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Marie’s Words: Picture Words—In a Flash!®

Marie’s Words

Marie’s Words: Picture Words—In a Flash!® is a set of 550 flash cards, each 2.5” x 3.5.” These cards were created by a high school junior preparing for the SAT® test to help study for the vocabulary portion. Words are selected from those commonly used in the SAT as well as those appearing frequently in literature. Marie's Words are ideal for junior and senior high students, but younger children might also use them.

Cards feature full-color illustrations on one side, then on the reverse are a phonetic pronunciation, definition and part of speech, the word used in a sentence, synonyms, and antonyms. Note that knowledge of synonyms and antonyms is extremely helpful for the SAT.

Cards arrive in alphabetical order and they are numbered so that you can more easily reorganize them if need be. Cards also have a hole punched in the top left corner so you can put a group on a ring for easier handling or portability.

The hand-drawn pictures on the cards are intended to illustrate the word in a way that helps the learner recall the meaning more easily. For example, the words abate begins large and gradually diminishes in size. Pervasive is illustrated by what looks like a map of the U.S. showing airline hubs and routes that cover the country. Scrupulous is illustrated by a man cleaning a toilet with brush the size of a toothbrush, and the word has a b inserted in small type in parentheses to help make the connection to scrubbing: SCRU(B)PULOUS.

Illustrations are often quite creative, some are silly, and some take a bit of imagination to figure out. The publisher’s website says that many of the illustrations “use historical, geographical, scientific, cultural and generational references as a mnemonic tool for easy learning.” So I might be missing some of the generational references! Whatever the case, for a visual learner, the illustrations should be a big help in mastering the meanings of these words.

A few more sample cards may be viewed on the publisher’s website. Cards may be purchased as a boxed set or as apps for the iPad, iPhone, or Android phones.