How to learn English Vocabulary efficiently

As some of you know, I am now the Founder & CEO of TrueShelf Inc, an EdTech startup based in the Bay Area. TrueShelf is aimed at developing platform, content and products to aid intuitive, visual, social, adaptive and personalized learning. TrueShelf consists of two main components: TrueShelf Online Network and TrueShelf Apps. Read our FAQ for more details.

Today’s post is about TrueShelf apps, intuitive and visual learning apps that are carefully designed to help students learn specific concepts in a systematic and adaptive manner.

Recently we released our True Vocabulary app, our first adaptive learning app. The existing solutions to learn english vocabulary are either too hard-to-use and/or expensive and/or old-fashioned (e.g. flashcards). Our app is focused primarily on automatic personalization and ease-of-use. It has already received more than 25,000 downloads on the iOS app store. If you are preparing for GRE, SAT, GMAT, ACT, CAT or simply interested in improving your english vocabulary, True Vocabulary app provides an efficient and elegant step by step adaptive learning process. It is an intelligent personalized vocabulary tutor.

True Vocabulary uses an intelligent algorithm (based on the concepts of spaced repetition, Leitner system and lexical cohesion) to design adaptive multiple-choice vocabulary quizzes. Learning tasks are divided into small sets of multiple-choice quizzes designed to help you master the basic words before moving on to the advanced words. Words closely related to your hardest words are selected more frequently in the quizzes. For a fixed word, the correct and wrong answers are selected adaptively giving rise to hundreds of combinations. After each wrong answer, you receive a detailed feedback with the meaning and usage of the corresponding word. Coins, Gems and Levels are unlocked adaptively to motivate, evaluate and reward the learner.

Download our True Vocabulary App and let me know your feedback (or) suggest new features.

This is just the beginning of our journey to make education elegant, efficient and painless for hundreds of thousands of students and teachers. In future posts, I will talk more about TrueShelf’s vision and roadmap. Stay tuned.

How to learn Vocabulary efficiently ?

Today’s post is very similar to one of my earlier posts titled “How to teach Algorithms ?“. In that earlier post, I announced an Algorithms App for iPad. Recently, I ported Algorithms App to Mac. Today’s post is about “How to learn Vocabulary efficiently ?”.

This summer, I went to a local bookstore to checkout the vocabulary section. There are several expensive books with limited number of practice tests. I also noticed a box of paper flashcards (with only 300 words) for around $25 !!! After doing some more research, I realized that the existing solutions (to learn english vocabulary) are either too hard to use and/or expensive and/or old-fashioned.

So I started building an app with ‘adaptiveness’ and ‘usability’ as primary goals. The result is the Vocabulary App (for iPhone and iPad). Here is a short description of my app.

Vocabulary app uses a sophisticated algorithm (based on spaced repetition and Leitner system) to design adaptive multiple-choice vocabulary questions. It is built on a hypergraph of words constructed using lexical cohesion.

Learning tasks are divided into small sets of multiple-choice tests designed to help you master basic words before moving on to advanced words. Words that you have the hardest time are selected more frequently. For a fixed word, the correct and wrong answers are selected adaptively giving rise to hundreds of combinations. After each wrong answer, you receive a detailed feedback with the meaning and usage of the underlying word.

Works best when used every day. Take a test whenever you have free time.

Go ahead and download the Vocabulary App and let me know your feedback/opinion (or) suggest new features.

At any given waking moment I spend my time either (1) math monkeying around (or) (2) code monkeying around. During math monkeying phase, I work on math open problems (currently related to directed minors). During code monkeying phase, I work on developing apps (currently Algorithms App, Vocabulary App) or adding new features to my websites TrueShelf or Polytopix. I try to maintain a balance between (1) and (2), subject to the nearest available equipment (a laptop or pen-and-paper). My next post will be on one of my papers (on directed minors) that is nearing completion. Stay tuned.