Rating: 
Summary: Worth every dollar spent on it.
Review: I have used many different courses to learn new languages durning the past ten years. Pimsuelr method is by far the easiest method for people like me, no lang talent. It is fun, and can be used in the car, without a lot of concentration.
Rating:
Summary: It's ridiculous how easy it is.
Review: I love learning languages. For 8 years, I've studied Russian with private tutors. I think I speak decently for never having lived in that country; however, I do struggle a bit with native speakers, and I'm not sure if it is because it is such a tough language, or perhaps my method of learning it wasn't so effective, or maybe I just need to live there.
I also took Spanish in high school for two years, and didn't learn how to say anything, just pass some exams.
For a laugh, I started with Pimsleur Spanish I just to see what would happen. I'd read so much about it. I thought I might impress my Spanish speaking boyfriend. My goal wasn't really to learn it or anything, but to have some fun. The first lesson made us both laugh pretty hard. He rolled his eyes in the kitchen as I began listening to and repeating my first words. But the lessons were fun and so I continued.
Three months later, I have twenty more lessons to go in Level III. It's shocking how much I've learned in such a short period of time, and it has not been painful; rather, it has been a complete joy. Now we speak Spanish on a daily basis, and every day I can speak just a little bit better than the day before. Every time I attend one of his many family gatherings, I understand better than I did before. And I can never wait for the next lesson.
People think learning languages has to be difficult. Granted, Russian is hard, but I'm tempted to start over using Pimsleur just to see what would happen. Learning Spanish has been such a pleasant surprise. For some reason, a half-hour a day is a enough for me, although sometimes I have to play a small section again. I don't tend to worry about perfection, because it's always repeated in some way later on. And with every word I learn, there's always this sense of discovery, like, "Oh! So that's how you say it!"
As a supplement, I by accident found a copy of "Spanish for Reading" at a local bookstore. I highly recommend it. It actually explains what the tenses are. I don't stress over this either: just an exercise a day and my vocabularly gradually increases.
And I've also just signed up at a local Spanish language school now that I think I've got a decent base. The ability test was conducted on my cell phone with a really weak connection, and still I tested as an Intermediate. After three months? I think that's pretty good. It took me five years to reach that level in Russian with classes and private tutors, and I STILL can't say, "Te dije, ¿Puedes traerme una cerveza?"
Rating: 
Summary: Not nearly as good as levels I and II
Review: I would definitely have to agree that the Pimsleur series is the way to begin your studies. The key word being 'begin'. I recently finished a month in Mexico after all three courses, and while I would not agree with their definition of fluency level, I will say it was invaluable. However, do not expect to know many areas that are important to learn. Parts of the body, Most rooms of the house, colors, etc. You will learn quite a bit, but it is only 45 hours, so consider it a starting point. While I still struggle with verbs and pronouns and vocabulary, those are easy enough to pick up after you have learned the basics. Probably a more accurate description of fluency would be low intermediate, instead of high. Also, the third edition seems a bit more hurried than the rest, and is definitely of lower quality recording. Yet, it is still the best course I've ever found. Presently, I am studying the materials beyond Pimsleur endorsed by Mark Boyen on the Pimsleur 1 course review section. Between studying each lesson several times a day, and practising on the people I met, please feel sorry for them, I was able to achieve an ability to get the basics done. This is much more than I've ever been able to accomplish with any other method. The Castilian doesn't really interfere with the program, though it makes no sense to use these speakers, if you have already studied the difference. And while it won't take you to native fluency, I cannot overemphasize how valuable this course has been to my learning the language. As a result, and with the additional courses, and ongoing trips to Mexico, I believe I will achieve a near native fluency by the end of this year. However, that won't happen on 30 minutes a day. While it is a good course, you are learning a monumental task, and by it's nature will require many hours of study to truly develop fluency. While the phrases will appear to be too fast at first to be of any use, you will adapt and discover they are actually too slow at the end, since native speakers tend to speak much faster. While a lot of people state they wish Pimsleur made more in their series, I am satisfied there are enough courses out there to bring you over to fluency already. Pimsleur takes you to the point where you will need to do all that boring verb, pronoun, study drills. And, it is fairly easy with their method. Once you've completed this series, you will be able to survive in Mexico with the basic building blocks of the language. But fluency is still a long ways from there. But for the serious student, with realistic expectations, this course is the best first step for learning. Certainly better than any college class.
Rating:
Summary: Pimsleur Series
Review: I would definitely have to agree that the Pimsleur series is the way to begin your studies. The key word being 'begin'. I recently finished a month in Mexico after all three courses, and while I would not agree with their definition of fluency level, I will say it was invaluable. However, do not expect to know many areas that are important to learn. Parts of the body, Most rooms of the house, colors, etc. You will learn quite a bit, but it is only 45 hours, so consider it a starting point. While I still struggle with verbs and pronouns and vocabulary, those are easy enough to pick up after you have learned the basics. Probably a more accurate description of fluency would be low intermediate, instead of high. Also, the third edition seems a bit more hurried than the rest, and is definitely of lower quality recording. Yet, it is still the best course I've ever found. Presently, I am studying the materials beyond Pimsleur endorsed by Mark Boyen on the Pimsleur 1 course review section. Between studying each lesson several times a day, and practising on the people I met, please feel sorry for them, I was able to achieve an ability to get the basics done. This is much more than I've ever been able to accomplish with any other method. The Castilian doesn't really interfere with the program, though it makes no sense to use these speakers, if you have already studied the difference. And while it won't take you to native fluency, I cannot overemphasize how valuable this course has been to my learning the language. As a result, and with the additional courses, and ongoing trips to Mexico, I believe I will achieve a near native fluency by the end of this year. However, that won't happen on 30 minutes a day. While it is a good course, you are learning a monumental task, and by it's nature will require many hours of study to truly develop fluency. While the phrases will appear to be too fast at first to be of any use, you will adapt and discover they are actually too slow at the end, since native speakers tend to speak much faster. While a lot of people state they wish Pimsleur made more in their series, I am satisfied there are enough courses out there to bring you over to fluency already. Pimsleur takes you to the point where you will need to do all that boring verb, pronoun, study drills. And, it is fairly easy with their method. Once you've completed this series, you will be able to survive in Mexico with the basic building blocks of the language. But fluency is still a long ways from there. But for the serious student, with realistic expectations, this course is the best first step for learning. Certainly better than any college class.
Rating:
Summary: The best!
Review: I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews here. No, this is not a program to start with level III as a review. IT IS A STRUCTURED THREE PART SERIES that is the MOST EFFECTIVE language series I have tried. (And I have tried them all, including high school and university classes!) It is misleading to say that Baron's is better. I have basic and advanced Barrons in Spanish, French and German, and although they give you more vocabulary, they do NOT give you more facility with verb tenses. In fact, some tenses covered in level I in Pimlseur are not covered until Advanced in Barron's. And, they are ancient (from the 1950's and it shows.) So many of the complaints are misleading. Pimsleur is the best, albeit very expensive, method to learn to actually speak and understand. I went to Spain this summer and was able to deal with hotel/restarant/airport situations, without speaking English, as well as to converse with natives. Supplement your Pimsleur vocabulary with Ulimate Spanish. Forget about Barron's if you can afford Pimsleur.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent method of learning for beginning-intermediates
Review: It is true that the tapes do not cover some advanced grammatical forms. However, if you are trying to learn to speak Spanish without translating and want to really remember what you've learned, this method is suberb. The lessons are extremely well-designed. Most people can't remember something after saying it just once or twice, and this method takes average memory decay time into account. Yes, they should come out with a more advanced series, but no series of tapes does a better job of teaching people long-term learning of a language than this one. Period.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: My husband and I used Pimsleur Spanish I,II, and III before going to Costa Rica for our month of intensive Spanish. I came back really appreciating the methodology behind this program. While nothing can take the place of studying in a Spanish speaking environment, Pimsleur focuses on what can actually be done and doing that very very well indeed. It does not try to teach every tense of every verb (the completeness approach favored and never learned in academic settings). Instead it carefully introduces those tenses and structures you can actually use and build on (without being an audio phrase book, which is pretty useless for really learning the language). I am now going back through III and appreciating it more than before I left. This is really excellent. The schools would do well to look at the structure of this course, particularly for teaching conversation.
Rating:
Summary: First class
Review: My husband and I used Pimsleur Spanish I,II, and III before going to Costa Rica for our month of intensive Spanish. I came back really appreciating the methodology behind this program. While nothing can take the place of studying in a Spanish speaking environment, Pimsleur focuses on what can actually be done and doing that very very well indeed. It does not try to teach every tense of every verb (the completeness approach favored and never learned in academic settings). Instead it carefully introduces those tenses and structures you can actually use and build on (without being an audio phrase book, which is pretty useless for really learning the language). I am now going back through III and appreciating it more than before I left. This is really excellent. The schools would do well to look at the structure of this course, particularly for teaching conversation.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Initiation Into a New Language
Review: Pimsleur's Comprehensive Language Series is among the best audio programs available for novices wishing to rapidly learn a new language. Level III takes up where Level II left off, drilling the student with commonly used phrases and grammar until basic/intermediate conversational and survival skills have been obtained.I began Pimsleur's Level I - III courses, in conjunction with weekly Spanish instruction, with no prior knowledge of Spanish. I found that within seven months, upon traveling to Spain, that I was able to sufficiently perform all of the necessities (e.g., hotel reservations, dining out, sightseeing, etc.) in Spanish and have basic conversations with native speakers. I have tried other Spanish cassette programs and none have the depth and patient, systematic approach of Pimsleur. My only complaint: Pimsleur has not yet followed up with more advanced editions.
Rating: 
Summary: Good course, but don't buy it, rent it
Review: Rent this from www.recordedbooks.com - that's the best advice I can give.
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