Our workbooks are nothing like the standard SAT or SSAT books you will find at the bookstore. That’s because they reflect our credo: “A solid academic foundation not only improves test scores – it lays the groundwork for future educational success.” For decades, we have helped our students excel on standardized tests and win entry to top prep schools, Catholic secondary schools, colleges, and universities by emphasizing the fundamentals: vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension, logic, and mathematical and scientific principles. Now we are offering our workbooks to the public for use by home school students and anyone who wants to master English and basic math. Our workbooks include plenty of examples and exercises, while allowing students to work at their own pace.
Vocabulary Workbooks
The Building English Vocabulary series guides a student through classical prefixes and roots that underlie challenging vocabulary. While Books I through III take the student through the Roman past, and Book IV the Greek, Introduction starts the journey with etymology from the Latin, the origins of that half of the English language that appeals to the intellect and sets a foundation for understanding great literature.
Images Building English Vocabulary with Etymology: An Introduction
Throughout Images, a student avails himself of time proven exercises to connect the prefixes and roots with the meanings of words. A student will discover that from just one root spring a variety of new words that in time yield an exponential growth in his knowledge of English. From cumulative review tests throughout the book, a student can gauge his success in mastering challenging vocabulary.
Buy Now Buy In BulkImages Building English Vocabulary with Etymology from Latin: Book I
Book I of the Building English Vocabulary series guides students through Latin prefixes, the alphabetical gamut from ab — and — ad — to — tri — unus — and vice, the building blocks of words from abhor and admonish — to triumvirate, unison, and viceroy. A student will discover that from just one prefix spring a variety of new words that in time yield an exponential growth in his knowledge of English. From cumulative review tests throughout the book, a student can gauge his success in mastering challenging vocabulary.
Buy Now Buy In BulkImages Building English Vocabulary with Etymology from Latin: Book II
Book II of the Building English Vocabulary series guides students through Latin roots, the alphabetical gamut from ac — and — alti — to miss — and — mob, the building blocks of words from acerbity and altitude — to emissary and mobilize. A student will discover that from just one root spring a variety of new words that in time yield an exponential growth in his knowledge of English. From cumulative review tests throughout the book, a student can gauge his success in mastering challenging vocabulary.
Buy Now Buy In BulkImages Building English Vocabulary with Etymology from Latin: Book III
Book III of the Building English Vocabulary series guides students through Latin roots, the alphabetical gamut from mon — and — mut — to — viv — and — volv, the building blocks of words from admonish and permutation — to convivial and devolve. A student will discover that from just one root spring a variety of new words that in time yield an exponential growth in his knowledge of English. From cumulative review tests throughout the book, a student can gauge his success in mastering challenging vocabulary.
Buy Now Buy In BulkImages Building English Vocabulary with Etymology from Greek: Book IV
Book IV of the Building English Vocabulary series guides students through Greek prefixes and roots, the alphabetical gamut from an — and — arch — to — syn — and — tom, the building blocks of words from anarchy and archangel — to synthetic and lobotomy. A student will discover that from just one root spring a variety of new words that in time yield an exponential growth in his knowledge of English. From cumulative review tests throughout the book, a student can gauge his success in mastering challenging vocabulary.
Buy Now Buy In BulkMath Workbooks
First Math Review
First Math Review provides a comprehensive coverage of the fundamentals of math from middle school to early high school: fractions, decimals, percent, basic algebra and geometry. For students with superior backgrounds, First Math refreshes lessons taught, some of which were not mastered. For students with average backgrounds, First Math Review reintroduces what needs to be strongly grasped and provides the exercises, including plentiful remedial exercises, to that end.
Buy Now Buy In BulkGrammar and Writing Workbooks
English grammar, syntax, and composition are not easy to master, even for native speakers. Imagine, then, the challenges that confront today’s Language Arts teachers in over-crowded public school classrooms filled with a mix of native and non- native speakers. During more than three decades of tutoring middle and high school students seeking admission to elite secondary schools and colleges, we have found that even private school pupils struggle with the finer points of usage and composition.
Popular culture and the computer revolution are not helping. Children today spend far less time reading books than watching television, playing electronic games, and texting. Contemporary books, which must compete with electronic media for children’s attention, are more likely to be filled with conversational slang than with the complex sentences and rich vocabulary of earlier children’s classics. The same advances that have led to an information explosion have resulted in an implosion of grammatical knowledge.
Hence these books on English, which teach the rules of grammar, syntax, and writing in a clear and systematic way. They also serve as workbooks, with plentiful exercises to help students identify and remedy their weak points. In the short term, these books will help middle and high school students perform better on standardized admissions tests, such as the SSAT and SAT. More importantly, the books prepare a strong foundation for the communication skills that will serve students throughout their lives.
English Structure
This first book in a series, English Structure, covers the different parts of speech and their roles in sentences. Students will learn how to diagram sentences, a task which graphically makes evident common errors such as writing sentence fragments, confusing the pronouns “I” and “me”, and using adjectives when adverbs are appropriate. Not all students will need this volume. Those who have read widely and well, or who already achieved a good grasp of grammar, may prefer to proceed directly to the next volume, Usage.
Buy Now Buy In BulkEnglish Structure and Usage: Book 1, Structure
This book teaches the rules of grammar, syntax, and writing in a clear and systematic way. It also serves a workbook, with plenty of exercises to help students identify and remedy their weak points. In the short term, this book will help middle and high school students perform better on standardized admissions tests, such as the SSAT and SAT. More importantly, it provides a strong foundation that will improve students’ communication skills throughout their lives.
Book I, “Structure,” covers the different parts of speech and their roles in sentences. Students will learn how to diagram sentences, which will help them avoid common errors such as: writing sentence fragments; confusing the use of “I” and “me”; and using adjectives when adverbs are appropriate.
Buy Now Buy In BulkThe English Sentence Up Close: Book I of Tools for Crafting Sharper, Stronger English
A sentence expresses a thought that a noun initiates and a verb completes. To understand how a sentence works, it is important to identify its noun subject — person, place, thing, or idea — and its verb — its action or being. Together these two attract adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions, parts from which spring phrases and clauses. All in concert complete a thought.
A good way to understand the workings of a sentence is by diagramming it to show them sketched out, each part in its proper spot on a line — horizontal, vertical, or slanted — the role of each clear in its relationship to the others. The diagram puts the sentence under an X-ray, letting the student see where his words fall, the better to set them right to express his complete thought, cutting a phrase here, moving a clause there. The English Sentence Up Close shows the student the layout of his words the better to get a grip on English.
Buy Now Buy In BulkEnglish Abused
A student striving to be an effective writer needs practice putting his thoughts on paper. Whether in letters, journal entries, reports, compositions, or essays —he will hone his skills over time, learning by doing. To undergird his progress, however, he should know the fundamentals of English: its structure, grammar, syntax, usage, and idiosyncrasies. To avoid pitfalls that can drag him down and to make his work sharper and stronger, the aspiring writer might well avail himself of English Abused.
Download Sample Buy Now Buy In BulkEnglish Mastery
English Mastery is the second book in a two part series on English grammar, the first book of which, English Abused, sets forth essential principles, which once mastered enhance a student’s writing skills. English Mastery continues from Abused, and at first provides an depth understanding of the role of phrases and clauses, the two basic building blocks of a sentence. With its copious exercises, Mastery then goes on, not only to reacquaint a student with all the basics, but also to challenge him with twenty tests of standard written English, each of which assesses his standing on the Writing section of the SAT. A student thus alerted to any deficiencies may return to Abused, review it further, and do likewise with Mastery. Then he would retake the tests. A diligent student, however, informed by the tests of his proficiency, however, comes to learn that in taking up the challenge of English Mastery books, he excels on a national level and has been encouraged to do so by the guided work he has done, such that what he has come to know he now can show.
Download Sample Buy Now Buy In BulkReading Comprehension
The word anthology comes to us from the Classical Greek anthos meaning flowers, and logia meaning collection. In time this collection came to be a selection of poems, wise sayings, stories, essays, and chronicles from history. Readers of all ages are invited to explore short examples of the works of the great and eloquent thinkers from over the centuries. Thus the armchair traveler can learn from the ideas expressed by Socrates in ancient Greece to those of Einstein in modern America.
Perspectives in Literature
The word anthology comes to us from the Classical Greek anthos meaning flowers, and logia meaning collection. In time this collection came to be a selection of poems, wise sayings, stories, essays, and chronicles from history. Today as a selection of such writings, this book invites the reader of all ages to explore short examples of the works of the great and eloquent thinkers from over the centuries.
Perspectives from History
The second volume in this series includes historical, scientific, and philosophical writings from the ancient Greeks and Romans through the early 20th century. It introduces the reader to great essayists from Michel Montaigne to Virginia Woolf; historians and political thinkers from Herodotus to William Jennings Bryan; and scientists from Hippocrates to Albert Einstein. Both books help students improve their reading comprehension for tests including the SSAT, SAT, ACT, GRE, and LSAT.
Buy Now Buy In BulkPerusals
The word anthology comes to us from the Classical Greek anthos meaning flowers, and logia meaning collection. In time this collection came to be a selection of poems, wise sayings, stories, essays, and chronicles from history. Today as a selection of such writings, Perusals, edited by John Willard, invites the reader of all ages to explore short examples of the works of the great and eloquent thinkers from over the centuries. Thus the armchair traveler can learn from the ideas expressed by Socrates in ancient Greece to those of Einstein in modern America. At his fingertips, the reader of Perusals discovers if his interpretations yield a proper understanding of the diverse and demanding material, especially if he avails himself of the penetrating questions that appear in exercises that follow each selection. By the same means, the pragmatic student facing a standardized test can test his wits and learn to score and rank his ability to handle demanding passages.
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