Customer Reviews

Best Test Preparation for the CLEP Spanish Language

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This page says that the review guide was published in 1998; however, the one I recieved from Amazon was copyright 2003 and printed in 2006.

That said, this is an excellent source for reviewing for the test. It has three practice tests, with comprehensive explanations for EVERY correct and incorrect answer for each of the tests. It is also very helpful to listen to the included cds--it gives you a fairly accurate feel of how the real CLEP test will be.

The beginning of the book goes through every part of basic Spanish--everything from pronunciations to verb conjugation. Though it doesn't have the glitzy pictures of my college textbook (there are no pictures, actually), I feel that it is better organized and easier to follow. If you really spend the recommended time with this resource, I believe that passing the CLEP exam will not be really difficult. I passed the exam--but I also used (like I said earlier) a college textbook to augment my studies. Even so, the practice tests and accompanying explanations are very helpful. If anything, the CLEP exam I took seemed easier than the practice exams in this guide.

Highly recommended. I also recommend "501 Spanish Verbs"--that was a good guide for learning verb conjugation.

*I would like to note that the included cds that I received were mis-labeled, meaning that cd A is really cd B and vice-versa. Obviously not a big deal, just a little bothersome at first.

I used this book and passed my spanish CLEP exam, so I can't complain too much. I agree closely with the reviewer who said "Fair But Full of Errors." The most useful part of the book are the practice tests and the quizzes for different grammar review areas. It was easy and quick to run through all the review sections and do all the review problems in between taking the practice tests. My practice test scores went up a little (but not a lot) after going through all the review material. The scoring of the practice tests seemed a bit strange to me--you could loose 30 of 130 points and still get a "perfect" 80, which doesn't seem realistic to me (and my actual test score was lower than my practice test scores). It was frustrating, however, to find quite blatant errors in the book and really misleading or poorly worded explanations. Of course this is written as review for people who should already know spanish, but nonetheless, quite a few times it had me shaking my head in confusion or anger, only to look it up in a normal spanish book and find it clearly and simply explained.

For example, one practice question went something like: "El ladron fue (muerto/matado) por el policía." After having paragraphs of useless information explaining all the other questions whose answers were obvious, the answer key only says something like: "The correct answer is "muerto" because muerto is the past participle for matar in the passive." Confused, I looked up matar and morir in every dictionary that I have, and it's always matar-matado, morir-muerto. What gives? Well, I finally went onto a couple online grammar forums, and this is apparently a subtle grammar exception for this particular word, and even native speakers have trouble explaining it except to say that they agree that either you use muerto for matar in the passive and only in the passive, or you avoid the whole issue by using asesinado. Digging deeper, I found that the real answer possibly has to do with an antiquated use of the word morir as a transitive verb, which happens to have its vestiges left in the passive tense only. Mabye every dope already knows this, but I think the the book should have used a couple more sentences to explain this, or it should not have used such an unusual exception in their quiz. In a book where there are so many mistakes, I initially took this bad explanation as a flat-out error.

The practice tests for the reading part were very similar to the actual test, if not slightly harder, which is the way to err on a practice test. The listening portion, however, was WAY harder than the actual test. In fact, I personally found the listening portion of the practice test very disheartening because it went so fast and used such advanced topcics that I simply could not keep the topics and all their details straight in my head (you only get to listen once). The real test, however, stuck to very simple subjects and had relatively easy-to-remember questions and quick answers. The only thing difficult about the real CLEP test is that the volume was much too low and the quality was really scratchy, so it was difficult in that regard. Luckily, I brought my own earphones to the test because if I hadn't, the cheap, test-supplied earphones would have been insufficient to hear anything.

I found out, much too late, that Peterson's offers practice tests online--you can even get them free through some library websites. The Peterson's reading comprehension tests were ever so slightly simpler than the CLEP exam tests, which is a slight disadvantage, but the listening portion was right on target! After I did a couple practice tests on the Peterson's website, I was feeling much more better about myself and more confident about the test. And it left me praying that the real test would be more like Peterson's than the REA book. And it was, in the listening portion anyway.

I tested for the 12 credit exam and passed with a very high score (had to in order to get the 12 credits).
The material was very close to the actual test. Some of the pronunciation quizzes had a harsh accent, but it wasn't a problem to understand the conversations. It was very useful to practice with the preparation tests that came in the CDs.

I got this book as a study guide to use along side personal lessons I was taking to prepare for the test. Both my professor and I found numerous mistakes in the grammer in both the written and spoken parts of the test, as well as several mistakes in the prep areas. Also, the person who wrote this book is clearly not a native spanish speaker, for in many places they use idioms that are very american, and its clear that their english grammer peeks on more than one occasion.

None the less, the book wasn't entirely usless, it did help. I wouldn't call it the BEST review for the test, but it atleast does provide some clue as to what the test will be like.

If you can find another book for the same price that comes with audio, get it instead.

I just got the book in the mail, and the audio CD's are missing. So that is a bummer. Un bummero. I'm not sure if that's the correct translation, because I don't have the CD's.

The student I worked with passed the CLEP on the
first shot with a grade above minimum passing and a
94 on the NYS Regents. This book is highly recommended.
There are 3 lengthy exams which you should complete.

The front of the text has a lot of good stuff on the
following:

o adjectives and adverbs
o present indicative, preterite, imperfect and conditional
tense structures
o present participle, reflexive pronouns, the infinitive
and subjunctive etc.

The CLEP exam is a bit different from the NYS-Regents in
Spanish. The Regents is more conversational. On CLEP,
you must understand the grammar COLD ! There is no
getting around a thorough understanding of the language.
Remember that colleges will be waiving credit based upon
your performance on this exam. Some colleges may require
that you submit a writing sample in Spanish after you pass
the CLEP exam.

Overall, the book is an excellent acquisition. Passing the
CLEP can be worth thousands of dollars toward the college
degree. In addition, colleges view the CLEP as prima facie
evidence that you can do college work.

Dr. Joseph S. Maresca

i am an advanced student of spanish and think this books serves as an excellent tool for reviewing an extensive array of language rules, from the very simple (numbers, dates, math signs) to the more complicated (uses of subjunctive)and the tricky (appropriate choice of verbs for "to become"). Because it's coverage is wide, but not deep, it does not serve as a tool for learning basic spanish. Great book to add to a learning spanish library.

I needed to take the Spanish CLEP exam. Growing up in Miami, I am somewhat fluent in Spanish, but was worried about the exam. I got the flu the week before my exam was scheduled, so I actually had only two days to study! The book and the CD (only one is included with the book, not two) helped me tremendously. I passed the exam and earned the six credits in foreign language I need to graduate. If you're an English-speaking native looking to take the exam without at least some Spanish background basics, I wouldn't suggest the book; however, for those of you beyond basic Spanish, this is the book to get.

If you are planning on taking the Spanish CLEP, then you definitely need to purchase this book. I used it as my main text studying for the CLEP. I will say the sections could be organized better. Sometimes I felt the content was random. Nevertheless, the practice tests make it invaluable. I just took my CLEP test today and passed! My official score on the real test was an average of my score on the practice tests from this book. I didn't even complete the whole book either. I maybe studied half the book and just focused on expanding my vocabulary once I had the basics down.

I also highly recommend a verb book, such as Barrons 501 Spanish verbs. I also studied out of this book to get a strong verb base and study the conjugation of the most common verbs.

Together these resources are a recipe for success!

This is by far (in my opinion) the best study source for the Spanish CLEP,
the actual test is easier than some of the practice tests in this book.
I studied for like a month and aced the test!

Highly recommended and Good luck!!!