Build your vocabulary skills! : a quick and easy method

Product description This book uses a powerful mnemonic technique, the keyword method, to lock 1413 SAT and GRE words into the reader's memory quickly and easily. Dramatic improvements can be made in vocabulary size, reading comprehension, and scores on verbal exams. Since standard intelligence tests have significant verbal components, a major increase in vocabulary should increase IQ scores. Here's how it works: Take the word DEFENESTRATE, which means to throw out of a window. If you already know that word, you probably don't need this book. DEFENESTRATE is too limited in use to be in the book, but we want to demonstrate the method by having you actually learn a new word. The next time you encounter DEFENESTRATE, think DEFEND THE STREET. That's called the "key." Now, to "link" the key to the definition, imagine your town invaded by enemy troops, and citizens defending the streets by throwing objects out of the windows at them. So, in the format of Build Your Vocabulary Skills!, we have the following: DEFENESTRATE (duh FEN es trate) to throw out of a window KEY: DEFEND THE STREET LINK SENTENCE: The townfolk defended their streets against the enemy invaders by throwing things out of the windows at them. Now, answer the following without looking at the above: DEFENESTRATE What is the KEY? What is the LINK SENTENCE? So, what does DEFENESTRATE mean? Drill yourself on this a couple of times and you'll never forget it. We have no suggestions as to how you could work this word into a conversation, but Build Your Vocabulary Skills! has over 1400 more useful words, each with pronunciaton, definition, key and links, so don't defenestrate this book on that account. From the Author Research studies have demonstrated that the keyword method used in this book is not only the most efficient method of learning word definitions, but also of increasing reading comprehension. Build Your Vocabulary Skills! A Quick and Easy Method contains 1413 words defined and linked to their definitions by keys and link sentences. The words were derived from study lists for tests such as the SAT and the GRE. Imagine the benefits of expanding your vocabulary or that of your children or students by over a thousand important words. You will read with more precise comprehension. No longer will you constantly skim over unfamiliar words. The new words learned will jump out of the pages with exact definitions. Words read repeatedly will become part of the active vocabulary -- the vocabulary used in writing and speech. The most immediate and dramatic benefit will be higher scores on scholastic tests. Build Your Vocabulary Skills! can be a valuable tool in preparing for tests such as the SAT, the GRE, the Miller Analogies, or any test in which vocabulary is a significant factor. And an exciting possibility presents itself: Since verbal skills constitute an important part of standard intelligence tests such as the WAIS and the Stanford-Binet, a major increase in vocabulary such as can be facilitated by this book could be expected to raise IQ scores. About the Author John LaCarna holds a Master of Social Work degree, and a BA in psychology with a minor in journalism, both from Louisiana State University, and is licensed as a social worker in Louisiana. His varied experience in the behavioral sciences includes work for the Department of Education of Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La, where he served as a member of a team that evaluated primary and secondary school children and made recommendations for placement in special classes for the talented and gifted, or for those with learning disabilities or mental handicaps. His wife, Gustavia LaCarna, RN, and he have operated their business LaCarna Health Care Consultants, Inc. in Baton Rouge, since l988, primarily working with group homes for the developmentally disabled. Mr. LaCarna has developed numerous research and demonstration grants in various areas of the behavioral sciences, and has had professional articles pu