Vocablo 2 vocabulary trainer

Summary

Apps that help students practice their vocabularies are great little inventions. If you’re a student you will see the value in this—be it to help you practice for spelling bees, little tests, big exams, A/O levels, SATs… Vocablo 2 vocabulary trainer is such an app—read on to find out what we think of it!

BTW – applications that help users work on their language skills are useful to everyone, not just students! It's great for people learning to speak a new language, or looking to build up their vocabulary (in their native language or a foreign one).

Test device:
-HTC Desire with 2.3.7 (Root und Custom ROM)

The first thing you will see upon opening Vocablo 2 vocabulary trainer are the main functions which include Library, Import, Languages, Help, Dictionary and of course options to quiz users.

The first step is to set up so-called libraries which can then be used to divide lists of words into categories. So, for instance, if you are studying for a language test you could set up a ‘French – English basics’ folder, or a ‘French – English advanced’ one. You can then add words to the libraries. A neat function: enter a word in the original language and Vocablo will provide the translation for you (via Google Translate). What this boils down to is that you save quite a bit of time, seeing as you only have to enter words in one language rather than two (provided, of course, that Google Translate comes up with the translation you are looking for, which isn’t always the case).

So how does the system help a user practice his/her vocabulary? Libraries is divided into five phases. In the first phase, the entire list of words gets asked. All correct answers make it into the next phase, whereas the wrong answers get knocked back to the previous phase. This process ensures that users will be familiar with all lexemes once they get to the final phase. All the different phases are displayed when you select a library. You can also select in which phase-sequence you want the system to quiz you. Listening to words is also possible.

Vocablo 2 vocabulary trainer comes with a great import option. This allows users to create and edit their vocab lists on their own computers / download them from dict.cc and then import them to the app. The application supports the following formats: ".voc", ".csv" and ".txt".

There are 37 languages to choose from—not bad! Expect that the list of available languages does not include Latin. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think learning Latin (or at least studying the history of Ancient Rome (and all ancient societies)) is a wonderful contribution to an individual’s career as a student.

Bottom line:
Vocablo 2 vocabulary trainer is a good tool for practicing one’s vocabulary on the go, but there are some more advanced / user friendly apps out there. The main drawback with Vocablo 2 vocabulary trainer is that it is missing a few functions that other apps are already featured, such as a syncing option on the UI or detailed statistics. On a more positive note (and to help cancel out the missing sync option): the app integrates words translated by Google Translate, and it features an import function.
 

Using Vocablo 2 vocabulary trainer is nice and easy, but we were not overly impressed with the application’s graphics. While it is perfectly function, it’s certainly no awesome feat in design.

Vocablo 2 vocabulary trainer does very well indeed in this section: it is extremely fluid and reliable.

Vocablo 2 vocabulary trainer can be downloaded for 2,49€ from the Android Market. There are other apps out there that offer more features and are cheaper or free.
If you’ve already paid for and installed Vocablo 1 you won’t need to repurchase. Please read the information listed in the app description for more details.