{"id":1479,"date":"2015-03-27T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T16:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=1479"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:46:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:46:17","slug":"book-review-princeton-reviews-essential-toefl-vocabulary-flashcards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/book-review-princeton-reviews-essential-toefl-vocabulary-flashcards\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Princeton Review&#8217;s Essential TOEFL Vocabulary Flashcards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(<strong>NOTE:<\/strong> The TOEFL books that Magoosh reviews and recommends reflect the older, pre-August 2019 version of the test. As of this writing, there are no TOEFL prep books that reflect the newest version of the test. Fortunately, older-format books are still very useful in prepping for the current TOEFL. For details on this, see Magoosh&#8217;s tutorial on <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-2019-format-changes-length-timing-scoring-and-preparation\/#oldprep\">using older prep for the 2019 TOEFL<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Essential-TOEFL-Vocabulary-flashcards-Preparation\/dp\/0375429662\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2015\/03\/Essential-TOEFL-Vocabulary-flashcards-Test-Preparation-9780375429668_-Princeton-Review.jpg\" alt=\"Essential-TOEFL-Vocabulary-flashcards-Test-Preparation-9780375429668_-Princeton-Review\" width=\"283.1\" height=\"260\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1481\" align=\"left\"style=\"padding-right: 10px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2015\/03\/Essential-TOEFL-Vocabulary-flashcards-Test-Preparation-9780375429668_-Princeton-Review.jpg 429w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2015\/03\/Essential-TOEFL-Vocabulary-flashcards-Test-Preparation-9780375429668_-Princeton-Review-300x276.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 429px) 100vw, 429px\" \/><\/a>Flashcards are an interesting study tool. On the one hand, they over-simplify vocabulary growth. To really improve your vocabulary, you need to do more than just work through flashcards. You need to see the words in real English texts, hear them in conversation, and actually use the words yourself. Flashcards are just a small part of vocabulary improvement. So a product that is <em>only<\/em> flashcards, without any other training material, cannot be enough alone to improve your vocabulary. You will also need to get that real-life practice, or at least use fill-in-the-blank style exercises to show the <em>context<\/em> of a new word. The largest flaw of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Essential-TOEFL-Vocabulary-flashcards-Preparation\/dp\/0375429662\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">McGraw-Hill\u2019s flashcards<\/a> is simply that they are just flashcards. <\/p>\n<p>But they are undoubtedly <em>good<\/em> flashcards. They include example sentences, synonyms, pronunciation, and definitions. All of that information is important for the TOEFL. They\u2019re also very helpful words\u2014you will see very, very many of these 500 words on a TOEFL.<\/p>\n<p>And that brings me to <em>Essential TOEFL Vocabulary<\/em>\u2019s second major flaw: the words are too easy, on average. An advanced student who wants a 90+ or 100+ TOEFL score will only need a fraction of these words. Most of the flashcards in this box will go unused for a student like that, because the vocabulary is basic. Words like \u201cdifference,\u201d for example, help very few TOEFL students. If you are reading this, you are too advanced for \u2153 of the words in this box, possibly many more. <\/p>\n<p>But for lower-level students, this may be the best set of TOEFL flashcards out there. If you mix them with vocabulary in <em>practice<\/em>, such as what you find in Collins\u2019 <em><a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/english-book-review-vocabulary-and-grammar-for-the-toefl-test\/\">Vocabulary and Grammar for the TOEFL Test<\/a><\/em>, you will have a powerful tool for learning new words.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(NOTE: The TOEFL books that Magoosh reviews and recommends reflect the older, pre-August 2019 version of the test. As of this writing, there are no TOEFL prep books that reflect the newest version of the test. Fortunately, older-format books are still very useful in prepping for the current TOEFL. For details on this, see Magoosh&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13602],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13628],"class_list":["post-1479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prep"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Book Review: Princeton Review&#039;s Essential TOEFL Vocabulary Flashcards - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/book-review-princeton-reviews-essential-toefl-vocabulary-flashcards\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review: Princeton Review&#039;s Essential TOEFL Vocabulary Flashcards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(NOTE: The TOEFL books that Magoosh reviews and recommends reflect the older, pre-August 2019 version of the test. 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For details on this, see Magoosh&#8217;s [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/book-review-princeton-reviews-essential-toefl-vocabulary-flashcards\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-27T16:00:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-10T21:46:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2015\/03\/Essential-TOEFL-Vocabulary-flashcards-Test-Preparation-9780375429668_-Princeton-Review.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lucas Fink\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lucas Fink\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/book-review-princeton-reviews-essential-toefl-vocabulary-flashcards\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/book-review-princeton-reviews-essential-toefl-vocabulary-flashcards\/\",\"name\":\"Book Review: Princeton Review's Essential TOEFL Vocabulary Flashcards - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-27T16:00:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/c06e6a007d0b81117c00610ed88b6c7d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/book-review-princeton-reviews-essential-toefl-vocabulary-flashcards\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/book-review-princeton-reviews-essential-toefl-vocabulary-flashcards\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/book-review-princeton-reviews-essential-toefl-vocabulary-flashcards\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book Review: Princeton Review&#8217;s Essential TOEFL Vocabulary Flashcards\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/\",\"name\":\"Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\",\"description\":\"Online TOEFL Preparation\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/c06e6a007d0b81117c00610ed88b6c7d\",\"name\":\"Lucas Fink\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/23cc892a81aad0b2904e4f690b7e865a\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f798c830d96fa5dd3ad9b315d568569879bff638b794899ecd3c8ce9f5fa932b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f798c830d96fa5dd3ad9b315d568569879bff638b794899ecd3c8ce9f5fa932b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lucas Fink\"},\"description\":\"Lucas is the teacher behind Magoosh TOEFL. 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