Improve Your GRE, GMAT And SAT Vocabulary With PowerVocab For iPhone (4.5/5)

Power Vocab by Faqden Labs (free in the App Store) is an learning tool to enhance your English vocabulary. The app consists of practice sessions, exams and detailed progress reports.

Built by MIT students, PowerVocab offers 694 words to aid in studying for GRE, GMAT and SAT exams. The app offers a practice session customized based on your expertise and comfort level.

As you progress in the practice session, the app learns which words you are having difficulty with. Not only do you get words to define, but the app truly helps you learn words by incorporating synonyms, antonyms and using the word in a sentence.

Upon launching the app, begin by setting your “self-rating,” based on your current vocabulary level. Once you click go, your practice session begins.

A different word is displayed on each screen and your task is to choose the correct definition for each. You have four multiple choice answers to pick from. Once you choose an answer, the correct answer highlights in green with any incorrect response in red. Need help pronouncing a word? Just tap the speaker image to have it read aloud.

PowerVocab keeps a running total of correct vs. incorrect answers. You can display additional statistics (within settings) that consists of expert level and word difficulty.

End the session at any time to reveal a detailed report showing total correct answers, time taken, average time per question and changes to your expert level. Also useful is the ability to e-mail and/or view answers.

By clicking the “report” tab from the main menu, you get an in-depth report that includes words mastered, test score and other useful stats.

When you’re ready to challenge yourself, click “test” to launch a 30 question timed exam. You’ll need to think quick as you have just seven minutes to complete.

The difficulty level for some words seemed a bit low in some cases and high in others. My expert level also dropped fast, from 6.3 to 4.1 even though I was had 74 of 100 answers correct in my practice session.

I’ve tried (and paid for) quite a few Android and iPhone apps to help me practice for the Air Force Officer Qualification Test and ASVAB. This is the best vocabulary building app I’ve found on either platform. I highly recommend downloading this amazingly free app. (4.5/5)