The Complete Idiots and For Dummies Challenge!

Hey everyone! My next post is something pretty cool, I was asked to be a judge in a battle. Yup, a battle that has been raging on for years and years. Both are top contenders but who is the best? What contenders am I talking about? Well the Complete Idiots Guide and the For Dummies book series of course! I was sent both books for Spanish. You guys know, I went to Spain and I was a pretty awesome expert in Spanglish but I wanted to brush up on the real thing.



After a series of rigorous tests and by rigorous tests I mean reading one chapter from one book then reading that same chapter from the other and comparing/contrasting. I know some people did try to sway my vote, especially by sending me extra goodies like these:



I have made a decision who I believe is the top contender and it was not an easy decision. Mainly because while both books are similar their learning styles are very different. The Complete Idiots guide is very relaxed it speaks to you man-to-man while For Dummies is more of a text-book learning style it gives you the rules and that's how it is. It all depends on how you want to be taught. Do you want to be taught steadily or quicker? Me? I like taking notes, I'm a hardcore note taker, I don't want to toot my own nerd horn but one professor after reviewing my notes in class once said my notes were even better than his.

So my verdict is I like to be fast learner, I like learning words fast, writing them down, memorizing them, etc. Bam, bam, bam, just get it done. So I actually preferred the For Dummies book. I felt like while reading the Complete Idiots Guide there was a pace issue. It was very slow start. I didn't like how like the first two chapters were just about "it's okay, don't be afraid to learn Spanish, you can do it!" Just get to the point. In the For Dummies guide they also had little quizzes at the end of chapters to see if you remembered words.

But they're very different. Yeah For Dummies does read more like a text book, so if you hated being taught like that in school with quizzes after each chapter I don't recommend it, if you prefer to slowly learn at your own pace with a little more friendlier tone then totally check out The Complete Idiot's Guide. Both really helped out and reading both together made me feel like a Spanish whiz! Muchos informacion! I also enjoyed how both had CDs so you can hear the audio exercises so you don't sound terribly like a gringa.

Buy It! Head on over to Idiotsguide.com where you can use the coupon code CIGBlog11 to get 50% off one order of regularly priced books. But hurry! Coupon code only lasts til October 31st!