Almost Perfect…

Spanish Verb Tenses has almost all the attributes of a superior learning tool.  It…

1. Follows A Logical Progression – The workbook starts with the easy stuff, the present indicative, and progressively works its way through more difficult subject matter such as the preterite vs imperfect, perfect and progressive tenses, and finally the subjunctive mood.
2. Contains Clear, Concise Grammar Explanations – Each section of each chapter is prefaced by a brief explanation of the grammar point about to be drilled.  While short, the explanations build on each other and are clear enough that even absolute beginners will be able to follow along provided they start at the beginning.
3. Contains Tons And Tons Of Drills – There’s no getting past it:  learning Spanish requires massive amounts of drilling to pound proper usage into your brain, and there’s no shortage of that here.  Amazingly enough, the drills are varied and interesting enough that you never really get bored.  Each section will take you an average of 20 or 30 minutes each, which is long enough to really learn the material you’re focusing on but not long enough to become terribly monotonous.
4. Requires You To Generate Complete Thoughts – Most grammar workbooks out there simply have you fill in the blank with the correct conjugation of a given verb.  Thus, after a few problems your mind goes on conjugation-autopilot as you mechanically complete the rest of the exercises.  The problem with that approach is you never quite integrate vocabulary, grammar, and conversational skills that way.  I mean the correct verb is given to you, along with its meaning.  You’ll never learn that way.  Spanish Verb Tenses, on the other hand, forces you to generate complete sentences on your own in response to some prompt, often without telling you which verb to use.  This keeps you constantly on your toes trying to figure out what form the correct response should take as well as the appropriate vocabulary to use.  Trust me, you will learn natural sentence structure much better this way and retain a lot more vocabulary to boot.
5. Every Chapter Ends With A Writing Assignment – Every chapter contains at least one (sometimes two or three) short writing assignments where you are either given an English paragraph and asked to translate it (in the beginning) or given a topic and asked to generate a completely original Spanish paragraph on the subject all on your own (towards the end of the book).
6. Covers Every Verb Tense And Grammar Aspect In The Language – I can’t think of anything this workbook misses, off the top of my head.  It covers every tense and aspect of Spanish verbs you need to know, including the infamous subjunctive mood, when to use the preterite vs imperfect, and common special constructions involving specific verbs (ir a- et al).

…But Not Quite Perfect

Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses is very much a master of the domain it purports to teach.  It claims to teach you everything you need to know about Spanish verbs and it accomplishes that goal very, very well; however, it doesn’t delve into aspects of Spanish grammar not related to verbs, such as pronouns, prepositions, noun gender, etc (for that, I highly recommend its companion workbook Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns And Prepositions).

Additionally, its impossible to get any real conversational practice from an $8 workbook.  Spanish Verb Tenses will teach you to form Spanish sentences, no doubt, but there’s a big difference between being able to write Spanish and being able to speak Spanish.  Thus, you’ll either need to purchase a good audio program for conversational practice or hit up your local Mexican restaurant.  But overall, this is a very small nitpick.  It’s only $8 after all.

Buy Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses and its companion Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns And Prepositions from Amazon today.