Standard Arabic Student's book : An Advanced Course

Rating:
Summary: You might as well read an Arabic newspaper
Review: I bought this book after hearing the praise about it; I sold it a few days later. Despite the title, this book isn't much of a course at all. Most of it is just straight Arabic text for you to read, with no translations, so you don't even know if you're reading correctly. The book does a better job of teaching you (if you know Arabic) about the Middle East than it does teaching Arabic.

Rating:
Summary: Very useful mid- to advanced textbook
Review: Just to add to the other reviews, this textbook (which I used at 3rd year undergraduate level at Durham) is useful also to the solo student struggling to advance his or her Arabic. Buy the cassettes too, as they're an integral part of the course. I also recommend strongly that the private student buy the Teacher's Handbook too if he has no teacher as this contains - amongst other things - suggested translations and transcriptions of passages on the cassettes.

Rating:
Summary: Not What You Expect!
Review: This paticular purchase is not a course, but merely 2 tapes. It is a continuation of a complete set (introductory, intermediate, advanced). So if you actually want a course, you need to buy the introductory and intermediate course (actually just a bunch of ... tapes).