Vocaboly

A friend is preparing to take the GRE. He took it before - about 20 years ago - and needs to take it again. One of the most challenging parts of the GRE is the vocabulary section - lots of really vague similes. I decided to give this vocabulary software a spin to see if it would help him.

Vocaboly sports a fairly easy to use interface once you get used to the navigation. Each screen takes up the entire window and you are presented with a "return" button instead of the normal windows navigation - like clicking the X in the upper right corner to close the window.

The demo version only uses the Windows Speech to pronounce words but the licensed version claims to have better voice overs. This is good, because I bet Windows Speech doesn't get some GRE-level words right.

The Free Study mode and quizzes were OK. The "Star War" game was pretty cool - especially in "Meaning" mode where you have to click on the right multiple choice definition to zap a word before it scrolls down the screen.

For GRE prep, though, Vocaboly completely lacks antonyms and synonyms - much less similes. But the basic structure is there and maybe future versions will round things out.

Another gripe - the registration fee is $39.95. That's pretty steep educational software. But it would be reasonable if it did a better job of GRE prep. In fact, I'd recommend to the authors that they sell a basic version for, say, $14.95 and then a GRE-focused one with synonyms, antonyms and similes for $39.95.