Picture These SAT Words in a Flash Review

Reviewer: Sue Alpaugh, English teacher from New Jersey

I was very pleased with my students' responsiveness to Philip Geer's book Simon's Saga, and with its effectiveness as a tool for learning and recalling the meanings of advanced words.

Recently I've been trying out Picture These SAT Words! and its set of flashcards - Picture These SAT Words in a Flash - with my classes. The pictures and accompanying puns that integrate the sound links for word recall are very creative and funny. My students really like the zany ideas behind them, and also appreciate the rhythm and rhyme of the puns. Another excellent thing about this method is that the sound link itself comes as close as it possibly can to the actual sound of the word.

One favorite is the difficult word "iconoclastic." The sound link is Ike Kono's class. The picture shows a teacher, Mr. Ike Kono, writing on a blackboard. His students are seen being "iconoclastic" (attacking cherished traditions). One student is sticking pins into a small Santa Claus doll. Others are raising their hands to suggest the abolishment of schools, tests, and Thanksgiving. The pun below the picture reads:
Iconoclastic students in Ike Kono's class.

Another example that really amuses my students is "soporific," a difficult word which means "marked by sleepiness." The sound link given is soap horrific. The picture shows an alert old man sitting in a bathtub scrubbing himself, surrounded by little devils and snakes rising up out of the water. On the floor in front of the tub is a discarded soap wrapper upon which is written "soap horrific." From the bathroom door two old ladies look in on this scene. One says "He used to fall asleep in the bath until he tried Soap Hoffific." The pun below the picture reads: He isn't soporific when he uses Soap Horrific.

As with Simon's Saga, I would rate Picture These SAT Words! and Picture These SAT Words in a Flash very highly as advanced vocabulary building tools. The book teaches 300 important SAT words, and the box of flashcards is a selection of 200 words from the book. Both are fun and both have their advantages. The book has excellent exercises after each unit that reinforce the sound link and ensure that the words are learned. The set of flashcards offers the added dimension of fun and games.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Picture These SAT Words in a Flash [Cards]

Product Description:
Here is a highly effective and fun way for students to build their word power while they study in preparation for the SAT's Critical Reading and Writing Skills sections. This learning tool is a set of flash cards-but flash cards with a difference! The front side of each card presents a humorous cartoon, a visual pun that relates to the headword at the card's top. The pun supplies a clue to the word's meaning, which is presented on the reverse side, with examples of the word used in sentences. For example, the headword hierarchy is printed above a cartoon showing Noah examining his work chart at his ark-building factory. His chart shows diagrams of higher arks at its top, medium-high arks in the center, at lower arks at its bottom. The caption reads: "A higher ark he built in the hierarchy of arks," and the card's reverse side gives students the meaning of hierarchy: "arrangement by rank or standing." The boxed set contains a total of 200 vocabulary cards, each with its new word for test-takers to learn, its cartoon, and its pun.

Get 32% OFF

Want to buy Picture These SAT Words in a Flash [Cards] at other amazon sites? Click the corresponding icon below: