Word Power Made Easy: The Complete Handbook for Building a Superior Vocabulary

My order came on time and in perfect condition.

As most other reviewers remarked, this book is probably the best and most efficient book to truely improve your vocabulary. The ideas and methologies in this book will benefit you for years to come. But be warned, this book is not for some leisurely reading, where you magically improve your vocabulary in a few weeks. I bought this book a couple of month ago and I'm just half way through, although I work on it almost every day. As the author mentions in the opening chapter, to really learn you have to have the desire to learn new things, new ideas, just like a child does. Only then will you be able to really improve. Only if you really have that desire will you be able to finish this book.One of the great things about this book, is that each keyword is first described by an 'idea' behind the word. Meaning, you first get a paragraph of some habit/characteristic/attribute and once you think, "yes, I know exactly what you mean", only then will he present you with a single new word, which expresses exactly what that entire paragraph described. The next sections then work with those new words and dissect them and show you where they come from (either Latin or Greek) and other words build on the same root. You also have to write down exercises to work with those new words. The author also encourages the reader to read aloud so you really familiarize yourself with those new words. The pronunciation guide is also surprisingly effective.If you're serious about building/improving your vocabulary, buy this book, you won't regret it. Absolutely worth 5 stars.

Especially since this March, I shop on Amazon vigorously. But I think this is my first time to write a review.This is the magnificent vocabulary book. I tried to increase my vocabulary so many times but everytime ended up giving up (I am from Japan). This one, I managed to finish a whole book and learn tremendously. I believe that is because the author explains well so that a word logically makes sense etymologically.If you are good at just memorizing random stuff, numbers or letters, then you probably would not need this book. You can study with an American vocab book (a quality is so shitty I was surprised) and succeed. But if you need a reason or logic for memorizing stuff, then this is the book you need.As some reviewers commented, I have to admit that some notions in this book are anachronistic, especially if you live in South California. Definitely, I can tell the author was in social science academia, so he was liberal enough and sophisticated at his time; yet, I can see some archaic notions he introduces. Though, it did not really bother me.This book is superb and exceptional, especially comparing to other American vocab books which are usually very poor quality.

I bought this book with a passing interest in improving my vocabulary. I'd like my vocabulary to be about 10% better. After taking the extensive tests to determine my vocabulary proficiency (which may be a bit dubious), I was a bit disappointed with the halfhearted short chapters that purport to give scientific evidence that building your vocabulary will make you more successful. Consider this excerpt:"The Human Engineering Laboratory found that the only common characteristic of successful people ... is an unusual grasp of the meanings of words. The Laboratory tested the vocabularies of thousands of people ... and discovered that those people drawing down the highest salaries made the highest scores."This seems to be meant to make you think that building your vocabulary will make you richer, but in fact what this research shows is that a strong vocabulary is a common characteristic among people who make a high salary, not that making a high salary is a common characteristic among people with good vocabularies (consider the sheer number of grade school English teachers who unfortunately don't make a lot of money and undoubtedly have strong vocabularies).There are lots of tedious little chapters at the beginning of this book that you can skip through. The practice itself is the useful part. I can't really feel my vocabulary growing quite yet, but I've just started using the book.

Great book!

This book helped me rock the language portion of the GRE in 2011. Not to mention improved my understanding of the English language, spelling (an area I’ve always struggled), and writing! It was so good that I’ve never stopped thinking about it and bought it again in 2024 to brush up on my skills!

I like the content of the book however it should have been printed in the size of a workbook. The size of the book and print is very difficult to work with. I would pay more for better publishing and print quality.

I’m an engineer and am studying for the GRE. Vocabulary has always been a weak point of mine and I never enjoyed making vocab lists.This book is amazing. So cool to learn the Latin and Greek roots of words and history behind it.Best part is that since starting, I still remember the words and what their roots mean. Very well done book, can’t recommend it enough.And, it’s fun to do!