Customer Reviews

Dos mundos en breve Student Edition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I agree with all of the negative reviews thus far wholeheartedly. This book is terrible. I had the displeasure of reading through the first ~180 pages on my own to review for the second class I took years after the first, and as someone familiar with the material in the first few chapters, I was still left frustrated reviewing it.

The organization of the book is counter-intuitive relying on three elements for each chapter in the worst order imaginable: activities, vocabulary, and then the grammar and exercises. So far, this class has utilized mostly the vocab and grammar/exercises, and with the activities section being mostly ignored. We constantly flip back and forth through up to 40 pages to supplement a coherent lesson. It all too often uses words and phrases in exercises that are important enough to introduce and vital enough to know when you're actually doing the exercises a chapter ahead of when they're covered.

The online section is similarly atrocious. We are assigned most of the listening exercises, which over the course of one chapter, have included the background noise of a busy restaurant at the worst and other ridiculous scenarios that detract from the people you're trying to listen to. Good luck trying to understand and answer questions that demand multi-word, written answers you'll be listening to over and over trying to understand, and hope you're professor allows you to correct them when you don't get the precise written response the questions are searching for. I've gone to my professor to get help with some of these already and judging from her opinion of the site this is setting a precedent for the several weeks to come.

I thought the passcode was what was needed for the Quia online workbook the class requires, but it's for something the bookmakers are apparently giving off for free. The quia code will cost you $47, so you're better getting the textbook used and support the students that had to sift through this garbage.

BUY IT USED!!!!! The bind-in passcode is worthless because they publishers have already made that material FREE on their website!!! ... I thought I needed it for school, but it turns out that my school has a specialized workbook on their own website, which I had to pay for separately anyway. Great text, just not worth full price.

Do not order expedited. Takes too long still.you will get it in one week still. It was a thin book and it took a week.

I don't even know where to start with this mess of a textbook, so let's just go with the obvious: The book relies heavily on poorly-drawn cartoons of people in various situations, from which we are supposed to magically divine the meaning. Example: Kid sits outside professor's office. From this cartoon, I am somehow supposed to figure out that the kid is waiting to talk with his professor. This is just one of thousands of examples of this book's shortcomings.

Further, the book's introduction to and usage of verbs is confusing to the point of abject frustration. I can't say how many times I have been tempted to fling the book across the room, light it on fire and run it through a blender. It's that bad.

Worse than its horrible attempt at teaching style is the price. Partnered with the online "workbook," this ridiculous package can cost upwards of $150.00. The workbook is NOTHING more than a passcode for an online forum which adds absolutely nothing to the learning experience.

I could go on for days, but this is the simple gist. If you are planning on taking a college-level Spanish course, find out what book is being used before enrolling. If the class uses this pathetic mess of a textbook, seriously consider taking a different class.

I have used Dos Mundos and Dos Mundos En Breve at two different universities and for church mission classes. We have found them awesome. They are structured more for adults, so perhaps the previous two reviewers are children.

I was very very happy with the price and especially happy to receive the book before the promised time! Thanks!

I liked the price on this book, and the fact that it has some of the answers written in it-but the notes are more than what I would call "minimal" which is what it was marked as. The book arrived in good time ands consition, and was a good price.

The book is OK, but don't count on finding any of the online stuff that the book boasts about on the back cover. I have looked everywhere trying to find it, but to no avail. I think they discontinued all the premium content or something. The website it gives to enter your registration code doesn't have a place to register. I recently emailed McGraw Hill tech support to ask what happened to the online content, but I am still waiting for a response.