How VocabBondhu Works

ভোকাব বন্ধু কীভাবে কাজ করে

A complete guide to picking the right word lists, learning mode, and daily routine for your goal — whether you're a school student, an IELTS candidate, or a working professional.

Why vocabulary first?

Research in second-language acquisition is consistent: at every level of English, vocabulary size is the single strongest predictor of reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and exam scores. Grammar lets you build sentences; vocabulary is what fills them.

VocabBondhu is built around 7,189 carefully chosen English words, each paired with its Bengali meaning, definition, example sentence, and audio. Rather than throwing all of them at you, the app groups them into four scholarly word lists so you can target the right slice for your situation.

The four categories, explained

The English word lists in VocabBondhu come from four authoritative sources, each with a clear focus:

1. General Service

The foundation: ~2,500 words that cover roughly 90% of everyday English text and conversation. Anchored on the New General Service List (Browne & Culligan, 2013), supplemented with additional high-frequency words from earlier research.

Best for: anyone starting out, learners who want broad fluency, daily readers/writers, and anyone preparing for SSC-level English. Look for the small NGSL badge — those are the highest-priority general-service words.

2. Academic Word List (AWL)

Coxhead's 570 word families that appear consistently across academic disciplines — humanities, sciences, business, law. Master these and you understand the connective tissue of every textbook, journal article, and lecture you'll encounter at university.

Best for: HSC students, undergraduates, IELTS / TOEFL / GRE candidates, anyone reading academic English.

3. Academic Keyword List (AKL)

Paquot's curated list of the most useful academic keywords — the verbs, nouns, and connectors that academic writing actually relies on (e.g. argue, suggest, evidence, however). Smaller and more focused than the AWL.

Best for: learners writing academic essays, dissertations, or research papers; IELTS Writing Task 2 preparation.

4. Subject Specific

UEfAP's field-specific vocabulary — medicine, law, business, computer science, environmental science, mathematics, music, and more. Words you need only when working or studying in that field, but that you genuinely need to know.

Best for: professionals or students in a specific discipline; nobody needs all of these, but everyone needs some subset.

Recommended learning paths

Pick the audience that best matches your goal:

School student (Class 6–10 / SSC)

  1. Start with General Service → NGSL-badged words. These cover almost everything you read in textbooks, novels, and exam comprehensions.
  2. Aim for 20 new words a day. Use Flashcards for new words; Quiz mode the next day to consolidate.
  3. Once you can comfortably read an English newspaper, add a few AWL words a week to prepare for HSC.

College / university student (HSC, undergraduate)

  1. Confirm your General Service base — quickly run through Quiz mode filtered to General Service to find gaps.
  2. Move to the Academic Word List as your main daily focus. Flashcards in the morning, Quiz in the evening.
  3. Optionally layer your Subject Specific field (medicine, law, business, etc.) for terminology you'll see in your courses.

IELTS / TOEFL / GRE candidate

  1. Academic Word List + Academic Keyword List are your highest-yield targets — these dominate IELTS reading, listening, and writing.
  2. Use Fill in the Blanks for productive recall practice (the kind of effort that helps you actually write/say words, not just recognise them).
  3. Use audio pronunciation daily — your IELTS Listening score depends on hearing connected speech correctly.

Professional in a specific field

  1. Filter Browse by the Subject Specific subject closest to your work (e.g. Health Sciences, Computer Science, Business, Criminal Law).
  2. Use Flashcards in 10-minute sessions — short and frequent beats long and rare.
  3. Keep a parallel review of Academic Word List if you read English research, manuals, or reports.

General improvement / daily reader

  1. Open Browse and filter by NGSL badge — these are the 2,809 most useful general-English words across any category.
  2. Set a daily target of 10–15 new words. Consistency beats intensity for vocabulary.
  3. Use the Quiz mode 1–2 times a week to convert recognition into recall.

The four learning modes

Each mode is designed for a different stage of the learning loop:

🔍

Browse

Discover. Filter by category, subject, or part of speech. Use this when you're building a session or exploring a field.

🃏

Flashcards

Learn. Animated card flip; mark each word as “I Know This” or “Still Learning”. The best mode for first exposure.

✏️

Quiz (MCQ)

Test. Multiple-choice with instant feedback. The best mode for spaced review — use a day or two after Flashcards.

📝

Fill in the Blanks

Apply. Context sentence completion — the hardest mode and the one that builds productive recall for writing exams.

Spaced repetition (SM-2)

Every word you interact with is tracked by an SM-2 spaced-repetition algorithm— the same algorithm Anki and SuperMemo use. Simply put: words you know well are shown to you less often; words you forgot are shown more often. The algorithm increases the gap between reviews each time you get a word right, so you spend the least possible time on words you've mastered, and the most time on words you're actually forgetting.

You don't have to think about this — just use the app daily and the schedule takes care of itself.

A realistic daily routine

  1. Morning (10 min) — Flashcards on 20 new words from your chosen category. Listen to the audio for each.
  2. Lunch (5 min) — Quiz mode on yesterday's words. Aim for > 80% correct before moving on.
  3. Evening (5 min) — Browse and read one example sentence aloud per word. Reading aloud is wildly underrated for vocabulary retention.

That's 20 minutes a day. Over 90 days, that's ~1,800 new words — enough to cross the threshold from “I read English with a dictionary” to “I read English without one.”

Auto-progression in Flashcards & Quiz

Once you pick a learning goal in Settings, Flashcards and Quiz will automatically draw from your currently active category. As soon as you have seen every word in that category at least once, the next category in your sequence unlocks and becomes active. You never have to manually pick a category — but you always can from Browse.

The five audience-specific paths above map to three Settings presets: Beginner / General improvement (school + general), Academic / Test prep (college + IELTS), and Professional (specific field). Or pick Custom and drag the four categories into any order you like.

Ready to start?

Open Browse, pick your category, and run a Flashcard session. It's free, no account is required, and your progress is saved automatically.

Pick your goal →🔍 Browse words →🃏 Try flashcards →✏️ Try quiz →