Instructify

May 14, 2010

I am a bit of an oddity in that I enjoyed taking the SAT, ACT, and GRE a great deal. Perhaps I’m just wired for that kind of thing, or maybe I’m a bit of an educational sadist. For many people who aren’t me, though, these tests and the preparation they require causes a great deal of stress and anxiety. If you have students sporting a twitching eye and worn-out appearance due to preparing for a standardized test, perhaps it’s time they checked out VocabSushi.

VocabSushi is a free vocabulary-preparation tool with a slick look and a Zen-like calming approach to studying vocabulary. Unlike the popular preparation tools with those imposing pages of nothing but vocabulary to study and memorize, VocabSushi gives you the content in manageable portions and has great ways to track progress.

While you can use the site without signing up for an account (again, it’s totally free), signing up makes VocabSushi much more useful. It asks what test you’re preparing for, and then it gives you an assessment test to gauge where you’re at skill-wise. Using that data, VocabSushi tailors your experience to challenge but not overwhelm you.

There are great tools to track your progress and it really gives students a sense of accomplishment when they finish a list of words and can see a visual representation — in this case, virtual pieces of sushi — of how far their vocabulary has expanded.

Whether you have a student who needs that extra boost for the SAT or you’re just sick of getting crushed at Scrabble, VocabSushi is a great tool to expand your knowledge of the English language. The only drawback I see is that it really makes me want to eat sushi all the time!

VocabSushi