Barron's SAT Vocabulary Flash Cards Author: Sharon Weiner Green M.A. | Language: English | ISBN:
1438070861 | Format: PDF
Barron's SAT Vocabulary Flash Cards Description
Barron's SAT Vocabulary Flash Cards is a brand-new test prep tool that presents 500 SAT high-frequency words, selected because they have appeared as key words in recent SAT reading passages and critical reading and sentence completion questions. Cards are alphabetically arranged in the box, with an extra place-marker card that students can use to gauge their word-learning progress. This vocabulary building flash card set enables SAT test takers to review words they might already know, as well as to master unfamiliar words they are likely to encounter both on the SAT and in their college courses. The front of each card lists the target word along with a guide to its pronunciation and its part of speech. The card's reverse side presents the word's definition, uses it in a sentence, and lists synonyms. Students who master all 500 words will find enclosed instructions for making their own flash cards and continuing to expand their vocabularies. Flash cards in this set each have a small punch-hole in the one corner. It accommodates an enclosed metal ring that students can use to arrange select cards for study on the go.
- Cards: 503 pages
- Publisher: Barron's Educational Series; Flc Crds edition (February 1, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1438070861
- ISBN-13: 978-1438070865
- Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 4.3 x 2.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
These cards fall far from what they could, or should, be. The good part is that they are flash cards. I prefer cards to books because they are easy to carry, easy to select the words you have mastered and set those aside to work on the others, and easy to randomize. The size is right and the paper weight is adequate to hold up until the cards have been learned.
But the main content is poor. The selection of words seems weak, but I can't be sure. You may discard a hundred right away, but then you'll still have 400. The syllabications and pronunciations are often non-standard. For example, Barrons breaks "articulate" as ahr TI kye let (The I should be marked short and the e's should be the upside-down e schwa symbol that indicates a minimally stressed vowel; capitalization indicates the stressed syllable.). The American Heritage Dictionary, which I consider to be the best, treats "articulate" as ar*tic'*u*late, ar-tik'-ye-lit, where the i's are marked short and the e is the schwa. This poor treatment goes on and on so much that it becomes annoying and unhelpful. So does the frequent use of the schwa; you end up mumbling the words instead of pronouncing them articulately. Barrons seems to use the pronunciation style and symbols of American Heritage Dictionary (called AHD), but not quite.
The definitions are where Barrons really falls short. The definitions are often too terse, sometimes just synonyms; different meanings are separated by semicolons, but sometimes different uses of words, as, say, noun and adjective, are not mentioned at all. Sometimes not all of a word's several meanings are given.
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