I have now finished writing the suite of three Excel-based learning tools I’ve been working on for the past few weeks, and on this page I want to bring them together, summarise what they can do, and offer all the download links in one place.
Vocab Book
Vocab Book is a powerful, fully-featured vocabulary organiser with six different built-in tests that train the user in all four key areas of language acquisition: listening, speaking, reading and writing
- Source to target language ‘Accumulator’ test (uncover the answers one by one and tell Vocab Book whether you guessed the word or phrase correctly)
- Target to source language ‘Accumulator’ test (uncover the answers one by one and tell Vocab Book whether you guessed the word or phrase correctly)
- Source to target language question and answer (when prompted with the source language word or phrase, write it in the target language and Vocab Book will tell you whether you were correct)
- Target to source language question to answer (when prompted with the target language word or phrase, write it in the source language and Vocab Book will tell you whether you were correct)
- Multiple Choice
- Oral questions: The computer speaks words and phrases in the source language and the user has to write the correct translation
- Dictation: The computer speaks words and phrases in the target language and the user has to transcribe what he or she hears
- Pronunciation: The computer speaks words and phrases in the target language and the user has to pronounce the same phrases (using a microphone connected to their computer)
The workbook links directly to online dictionaries (opening definitions and translations in a Chrome browser tab) so words and phrases can be looked up with one click.
The user can enter up to 2000 words or phrases into any copy of Vocab Book (but you can have as many copies as you want).
After each test, the user receives a score, and can send the words and phrases they answered correctly to an archive list so that the next test only contains those items that have been answered incorrectly in the past.
The user can create Mp3 and paper-based vocab lists to self-test when away from the computer.
Supported languages are Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Spanish and Ukranian.
You can purchase Vocab Book securely through PayPal (it’s $5 Australian) by following this link. If you aren’t sure whether to take the plunge and spend a whole $5 on Vocab Book, you might want to download and try Vocab Book Lite, a limited version with only three built-in tests and no facility to create an Mp3 or printed book of your vocab list. You’ll also be reassured to know that I’m happy to provide a no quibbles 14-day refund to anyone who purchases Vocab Book only to find it doesn’t work on their machine.
Revision Aid
Revision Aid is a free tool to help you revise for tests and exams. You can use it for testing yourself on anything that can be expressed in a question and answer form, like mathematical equations, facts, formulae, or historical dates.
Test yourself in four different ways:
- question to answer
- answer to question
- multiple choice question to answer
- multiple choice answer to question
After each test, the user receives a score, and can send the words and phrases they answered correctly to an archive list so that the next test only contains those items that have been answered incorrectly in the past.
The download link can be found here.
Memorise It
Memorise It is a free Excel-based memory tool that helps you to remember facts, poetry, lines for a play, or any other text you need to commit to memory. Test yourself on your memory texts in three ways:
- multiple choice
- question and answer
- cloze (fill in the gaps)
After each test, the user receives a score, and can send the words and phrases they answered correctly to an archive list so that the next test only contains those items that have been answered incorrectly in the past.
Here is the download link.
Let me know if you find any bugs, or if there are any additional features you would like to see in future versions. I hope they help you learn stuff!