<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Unrealistic and flawed
Review: I have just used this book to teach AP Spanish Language in high school. First of all, this book asks for grammatical knowledge way beyond what the students could possibly know and is much more difficult than the actual AP. In the answer section, the book has frequent errors, and many of the explanations only confuse the students. This might be a good book for college-level students - except they wouldn't be taking the AP exam. I recommend José M. Diaz' "AP Spanish" Preparing for the Language Examination" instead.
Rating: 
Summary: WAY too long of a book
Review: The book was very thorough, but included a lot of extra material that wasn't needed. It takes too much time going through everything in this book, and at times, I became a little more confused trying to peruse through the seemingly wordy book. One thing that was good however were the practice tests, but even those tests were kinda annoying because they were way harder than the actual exam questions.
Rating:
Summary: Too many typos
Review: This book does contain a very comprehensive review for the exam however it has A LOT of typos and errors in the book. There are mispelled words, and some of the answer choices are incorrect, which can be confusing. If you purchase ths book, make sure your AP teacher or a Spanish speaker can review it and point out some of the errors to you. I would hate for you to get a question wrong because of a spelling mistake you saw in this book. Like I said, it is a good review just be aware that this book is far from perfect.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Review!
Review: This is a REALLY good review for the AP Spanish Language Exam just because of its comprehensiveness. You can find practice for EVERYTHING on the test, and a lot of it, in this book. Even if, for example, you don't need to practice listening but need extreme help with grammar or reading, there still is extensive review for both of the latter topics. Trust me, Barron's makes the best language reviews, and this is further evidence of that. I ONLY used this book to review and ended up with a 5.
Rating:
Summary: Too many typos
Review: This is about the most boring and dull AP prep book that I have encountered, and believe me, I have seen a lot of them. It gives you good practice and a lot of words to study, but is so boring! I mean, there is nothing in the book that helps you to at least try to focus on what you're doing. But maybe that's good for some people. It's very straightforward and it will give you more than enough practice. For example, to prep you for the speaking section, it offers a couple hundred(about three-hundred or so?) of possible questions that they could ask you. The tapes that are included are excellent. They really help you to practice for both the listening and speaking questions. So I don't know, this might be the perfect for some people, but as for me, this book was not just another one of those, argh, I have to study again type books, this was a bite the bullet and force myself to use book. I don't expect to be entertained or anything, but something that would occassionally keep me awake would be nice. By the way, the grammar review is not that great. It's not that long and at times, does not go as in depth as one would like. I passed the language exam, and whether or not its due to this book, I don't know, but I know that this book certainly did not elevate my knowledge to some divine level like some other test prep books have done.
Rating:
Summary: A Good, but Very Dull Book
Review: This is about the most boring and dull AP prep book that I have encountered, and believe me, I have seen a lot of them. It gives you good practice and a lot of words to study, but is so boring! I mean, there is nothing in the book that helps you to at least try to focus on what you're doing. But maybe that's good for some people. It's very straightforward and it will give you more than enough practice. For example, to prep you for the speaking section, it offers a couple hundred(about three-hundred or so?) of possible questions that they could ask you. The tapes that are included are excellent. They really help you to practice for both the listening and speaking questions. So I don't know, this might be the perfect for some people, but as for me, this book was not just another one of those, argh, I have to study again type books, this was a bite the bullet and force myself to use book. I don't expect to be entertained or anything, but something that would occassionally keep me awake would be nice. By the way, the grammar review is not that great. It's not that long and at times, does not go as in depth as one would like. I passed the language exam, and whether or not its due to this book, I don't know, but I know that this book certainly did not elevate my knowledge to some divine level like some other test prep books have done.
Rating:
Summary: The BEST test prep
Review: this is definately the best spanish ap prep out there. i was pressed for time so i only reviewed the grammer section the day before the test and ended up with a 5.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best. Get this book.
Review: This is easily the best preparation book ont he market that is easily accessible to students. Barrons has created a self-cintained study guide for this most (what can be) confusing and difficult exam. The book gives you so much practice in each exam area (sdhort dialogues, verb forms, critical reading, you name it). The training and practice I found for the picture sequence and directed response questions were simply perfect, and greatly helped w/ the exam. The practice excercises are probably a little harder than the actual exam, but if you work diligently out of this book, I guarantee that you will pass this test, I just need to wait until July to find my score. If I got the 4 or 5 I feel I got, Barrons was a great key. I highly reccomend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm surprised they didn't spell the Title wrong
Review: This text deserves no stars, but because Amazon does not let you put 0 stars, I was forced to give it at least 1. I use the AP Spanish Barrons book for AP Spanish class, and after just 2 weeks of going through some of the exercises, I have found more mistakes than anything. The book is extremely flawed; it's exercises are much more difficult than any other practice workbook that is out there for AP Spanish: Even fluent Spanish speakers couldn't even understand some of the sections in this book, between the unheard of words and the ambiguous answer choices that are found here. In one section where students have to correct the sentence, we found more mistakes in the answers given, than the wrong sentences in the examples. I recommend other books, such as AP Spanish by Jose Diaz or Triangulo are much more realistic and helpful in passing the AP Spanish exam.
Rating: 
Summary: too detailed, but very clear
Review: Unlike Princeton Review, this is an incredible guide to the exam. The practice sections and explanations alone put it up much higher than "Princeton" was in that part. Even so, I would have liked there to be more practice sections, but that could be because I'm not a good test taker and need more practice than what they gave. I also could tell that I learned from my mistakes and their explanations by doing some sections more than once; there was a drastic improvement. The essays were amazing and very clear to understand. The makers even bolded certain phrases to show complex vocabulary. Even so, the chapter with lists of vocabulary- perhaps 1000 words in total- was daunting and slightly unneeded. Does the audience really need to learn all of the minerals, trees, fish, etc. in the world? Still, better over detailed than under detailed. Buy this book for your preparation! It's worth every penny.
<< 1 >>
|
