If your goal is to obtain as many coins as possible in order to make as many entries into the sweepstakes as possible then your best bet is to get good at the word games. The one I have had the most luck with is Word Pop. It pays off well. It can eat up a lot of time though and the biggest drawback is that there is no pause button; once you start, you play to the end, which may come soon if you need to take a bathroom break in the middle.
The key to this game as to many of the other word games is to get familiar with it then read the rules to see how the scoring is done. Word Pop does not list scoring in its rules but it acts like many of the other word games in that it gives more points the bigger the word. And it gives significantly more points for significantly bigger words. The smallest words are three letters long and there is a cap of the longest words accepted but I can’t remember what that is set at for this game, 8 or 9 letters I think. It doesn’t matter much as it almost takes too long to click on that many letters and then find out that you are missing the second ‘n’ to complete the spelling.
Speaking of spelling, they have a pretty inclusive dictionary so you might think you are making up a word and it will work anyway. Use this as a vocabulary building exercise and then you can justify your game play as educational. I have noticed that all games do not use the same dictionary because some words will work in one game that will not work in another. This is a matter of trial and error. As you play the word games you will notice that you can get very good at certain strategies. Build on them and then build from them. Hang in there and your hi scores will grow.
For example, in Word Pop start simple by going after as many three letter words as possible, building on speed in recognizing the three letter words and using hand eye coordination as quickly as possible to select each letter, completing the word and moving on to the next word. Some three letter words are easy to spot because the letters are close together while some are spread across the page. Get in the habit of looking across the whole board often. It is too easy to get stuck in one section of the puzzle and then miss all the letters that dropped down on the other side ending your round.
By the way, Word Pop likes to drop letters on the ends so be sure to work at keeping the end columns lowered first then work with the middle. You may notice that the letters drop from the top in a back and forth motion working from one end to the other, and you can also work back and forth following the letter drops and generally keep up the new letters as they drop.
Once you have three letter words down pat start looking for four letter words. Many three letter words can be made into four letter words by making them plural, as simple as adding an “s” at the end. In fact, adding any common suffix to many words is an easy way to get the bigger letter count. Look to adding “s”, “es”, “ed”, “ing”, “ful”, etc. to any of your basic words and you have instantly increased your point tally.
The other thing you can do after playing the game for awhile is notice what words you see and use a lot of, then think of what bigger words you could create if you just added a letter or two. Then the next time you played look for those extra letters when you come across your commons words. That way if you are always seeing “and” then look for “band” or “sand” and after that look for “brand” or “strand” and always remember to add a suffix and make “brands” or “stranded”.
One last thing to know about the word games is that some letters are more common than others and you will get too know which ones are which as you play. There are many times I have wanted to spell what I thought would be a common word but would be missing one of the letters to complete it and I would have to stop, clear the word, and start on another. There are also many tricky letters thrown in with the hopes that it will stump you. “Q” and “X” are two that come to mind but if you have some quick words at the ready you will not be stumped. There is usually always something you can do to play them.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Click here to go to IWON Tips Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 (SquareBob Spongepants Collapse).
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