We don't need no stinking flashcards!

February 22, 2010 10:15 PM

Ever wanted to know how you would do on the SAT verbal? Feel like showing off at cocktail parties that you know the capitals of Africa and the Middle East? Now you can!

Smart FM is a smart, friendly little site designed to help you learn what you want to learn as you like. It helps you set goals, track progress, and then guides you through interactive tutorials to achieve those goals. Go learn erudite English today and impress your friends and enemies!

posted by the_royal_we (23 comments total)

I can't find the part where it teaches me how to get invited to cocktail parties.
posted by planet at 10:21 PM on February 22, 2010 [6 favorites]

I'm so beyond erudite English that I intentionally speak a Latka Gravas-esque pidgin idiolect all day at work.
posted by orthogonality at 10:34 PM on February 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'm going to wait until someone here points out exactly what is wrong with this site and its approach that makes it completely useless and a waste of time before I sign up and be subject to their monthly email newsletter or whatever
posted by Throw away your common sense and get an afro! at 10:41 PM on February 22, 2010 [4 favorites]

The capital of Bahrain is Manamana? I guess I need this site more than I knew.
posted by pracowity at 10:47 PM on February 22, 2010

I'd tried this a few weeks ago and didn't really like the interface. Too similar to flashcards, too clunky. I'm a big fan of Sporcle for stuff like this (comparable examples: vocabulary, African capitals). I grant that smart.fm is more customizable and geared towards progressive learning, but it's just not as simple or as fun.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:01 PM on February 22, 2010

comparable examples: vocabulary

I'm not sure how anyone would be able to do well on that unless they'd memorized the list of words and definitions exactly. I mean how would you associate with "Subject to whim, fickle" with "Capricious" specifically. There are lots of words that have similar meanings.
posted by delmoi at 11:27 PM on February 22, 2010

Yeah, that was kind of a poor example. That one was actually a user-created quiz; I picked it because it was the only explicitly "SAT vocab" one on the site. There are a lot of pretty great language quizzes, but they're more like "Name the words that end in -ious" with easier definitions rather than rigorous SAT prep. Here's the official language category if you want to browse (warning: addictive).
posted by Rhaomi at 11:40 PM on February 22, 2010

Quizlet kills this
posted by Joseph Gurl at 12:08 AM on February 23, 2010

This site is fantastic. I have no idea what their business model is, but I hope it's a sustainable one. The site is clean and advertisement free, filled with high quality content (at least for the language I've been studying). Take a look at the tour video for an overview of the ideas behind the site. I've been using it for several months now, and I've found it actually useful.
posted by lucidprose at 12:11 AM on February 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is the worst user interface I have ever seen for anything, ever. It sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks.

I feel like an old humanities major trying to install linux using this fucking thing. It's just awful.

Piety. Piety.

Stop talking! What do you want me to click on, fucker?


This is the worst thing ever.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:47 AM on February 23, 2010 [3 favorites]

This is the worst thing ever.

Yeah, I gave up when they gave me eight wordy definitions and demanded I pick the correct one in 10 seconds or whatever. Ridiculous.
posted by delmoi at 3:53 AM on February 23, 2010

Yeah, it was waaayy too clunky to use. And it wasn't fun at all; so tedious! It definitely felt like I was working/studying more so than when I took vocabulary in school. At least then Mrs. Petty gave us Jolly Ranchers for getting them right!
posted by bluefly at 4:12 AM on February 23, 2010

I am so stupid. :(
posted by Chorian at 4:25 AM on February 23, 2010

The quizzes might make me smarter, but using that interface makes me stupider. I'll call it even and not waste my time.
posted by scrowdid at 5:47 AM on February 23, 2010

Is this like sporcle for smarmy jackasses?
posted by Pollomacho at 7:02 AM on February 23, 2010

I scored an 800 on the SAT Verbal and was so excited. A perfect on the verbal! Ah, I was proud. My parents were proud. Admissions officers were indifferent, "Ah let's see here ... 800 on the verbal, but it is really the math that counts."
posted by geoff. at 7:04 AM on February 23, 2010

Geoff: so NOT true for the National Merit Scholarships. Verbal counts double.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:41 AM on February 23, 2010

I'm ashamed to say I don't know the capital of Africa. Or the Middle East.
posted by troybob at 9:23 AM on February 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

The capital of Africa is Hotel Rwanda.

The capital of the Middle East is Aladdin's Palace.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:45 AM on February 23, 2010

Geoff: so NOT true for the National Merit Scholarships. Verbal counts double.

So THAT explains it! For years I've pondered how someone who was a late math-bloomer was able to get a NMS. Now I know.

Thanks!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 12:05 PM on February 23, 2010

Verbal counts double.

And SATs don't count at all. It's the PSAT that counts, and all three portions are weighted equally.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 12:31 PM on February 23, 2010

Geoff: so NOT true for the National Merit Scholarships. Verbal counts double.

I don't think so. National Merit Scholarships are based on raw PSAT scores with the cutoff depending on state. Nothing is counted twice, unless you're referring to it having both writing and reading.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 6:06 PM on February 23, 2010

And actually there's no "SAT Verbal" anymore at all. There are three sections: Math, Critical Reading, and Writing.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 2:38 PM on February 24, 2010