Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Review + Practice = Confident Communication in Spanish!
The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice, CD-ROM Edition, will
transform the way you look at Spanish grammar--from a set of easily
forgotten rules into stepping stones toward accurate and confident
communication. Combining concise review with extensive practice, this book
provides the ultimate way to polish your Spanish language skills.
Organized into 28 lessons, The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice
offers:
- Clear, concise explanations of all the grammar topics, illustrated
from examples from everyday life
- More than 400 exercises with Answer Key to help you master Spanish
grammar and vocabulary
- Vocabulary boxes providing the terms and expressions that will enhance
your ability to express yourself
Exclusively on the CD-ROM
- An innovative program of audio exercises that re-create authentic
situations and develop listening skills
- Diagnostic and Review Tests with 180 exercises to determine your
skills and monitor your progress
- 200 varied and challenging exercises that cover all aspects of grammar
System requirements: PC only: Windows 2000, XP
About the Author
Ronni L. Gordon, Ph.D., is a prominent author of foreign language
textbooks, reference books, and materials for multimedia. She received her
Ph.D. in Spanish language and Spanish and Latin American History and
Literature from Rutgers University, and taught at Harvard and Boston
University. She is an education consultant specializing in curriculum
development in foreign languages, literature, and history, and teacher
training.
David M. Stillman, Ph.D., is a well-known writer of foreign
language textbooks, multimedia courses, and reference books. He holds a
Ph.D. in Spanish linguistics from the University of Illinois and taught at
Harvard, Boston University, and Cornell. He is a professor at The College of
New Jersey where he teaches Italian, Spanish, French, and Hebrew.
Product Details
- Paperback: 466 pages
- Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (June 21, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0071492151
- ISBN-13: 978-0071492157
- Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
- Average Customer Review:
  (57
customer reviews)
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Rating:
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This book is a concise and well-organized review of the Spanish language. You
should definitely have some prior knowledge of Spanish before using this book.
From the get-go, the book assumes that you either know a good chunk of Spanish
vocabulary or that you are willing to research the vocabulary as you go. It
guides you along but does not hold you hand, which is exactly what I wanted.
The practice exercises are a nice way to drill the lessons into your head. I did
not even try to use the CD-ROM included, so I can't comment on it. It looks old
anyway and I think it's just there to help sell the book.
Definitely recommended highly for intermediate and advanced Spanish students who
need a little boost!
Rating:
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The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice is a great book for not only reviewing
Spanish but also learning it, if you already have some exposure to the language.
My family lived in Spain for 3 years in the late 70s while was a teenager.
During that time I was close to fluent but we left before I could really get to
be. Coming back to the states I did not bother keeping up with my Spanish so I
quickly forgot what I learned.
Now however being in my mid 40s I decided to take up Spanish and learn it again.
Most of the beginning grammars were just to short and simple so I avoided them.
I wanted one comprehensive book that I could use that had all the grammar I
would need to gain fluency and this is the book.
Its chapters are short with excellent organization and explanation. You will not
be bothered with tons of funny but useless pictures and diagrams. They authors
use bullet points, tables and lists very well, so the info in presented in a way
that is easy to learn. The test questions are also very good: challenging but
not impossible.
Like the other reviewers said beware if you are a beginning Spanish user. The
book assumes you know some Spanish. The directions for the exercises are written
in Spanish and the exercises are not progressive. For example the first chapter
deals with the present tense and does a great job of showing how normal and
irregular verbs are conjugated and how the present tense is used. However, to do
the exercises you will need to know other areas of grammar like definite and
indefinite articles, adjectives and adverbs as well have a working vocabulary.
With out these you be running to a dictionary all the time or just be stumped.
Even with my Spanish background I had a hard time reading the directions and had
an online dictionary open all the time while I did the exercises. I did not mind
this but some may get frustrated if you have not been previously exposed to the
grammar and vocabulary. Beginners will most likely be totally lost.
A great book, just wish the version I had came with a CD.
Jeff Sulman
Rating:
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This was a nice wasy to study. I mostly used the software included with the
book. It was nice because I could take the tests and practice and the computer
graded my work and let me know how I was doing.
Rating:
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Liked: Answers to the exercises at the back of the book.
Disliked: CD-ROM wasn't fully functional in my Vista setup.
Rating:
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My wife and I retired to Mexico. Neither of us spoke much Spanish so we decided
to take lessons. Our instructor mentioned that "The Ultimate Spanish Review and
Practice" was the best instructional book in Spanish that we could get..but it
was not available in Mexico. He had one copy that he shared with the 6 people in
our class and I could probably say, with his other classes. My wife and I
wondered if Amazon would have this book...and they did. Now, our class has two
books to share...and probably soon, a couple more. With Hector's instructions
and using the "Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice", my wife and I can converse
much better with our neighbors (who speak no English) and fit in to our new
invironment. The book clarifies many of the questions that we students ask in
our class and clarifies many of the non asked questions people learning a new
language fight their way through. I recommend the book...and recommend the
service we received from Amazon (Mail does not move quickly in Mexico...so we
were very pleasantly surprised when the book arrived almost a week ahead of the
time estimated by Amazaon).
Thank you Amazon.com
Carlos y Sharon Garrison, Mazatlan, Mexico
Rating:
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The book looks just fine, but be sure to notice that the CD is MS Windows-only.
Oops.
Rating:
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Be careful when reading other reviews. When you see that this book is
recommended for people who have already taken "a couple of years of Spanish",
they must mean four years in high school PLUS a couple of years in college.
The book looks good and the CD is handy, but if your Spanish isn't already
pretty good, this book isn't for you. I can carry very basic conversation in
Spanish (in the present tense only) and couldn't even understand the first
exercise on the CD.
So just beware that if you only had two years of Spanish in HIGH SCHOOL, this
book isn't for you. I must sell mine.
Rating:
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I recently purchased this book after thoroughly searching for a good,
comprehensive Spanish grammar. I love the way this book is intended for
intermediate and advanced learners, meaning that it includes answers to
complicated grammar questions that cannot be answered anywhere else. The
explanations are really straight forward, things are so EASY to find - you don't
have to hunt and peck through page after page to find a really specific topic.
It includes everything, and it really addresses complicated questions related to
the subjunctive and other more difficult grammatical elements. Yo les
recomendaría a todos.
Rating:
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Excellent resource to review or learn Spanish grammar. Lots of examples and
lessons to practice on. Best part is the answers are in the back.
Rating:
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I am using Rosetta Stone version 3 and taking a Spanish conversation class. This
book is an invaluable reference and provides good excercises on each aspect of
grammar. The CD ROM does not work well on Vista. You have to click through
numerous error messages to start the program. Once through the error messages,
the CD exercises are very useful as drills and give immediate feedback on the
correct and incorrect answers. I recommend using the book alone. The CD isn't
worth the time to set up and deal with error messages, which occur every time
you use the program.
Rating:
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This book is alright, but buyers take note...this is NOT a book for beginners.
It's got some really tricky stuff in here with verbs etc. Good review for the
2nd year student maybe?
Rating:
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The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice is excellent, but not at all complete.
The dialogs are helpful, but I found that they lack spontaneity, creativity, and
it is sometimes difficult to maintain a high level of interest because of the
somewhat stale presenatation.
Still, the Book and CD Rom are very good, thus the four star rating.
One note: I would highly recommend you take Amazon's advice and use this along
with Behind the Wheel Spanish 8 CDs and Text. This course is a real powerhouse
of authentic spoken Spanish and will teach you to use everything you learn in
Ultimate Spanish Review in the real world.Behind the Wheel Spanish/Complete
Illustrated Text/Answer Keys/8 One Hour
Rating:
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This is one book that no Spanish student should be without. It's a great book to
have for learning grammar or even to keep as a reference.
Rating:
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Just about one year ago I wrote a review of The Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs
with CD-ROM (see my review, July 26, 2006). I was a long-time user of The Big
Red reference and when it came out with an interactive CD-ROM I had to let
everyone know how fantastic it was!
Well, here I am again this time letting people know that The Ultimate Spanish
Review and Practice, another incredible book that I've been using successfully
for six years, is now accompanied by a user-friendly, easy to navigate
interactive CD-ROM. The CD-ROM has hundreds of new, varied, and challenging
exercises that allow me to practice all the grammar points in the book. What's
great is that if I'm in doubt about an answer or grammatical topic I can check
the reference to the chapter in the book.The Diagnostic and Review Tests are
excellent gauges of what I know and need to brush up on.
I'm really excited by the listening comprehension program. Each Audio Module
consists of a dialogue or narration spoken by native Spanish speakers. The Ten
Key Words and Expressions are a great introduction to the passages. I listen to
them and repeat them after the speaker. Hearing them first and knowing what to
listen for make understanding the passage easier. The passage has neat pop-up
definitions for highlighted words and if I don't know any word or expression I
can activate the Glossary.
I love the audio passages I've worked through so far and I'm amazed how much
useful everyday Spanish I've added to my vocabulary. It really helps to listen
to Spanish speakers in real situations. I'm a marketing director and often have
to speak Spanish with our Latin American clients. "Una conversación telefónica"
has proved enormously helpful to me.
The characters are so real, I feel I get to know them. Some scenarios remind me
of my own experiences with my husband and children buying and fixing up our
house, or talking about a wedding and relationships with my friends, or going
through security at the airport in Madrid.
I'm having a fun time learning and practicing Spanish and feeling much more
confident using the language in all kinds of situations thanks to The Ultimate
Spanish Review and Practice with CD-ROM.
Rating:
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I have an intermediate to advanced knowledge of Spanish and this book is exactly
what I needed to review certain topics. It is a great tool when unclear on
certain verb tenses, use of pronouns, commands, etc. Also, a good way to expand
vocabulary.
Rating:
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This was a well versed book, more advanced than I had thought it would be. If
you need vocab study, another book may be better, this one was well thought
through, and an excellent companion for other independant studies.
Rating:
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I have taken Spanish courses in Instituto Cervantes for 3,5 years and this books
is just what I wished for. It explains tenses and everything with great
practices , you can review your Spanish overall with this genious book. Highly
recommended for those who had the basic Spanish knowledge and wish to improve
more.
Rating:
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I have a Master's in Spanish and I bought this book to help me review the
grammar rules because I haven't worked in a couple of years. ?it really helped
me clear up any doubts I had about my weaknesses in Spanish. Also, the notas
culturales are great if you hadn't studied about Spanish-speaking countries in a
long time. I bought this book to help me with the MTEL Spanish exam.
Rating:
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Great practice and instruction. The excercises are most helpful-iqual que la
tarea en la escuela español en Nicaragua.
Rating:
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Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice by Ronni L Gordon deserves the five stars I
give it for being practical and complete, with a strong focus on honing true
communication skills in Spanish.
I recommend using a reference like this with a good CD course. Two that come to
mind are Learn in Your Car Spanish and Behind the Wheel Spanish.
Of the two, I would recommend 'Behind the Wheel Spanish' as the best car Spanish
course by far, and a wonderful text is included with the 8 CDs.
This compliments Ultimate Spanish Review and allows you to learn how to speak
and understand spoken Spanish while you learn the grammar.
Great combo.
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