The best choice for the intermediate to advanced student
357640
This book will be an excellent choice if you already know the basics and do not plan to become a full time professional research epidemiologist; if you do not rule out becoming a professional research epidemiologist, this will still be a very good buy. The best choice for the intermediate to advanced student. It is updated, comprehensive, accurate, and fully reliable.
1342728
There is not a better piano book to use, than this one. The only wish that the text would be in English, but with Google translator it is not a big problem.
The quality of the print is excellent, the paper is glossy. Do not plan on copying the pages, they are a bit larger, than usual size. The selection of music is very beautiful and academically thought through.

"Band 2" is for the students in their second to forth year of study, depending on the amount of one's everyday practice.
I highly recommend this book and the first part of it also ( which has a red cover), it is worth every penny you'll spend if you are a serious piano student / teacher. If you are practicing piano once a week for a half an hour, you better look elsewhere, this book is not for you.
3322968
Excellent comprehensive techniques for beginning through intermediate level introduction. Great organization of speech, plus grammar related to individual words, plus games.  I needed a written grammar to understand French, particularly small words such as articles and conjuncion.  I bought a couple of grammars from other publishers to understand these and conjugations.  Learn French Now includes the former stand-alone program BEFORE YOU KNOW IT for vocabulary drills and making flash cards. BYKI is a wonderful help to learning vocabulary well.

I found LEARN FRENCH NOW better in all respects than another company's immersion program.  I don't learn languages easily.  This program has been more helpful than I had expected.
777805
The Faber series, Piano Adventures has been a favorite of mine for students to use.  The material is extremely beneficial for beginning to intermediate students, grounding them in the basics of theory, technique, artistry, and articulation,avoiding extensive fingering notation, while using the entire keyboard, rather than just two positions.  This Assignment book for the series makes teacher/student communication easier and organized, and has space for comments from both as well as small staff lines on each page to be used for additional theory or composition practice.
3691617
As someone who struggles to learn French, even though I live in Geneva, and has worked his way through about 10 or more different 'teach yourself French' CDs, books and tapes, I find the work of Chevalier-Karfis amongst the best that there is. For me the attraction is this. There is a great deal of learning material that deals with the basic grammatical structure and vocabulary. There is also a lot of rather sophisticated material available but that is only intelligible if you are already pretty good. The gap that Chevalier-Karfis fills is between those who have the basic concepts but cannot yet speak or comprehend French with any fluency and those who can already speak fairly well and want to learn the nuances of the language. Chevalier-Karfis will help you to bridge the gap between the two. Very highly recommended.
473739
I have found the Pimsleur language programs to be the most natural and effective of all the different types I've tried. (Berlitz, Barron's, Rosetta, etc) They truly give the aspiring speaker a proper rhythm and feel for the language being studied. One actually begins to think in the new tongue, rather than translating what they hear into their native one. All of this and the ability to take your lessons with you anywhere without the constant need for books and software!!
Greek I and II are quite effective. Each lesson is well thought out to guarantee almost perfect retention of what you have learned. And they certainly leave you with a confidence that will make you want to go out and use your new language, which will spur you onto further learning. Let's face it; Language is speech. If your goal is to be able to speak a new language, Pimsleur is the way to go. Very well done, and I look forward to trying many more.
Please, please, produce a Greek Level III!
2011559
As another instructor I have used the Sarason's text in its various incarnations for many years now. I find it excellent, both in terms of how comprehensive it is and also in terms of how accessible it is for my intermediate and advanced students.
1602880
Over the years, I have looked at many different ways to study foreign languages.  I have, basically, two different styles:  either a multimedia approach, or the tried and true "read, listen and repeat" drills that are far more effective than most people give them credit.  The language course reviews I see on Amazon look to me like they generally fall into one of two categories:  either people who are really serious and want to explore every facet of the language, or people who thought that 15 minutes after popping in a CD they would have achieved cultural fluency.

Tell Me More Dutch is for people who really want to achieve some measure of fluency or proficiency in Dutch.  Although you  could become conversant through using it, it is more for people who are almost looking to adopt a second language.  Yes, you will work at it, but it is extremely fun, bordering on addicting, and the feedback it provides throughout all facets of learning, inspire you to grow and achieve more in the language.  Tell Me More Dutch comes on two CDs, each of which has many, many lessons, with a load of exercises within each lesson.  The software will track your completion of language modules, and if you so desire, give you a schedule to complete each disk based on the goals and objectives you select.

Tell Me More Dutch is, without a doubt, the best foreign language learning program I have ever seen, and I have tried several:  Berlitz, the Living Language "Ultimate" series, Barron's FSI, and Language Now (note:  only the Language Now series was in Dutch, but the method used by those others pales compared to Tell Me More).

Yes, Tell Me More is a little pricey, but remember that the goal of this software is to give you Dutch as a second language (at least, that's my perspective).  My package included a microphone that allowed for feedback on my accent.  The package also includes, reading, writing and listening comprehension exercises.  Within completing the first lesson, I am actually able to feel somewhat comfortable visiting Dutch web sites.

There is none better.  Please note that you may want to use better quality headphones when you are in the dictation modules.  Also, if there was anything to say that was critical of this product, it would be that there are no companion CDs, other than those I've acquired independently, for learning and refresher away from the computer.
3762829
This book is NOT a course on Japanese or on Kanjis by itself. It is meant to be an integration during learning and a reference for advanced students and professionals. Once you understand this, and once you're ready to spend about 10$ to integrate your real course books with this, then this is a total must. As an integration and a reference, it is nearly perfect, giving you the (usually) 2 most common compounds and helping your way through memorization and understanding of Kanjis. Also, the Kanji lookup table at the end of the book is priceless; Kanjis are ordered by stroke count, and then by number of strokes on the left part for left-rigth kanjis, and on the upper part for top-down Kanjis. Once you master it, you can lookup a Kanji you don't know in a matter of seconds, actually faster than searching a word in an English dictionary, and times faster than with any radical based ordering system (i.e. Nelson's).

The only downside is that a set of well known and widely used kanjis (in contemporary literature works) are missing, while some of the "extra" (non-school) kanjis that are stuffed in are rare enough to be usually accompanied by spelling in Japanese texts, but that's a very secondary problem. If this book just had 100-150 kanjis more it would be more than perfect; yet, you are not a serious student nor professional if you don't own it.
2173675
This is a great book for beginners and advance study persons. It is well thought out and easy to find a topic quickly. I recommend this for everyone! Small enough to take with you. I have used this book for 5 years. Other books like this are very large and heavy to carry
2001672
Halfway through a course, and halfway through this book, I feel compelled to write a review for this book, as it's quite simply one of the best learning tools I've ever used. This may be due to my learning style: aiming for top marks, I'm very thorough and therefore require a detailed introduction to VB. At least for me then, this book has been the perfect resource.

As always, Pearson's publications are absolutely first class: exceptionally well written and easy to follow, with one chapter logically building on the next, and the right amount of detail throughout. Unlike so many other IT-related books, this one feels balanced.

So what's in it?

After new topics are introduced, plenty of 'examples' or practical applications follow. Then comes the learner's chance to give it a go, with a wealth of 'exercises'. You might choose to do only a few of them; others might do the whole lot. Regardless, you're bound to come away feeling confident you've learnt something. There are even chapter summaries, so just in case you weren't paying attention at any point, you'll know at a glance what you need to go back and review. There are also 'Projects' to work on at the end of each chapter, which are essentially real-world problems you're expected to solve.

Should you feel you still don't quite understand something, e.g. variables or functions, then you can always watch the online video notes where the author goes into even more detail. You can even download solutions and the actual code.

Overall, this is a very thorough, easy to follow, introduction to Visual Basic 2010 that will turn you into a confident programmer eager to learn more. I think that for what you getting, it's great value too.
1814371
I am studying intensely to learn Spanish for communicating with the many hispanic workers living in my area.  The book is somewhat difficult to use, but it is well worth the trouble.  Althought some users are unhappy with the phonetic pronunciation system provided in the book (along with the standard Spanish spelling) I have found it to be very helpful once I invested the time to learn it.  I will say that this is the most realistic program I have encountered.  The speech on the tape is full speed and is very realistic.  It has helped my comprehension immensely.
Each new concept, especially gramatical forms, are presented in a variety of audio exercises which require you to "think on the go."  The exercises in which you have to substitute one word in a sentence for another (and therefore adjust for plurality, speaker, gender, etc.) are nothing short of brilliant.  Each new gramatical form is presented in a variety of contexts and exercises which help develop skills.  The exercises have helped me learn to speak for meaning, not simply repeat rote phrases. I especially appreciate the manner in which various social settings (visiting a hispanic home, lunch with a hispanic friend, a visit to an area attraction) are presented along with the vocabulary most likely to be needed for that setting.
This series is for the serious student.  If you're willing to put in the work this series requires, I don't think it can be beat.  My only complaint is that the series is not available on CD at this time.  The series is recorded using old technology; there is some tape hiss but it doesn't interfere with your ability to comprehend.  The book is obviously somewhat dated, but the gramatical concepts remain the same.
3805567
A great book for the advanced student. Perfect both for specific reference on technical details and for an understanding of high-level ideas. Parts on the analysis of the Pentium 4 and other modern processors, with details on implementation, mainly within the appendices in the included CD-ROM.

For the student, the book by itself is not a sufficient resource, and it must be coupled with a course in computer architecture.
4701679
This book needs one of those "click to look inside" features.  Then guitar students would see what a well thought out text book this is.  A wonderful asset for the intermediate guitarist (1.5 years of instruction).

The book starts out with a quick review of the hardware that made blues history.  Given the level of sophistication of the songs and analysis I'm sure the reader will know all this.  The reader probably already has a guitar so its rather late anyway in the game to recommending hardware.  There is then a nice review of the components of blues: harmony, box patterns and such.  It is nicely done and useful as you plow through the book but you might have that.  Its more useful than the equipment section.

The main part of book gives the transcriptions to 11 songs like Killing Floor, Hideaway, The Things That I Used To Do etc.  Every song has a very nice detailed paragraph on each section of the song (intro, outro, solo) in a digested format so that when you look at the piece you're not just seeing a bunch of notes / tab.  You're just read an idea that strings the notes into a cohesive thought or thoughts.  This not only makes learning the pieces more enjoyable but it makes them easier to learn!  And as a bonus having those ideas makes you want to change them up a little and improvise on your own using the existing piece as a jump off point.  The provided analysis gives you the direction to try.

Another nice aspect of this book is that for certain songs, like Killing Floor, Marshall discusses more than one artist's interpretation.  I think seeing up close what other people do with a song that you just learned really improves your musical understanding.  I love that part.

This book is rather advanced.  I would think two years of instruction and active learning and you should be able to tackle it.  You should be exposed to pentatonic and blues scales.  He fills them in for you so you don't have to memorize them but you should know the what, where, how and why of them.  Everything is in TAB and Staff so if you're not that good at reading music you can still follow along.  There is a CD with it that makes working out the pieces a pleasure.

Minus?  Why not more songs or a Vol. 2?  I think he could have discussed where these solos came from chordally  a bit more to help see it differently and to help the reader in venturing into the improvisational world.  He discusses the importance of that so adding the information would be consistent with his message.  Not a biggie really but why ask for the moon?

This is a great value in guitar instruction for the intermediate+ player.  You can use it on your own or use it with an instructor and go pretty far fast.
3097494
This book has some more advanced topics which build on your basic concepts and knowledge of Japanese, so this book is not for beginners. It's more so for intermediate to advanced learners who want their Japanese to sounds more natural and also wants to know how to use more common words more correctly. This book offers very good examples and gets the point across very clear. The included idiomatic expressions make this book extremely valuable for me. The only thing I don't like is the use of romanji. Since it is a book geared to more advanced learners, romaji doesn't seem appropiate. However, this book does not make the use of furigana, so the romanji does help in that since, but I still believe using only furigana would of been a better choice. If you're serious about being more fluent and natural sounding, then this is a very useful book to get.
928460
I'm an advanced Spanish instructor and intermediate language coordinator. This is by far the best textbook of Spanish I've ever seen. Yes, you don't find great pictures, appealing format, that's true. However, the grammatical explanations are just incredible. This book is a link between theoretical linguistics and the classroom. The explanations are based on concept-based systemic-functional grammar of Spanish, instead of the rules of thumb that you will find in most commercial textbooks, which have as many exceptions as rules. If you found yourself thinking "... um, but I can also use the imperfect or the subjunctive here, so how do I explain this when the textbook says the opposite?", then this is the textbook for you. You'll find well-grounded, essential, concise, conceptual explanations rather than list of rules that are not true anyways. And you have EVERYTHING in this book, all the grammar you can possibly think of, including meaningful word-order in Spanish, phonetics, questions of discourse, a task-based approach to composition and academic writing, editing and typical error analysis and the metalinguistic knowledge necessary to be literate and articulate in Spanish. Students can realize how changes in form translate into changes in meaning and how meanings are constructed in Spanish (for example, changes of focus or information prominence with rheme and theme structures). There are lots of exercises based on these explanations. Explanations are in Spanish and most examples are translated into English. This is ideal for an intermediate and advanced level. If you want to read more on this line, get also Spanish/ English Contrasts by Stanley too, and read Dwight Bolinger's articles.
4568305
I have tried both the Fluenz and Rosetta Stone methods of language learning, purchased numerous books, as well as taken Spanish classes at the high school and university level. For me, Fluenz was the perfect approach. It mimics the classroom so that each new element is introduced and explained in a short lecture followed by practice. Yet, much better than the classroom, you are able to return and rewatch the lectures and work through the practice sessions again and again. The lessons build on what you have learned and slowly incorporate new things. Then they encourage you to connect the new material with the old material causing your brain to make crucial links with the material. I love the engaging process and have found that even when I have been forced to leave my studies with Fluenz for almost a year, I was able to return and recall everything I had initially learned with ease. This is one of my favorite purchases of all time.