The Ultimate French Review and Practice: Mastering French Grammar for Confident Communication

Used for reviewing before a college course after not taking French for a year. Very helpful and complete. Definately would recommend.

NOTE: This book is called "The Ultimate French REVIEW" for a reason. It is NOT for beginners, but for those polishing their "rusty" points. It also helped clear up some of the foggy points I still had from previous traditional classes.
That said - I bought this book in preparation for my study abroad experience in Tours, France. I spent the summer before my trip doing a few pages a day of reading and exercises from this book (it's huge), and as a result not only did I place in a higher level than anyone expected on my standardized test, but in addition I used it to help to some of my English-speaking classmates. I agree that some of the exercises are repetitive, but that's really the only way to master verb conjugation.

I think that this book truly improved this student's writing ability in French. As I continue to write (and learn) in French, I still use it as a handy reference guide when I'm unsure of which tense to use.

This book is ideal for the intermediate, college student of French, or the advanced high school student. For more novice learners, I recommended getting drilled as the best learning method. Initially, students fear it as monotonous, but if the instructor paces the drilling correcctly, as well as frequently changing directions and injecting new things to be drilled, then that really isn't much of a problem. My students generally leave the class, not bored, but totally pumped. Warning: it is an intensive work method for the teacher. Drilling drains the teacher. The good news is that , once past the novice level, drilling should be done less frequently.

I bought this to study for a proficiency exam that I have to take 6 years after my last french class. So far it is proving to be a helpful resource in jogging the memory and teaching me new words and grammar quickly. I recommend as a great supplement or study tool.

Although well-organized and comprehensive, the book suffers from several editing errors in both the text and the exercises/answer keys (particularly in the chapter dealing with the future and conditional perfect tenses) and a vocabulary primarily limited to academic settings (which is very limiting indeed). The book should also have been structured in workbook format to allow the student room to record answers; because the book does not fold well, writing answers on a separate piece of paper or laptop is a hassle.