
Comment: Vocabulary 4000 is helpful for learning new vocabulary words, not just for standardized tests but for everyday use as well. Most of the words inside are not so esoteric (that is, known to only a few) that you will feel self-conscious using them in conversations with your friends... that is, unless you hang out with high school dropouts. Naturally, though, even uneducated folk might enjoy picking up a modicum of new words from talking to you.
In addition to the (almost) plethora of choice words to be found inside this book, there are a number of exercises included to ensure you actually retain something. These were nice, as was an informative section at the end of the book that dealt with common mistakes in everyday language. There was quite a bit to be found in this book, considering its unthreatening thickness.
I do have a pretty big problem with Vocabulary 4000, though. While it's great for finding impressive words fast (not to mention finding SAT-caliber words fast)--rather than scrounging through a dictionary to look for them--the definitions are absurdly short, usually on the order of one or two words. So many times you're left with only one meaning of the word, completely devoid of any knowledge of its various connotations or its usual context. A quick example: I think "vacuous" was defined as "inane". Granted, that is a common use of the word, but it could also simply mean empty. Also, if you didn't know what inane meant, you could look it up, but it said "stupid" so you might think it was used to refer to stupid people. Not so--inane normally refers to a comment. Things like that keep this book from being a must have, but it is still a good book for vocabulary building.
Basically, I recommend this book if you have a decent dictionary to supplement it. That way you can find some great words fast (using Vocabulary 4000) and understand them completely (using the dictionary). This is what I have done, and it works great.
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Title: The Ultimate Verbal and Vocabulary Builder for the SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT and LSAT by Lighthouse Review Inc., Lighthouse Review Inc, Inc. Lighthouse Review ISBN: 0967759412 Publisher: Lighthouse Review, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Ultimate Math Refresher for the GRE, GMAT, and SAT by Lighthouse Review Inc, Lighthouse Review ISBN: 0967759404 Publisher: Lighthouse Review, Inc. Pub. Date: 31 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Verbal Advantage : Ten Easy Steps to a Powerful Vocabulary by Charles Harrington Elster ISBN: 0375709320 Publisher: Random House Reference & Pub. Date: 26 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder by Mary Wood Cornog ISBN: 0877799105 Publisher: Merriam-Webster Mass Market Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: 1000 Most Important Words by Norman W. Schur ISBN: 0345298632 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 July, 1982 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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