flash cards, vocabulary review--does it help?

I tried this on the English forum and got only one response, so I'll try here--I think it's a useful question!:

Is reviewing vocabulary--separate from its context--worthwhile? In other words, going over list of words after looking them up, or using flash cards, or SuperMemo.

Or are you better off continuing with more input, even if you have to look up the same word(s) again, or guess from context?

Which way is more effective? I'm sure most of you have tried it both ways!

Thanks.

Well, it could be quite tedious...

I did it even with my native language (about some technical terms) and... I didn't want to review them.

Well, review is very importantif you know how to do it properly. When you encounter a word in your reading, save the whole sentence in which that wordis used not just the word itself. In addition to this, find as many sentences as possible online in which the word is used. Put all those sentences to your supermemo software for a review. This way you'll get a hang for the word quickly and efficiently. No need to memorize endless lists of words with no proper context. When you encounter a word in real reading or listening, you are almost sure that that word is normally used by native speakers but you can't say it for sure regarding vocab books and all such mindless bullshit. Also, reviwing a word through examples sentences(extracted from real resources) is worth the effort and you are able to get a feel for teh word without straining your brain cells which is ofetn the case while memorizing endless lists of words. I hope my post clears up many doubts for you.