Word Smart, Genius Edition: Building a Phenomenal Vocabulary

The system they've got for stamping the words on your brain is effective- I learned more than a couple five dollar words that I'm sure I'll never forget. The banter between the hosts is funny, albeit sometimes a bit tiring. One glaring problem, I think, is that they never spell the words they're imparting. On some of the words, it's unclear exactly what the words looks like- "be" or "de", for example- and just a quick spelling would have been extremely helpful. Overall, though, a fun way to learn a thing or two.

Although many of these words won't be used in daily conversation, the definitions of these words has been helpful in listening to or reading books, as I have come across many of these words in various books. (Did the authors of those books listen to this book?) The conversational style is just superfluous at times but overall the readers do a great job at reinforcing the definitions. I was able to remember definitions upon hearing the words months after listening to this book.

This is an entertaining way to learn your vocabulary! I'm studying for the GRE. Not all the words seem to be GRE words, but maybe 75% are. In any case, these two are funny and smart and make learning these words a LOT more fun.

This is one of the best of hundreds of books in English that I've ever listened since I came to the U. S 19 years ago.

Helpful, though slightly cheesy.

This is a good audio program - the hosts made the program so easy and fun to listen to. But I've got one complaint-- the foreign words they review. Using foreign words might make it appear than an author or speaker is more intelligent, but a word of English origin is almost always prefered, as it tends to be clearer to most English speakers - so why didn't the hosts simply go over more words of English origin? Oh well :) Also, they review some words I'm never going to use in a million years, like "tradelast" - the meaning is too specific to be of much use in a program like this... though it is fun for some people to learn obscure words.