Android: GRE Vocabulary

Posted June 28, 2009 * Comments(5)

Here I promised some experiments in software development.

And I’ve started one recently. A beta version of my first Android application was released early today. It is my first ‘production’ written on Java application too.

The application is simply called GRE Vocabulary. Its goal is to help to learn words required for verbal section of GRE exam which tests knowledge of words and their meaning. Unlike other similar applications it is free and going to contain comprehensive list of words – not just 50-100 ‘preview’ words. Current release has only letter ‘A’ words but it includes 475 (!) words and definitions!
There is no doubts that user interface is not perfect but it is only beta. I have a good list of future features. Hopefully user’s feedback will help to prioritize it.

GRE Vocabulary

Feel free to comment on this post or leave your suggestions at Android Market.

Update 6/30: about 350 downloads after 2 days on the market. Added 184 letter ‘B’ words. Working on a feature to mark words.

5 Comments so far

  1. matt on November 1st, 2009

    Hi Alex,

    Thanks for the app- however the vocab is still very limited. Can you tell me about your workflow? Where are you getting the words from and how are you adding them? Perhaps several people could contribute to the word bank by picking different letters… Let me know.
    m

  2. Alexander on November 2nd, 2009

    Hey Matt, thank you for your comment.

    I used to collect words from GRE related public resources. However I have been thinking about new concept of the app since not everyone needs or even should memorize 12-15K words. The idea is to narrow words to the most essential and high-frequent ones as well as provide more solid UI for self-studying.

    Also I am open to any suggestions in case you want to contribute.

  3. Mani on April 5th, 2010

    Hey Alex :
    I downloaded this App and it works great .

    However, do you plan to make your source code available ?
    Is it possible to add a Feature to let the user provide a database of words ?

    For example , I could have my own list of words in a text file in the format ( “Word : Meaning ” ) and the application could use this file to show the words to the user.

    Regards
    Mani

  4. Alexander on April 7th, 2010

    Hey Mani,

    Thank you for your feedback. That helps me to develop better apps as well as inspires to keep them free.

    The GRE app is so simple so I have not even think about opening source code. But in general it is a great idea and I may open the code eventually when the application become more mature.

    Also thanks for the feature request I will consider adding it in future releases of the app.

  5. sourav on May 10th, 2011

    hi there,

    i was thinking about making a GRE app for android. if u kindly share the code for your app, it would be easier for me to enhance it with more entries. i am preparing for gre, so i could go on to improve your app. thanks in advance

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