Now, don't be gettin' all hot and bothered about my title of this review. When I first bought this book, I was a junior in high school. HANDS-DOWN it was invaluable for me during that time. I decided I would minor in Spanish in college, and in my first year of intermediate Spanish, it worked well. As we began working with more complex verb tenses and usages (that subjunctive always gets ya, am I right?), this book was still working out well for me.
Well, as I've now progressed to the most advanced intermediate Spanish course I can take before moving on to the next level, this book has not been helpful. I almost always have to look up unfamiliar verbs in my other Spanish-English dictionaries.
I still reference to this book because of the beginning portion. The first part of the book dedicates several pages to each verb tense, explaining the tense, giving examples of it, giving examples of when you would use it vs using this other tense ("In this case, use the imperfect subjunctive vs present perfect" as an example), etcetera. What a miracle that section is. It'll even give you great tips and acronyms and little memory tricks! The book also has some practice sections. Nowadays, I often find that beginning section a bit lacking... I guess it's just because as I progress into more complex situations and contexts, I require more complex and in-depth explanations.
Point is, if you are a beginner to low-intermediate student, I highly recommend this book. Beyond that, you won't find anything you don't already know, and you'll very likely find yourself looking for more. If you're just a high schooler who's serious about Spanish or just need to get Spanish out of the for your 2 year, get this book. If you're beyond that, look elsewhere.
