AndMemory Vocabulary Trainer

Summary

Having just completed my last college exam (cheers for me!), I know what it means to cram important vocabulary and terms before an important test or quiz. According to my language teachers in high school and at university, you have to repeat a word at least 20 times out loud in order to commit it to memory.

The only to make this tedious process bearable is to add some fun to the mix. Learning through playing is one of the best ways to memorize vocabulary and that’s exactly what AndMemory Vocabulary Trainer sets out to do.

Without the proper vocabulary it’s pretty difficult to get your point across in a foreign language. Stopping every couple of seconds to search for words will make interaction with people in a foreign country both frustrating and cumbersome. This may sound like something from your grade school teacher, but don’t forget your vocab!

Learn by playing
That’s exactly the guiding principle behind AndMemory Vocabulary Trainer. It helps you memorize long lists of vocabulary and prepare your for the upcoming vocab quiz. While this app may not guarantee you getting an A+ on your next test, it is definitely a great way to learn. Memorizing stuff from pages in your textbook is – in my opinion – usually a total waste of time. It doesn’t help you build associations and understand the meaning of words, but rather makes you memorize where the words are on the page.

By learning vocabulary through a memory board, you don’t have that problem. Another advantage is that you have to actually think if the words (as sounds or pictures) you flip actually match each other. More often than not a lot of the vocab words start sounding very similar after hours of studying.
Unfortunately, the Vocabulary Trainer lacks a setting to allow certain difficult words to appear more often than others. The only workaround this problem is to enter the same term multiple times in your vocab list.

Customize on your own
AndMemory Vocabulary Trainer isn’t just limited to a specific set of word pairs: you can add your own. Manually entering in new vocab words on your Android keyboard is obviously a big pain in the butt. That’s why you should take advantage of the developer’s website to download a simple program that helps you create quick word pairs. The generated file should be saved to /sdcard/andmemory public/import and then uploaded to the app via the import button.

Multuimedia on Board
What makes this app particularly unique is the fact that it supports both audio files and pictures. As a result, you can create your own vocabulary training programs where you can combine the way a word is pronounced to the way it is spelled. There are a ton of different learning options that you can make. This is obviously extremely practical, but it’s still disappointing that you have to spend time adding your own vocab.

Good Yet Limited
What I mean by that is the content! Although the app includes the following language combinations:

• English – Italian
• English – German
• English – French
• German – French
• German – Italian

Each language includes a couple hundred word pairs that come with the app, but you’ll have to add your own words if you need to go beyond that number.

Listening and understanding with Text-to-Speech and Stats

I won’t argue with the fact that robotic voices are unrealistic, sound awful and are often difficult to understand. Despite all of this, the Text-to-Speech function is an important feature of this app. If you are completely clueless as to how to pronounce a certain word, the robotic voice at least gives you a general understanding of how to pronounce it. Just try not to speak in the same robot voice to your language teacher in class unless you want to score some embarrassing laughs from your peers.

The integrated statistics help you keep track of your progress in a simple and understandable manner.

Bottom Line:
The general concept is awesome: learn your vocab by playing on the go.

Pros:
Learn by playing
Expandable vocabulary lists
Use both audio files and pictures
Track your progress with statistics
Text-to-Speech for pronounciation

Cons:
Limited basic vocabulary list with just 120-170 words
No way to increase the difficulty level

If you answer correctly, the Android jumps up in the air from joy. If you answer incorrectly, a red Android falls through the ground. That’s a nice little addition to keep you motivated. Other than that, AndMemory Vocabulary Trainer sticks to the basics.

Just tap the memory cards to flip them over and see if they match. Doesn’t get any easier than that.
 

AndMemory Vocabulary Trainer performed quickly and reliably during our test. Importing word lists is also fast and without any issues.

AndMemory Vocabulary Trainer can be downloaded for free the AndroidPIT App Center.