Reviews for Level 5: Subjunctive, Conditional and Imperative

There was a lot of complicated grammar but Nelson made the class lively and fun

This is my fifth course with Nelson. It is extremely well taught, and I plan to continue with the conversation classes

I think the content of the course is great and has so much that is worth learning. I think the workload should be a little more consistent from one week to the next

We learned Subjunctive, conditional, imperative, active and passive voice in Level 5. I have been learning from Level 2 all the way to Level 5 in Berges all these months, no doubt Level 5 is the most challenging class! Too many materials have to be taught in 9 weeks then the test coming right after! Tons of homework to do every week! I came to Berges with very little Spanish background but I am surprised that I was able to be promoted to the next level after the exam each time! I have to admit that Berges did a really good job in training the instructors! The book we are using is easy to understand and homework provides good feedback to what we learned in class! We ( I can tell the other students like her too) love our instructor, Dennis Uribe! She is patience and knowledgeable and always makes sure her students understand the topic she covered before she moved to a new topic! I spent a lot of time in studying because no matter what level I was in, I can tell everyone in my class has much better Spanish background than me and I do not want to be too behind them! Last, I just want to say thank you to Berges institute, my intelligent instructor, Dennis and also the enthusiastic support team, Victor and Courtney, without your help and support, I will never be able to accomplish what I have today!

Level 5 was intensive but enjoyable. I realized then it was only the start of my Spanish learning journey!

I loved the class and the emphasis on conversation- I think there should be an oral exam however

The course was great and super engaging.

Overall I enjoyed the course and found it to be helpful in improving my grammar. I would have liked a few quizzes before the final exam to monitor my progress.

Prior to taking the class I read reviews of Level 5 suggesting it was challenging. I agree it was challenging but Ian's method of instruction coupled with the in class exercises and notes was extremely helpful. I highly recommend Ian!

I enjoyed the course, but I learn better if the explanations are provided in English. I find that I understand the material better when it is explained in English and then practiced in Spanish. I find this especially true for the textbook as well. I’ve purchased supplemental materials because there are times when the textbook isn’t clear.

Excellent instruction and great course structure. Could not reccomend any more highly. I have told several people about your courses.

Lots of material covered in an engaging, lively fashion. Lots of opportunity for conversation

I loved Alex, I thought she was very approachable and spoke very clearly! I thought she did a great job in our remote learning class. The one thing that I was disappointed in was how often people in the class spoke and asked questions in English. It really detracted from the time we could spend applying the grammar concepts we had been learning. I would have loved more time to not only review the homework but try to answer some of those questions live to learn them better.

Nelson was a great teacher and I enjoyed the mixture of grammar and discussion

The instructor is very good. For me, I think this course went a little too fast.

Great content- Alexandra is great - above expectations

Very informative and important. Level 5 was hard but absolutely necessary

Nelson is a generous, knowledgeable and engaging teacher. He added a personal touch week in and week out that allowed me to feel the class was getting to know interesting things about each other despite being on a computer screen. The Grammar lessons were detailed and strong and Nelson always made time to explain things again, answer questions or review and expand on ideas and the nature of the question of something deeper about the language. Near the end of the course, I felt a lot of material was covered in just 1 or 2 classes and the material felt a bit dense. Personal study time helped me feel caught up but at this higher level, I wonder if a 12 week course option would be better. Or perhaps offering 2 shorter sections for Level 5 - a part one and part 2 - so that ample time can be spent on the difficult concepts of using the subjunctive and sometimes confusing conjugations of the imperative. I really enjoyed the class overall!

Level 5 is dense with new grammatical concepts, and the shift to conversation-based classes helped me develop my skills.

Very interesting and informative. I am happy with the course.

Excellent. I learned so much in only ten weeks!

Instructor spoke so softly that it was difficult to hear her. She was not prepared for class. Clearly hadn’t looked at lessons or homework in advance of class. She often did not answer questions. Class consisted of nothing more than a review of the homework and her reading from the book. No practice at all. Very disappointing! I could have bought the book for $14.99 from Amazon and learned just as much.

The course was challenging and engaging. I learned a lot, and enjoyed the conversational aspect.

I love the structure of the classes. The grammar was a little more complicated at this level but the course is well designed and the exercises are helpful.

This level was the most intensive of all the levels so far. We learned conjunctives in both tenses, all four conditionals, passive voice, imperatives, and giving directions, all in 10 weeks. This content is simply too much and not realistic considering the average pace of adult second language development. It seems to me like, since this is the highest and the last level, Berges has squeezed all the remaining important grammar subjects together in this level. That's not how language learning works. Students' proficiency level, retention level, and linguistic readiness have to be taken into consideration when designing a course. Berges needs to add one more level, Level 6, and teach these topics at a pace that students can actually acquire them. I doubt any of the students, including myself, have left this level with the ability to incorporate what we studied into our conversations in Spanish, despite the best efforts of our instructor.

Great format - organized delivery of the grammar and for the first time ever I really understand subjective in the different tenses and conditional. It was a comfortable environment to practice and not be afraid to make mistakes.

Perhaps too much content in comparison to other levels. Also, I would have liked written answer sheets for the homework, as it was reviewed too quickly.

very informative although it should be maybe be split into two classes

Learning the most difficult parts of grammar is not fun or easy but Julia made it both.

The course was challenging but manageable. There was a great transition from in-person learning to online learning because of COVID-19. This is my 5th class at Berges and I'm always happy.

Learning how and when to use the subjunctive at first seemed impossible but Nicholas has been great and made the course fun and relatively easy to understand the concepts. Level 5 is a great course and it can actually integrate additional materials.

Level 5 is a high level course which was very tough to grasp in 10 weeks. I enjoyed the course because the teacher was great but the this course could be split into two levels or stretched out. Otherwise, things were fine.

Level 5 was the most challenging. I felt like there was a little bit too much information packed into a single 10-week course.

I was very pleased with this course. I hadn't studied Spanish for over 15 years and even then I only took 3 - 10wk courses. I had never seen the grammar in this course and I was missing grammar from the previous course as well. But Juan Carlos reviewed all the grammar from previous courses and drilled it into our heads. I can't deny it was confusing at times and your head felt like it was going to explode, but by the end I felt like I had a very good grip on Spanish grammar. Thank you.

Great deep dive into subjunctive & other tenses - I thought the class could have been 3 weeks shorter given how long we spent reviewing el subjuntivo.

Level 5 was packed with information! It covers the subjective, conditional, and imperative, as well as use of the passive voice. I've read other reviews recommending splitting the content into two courses, which could be useful. Another option might just be to add a few extra sessions so that there is more time to practice. Ed was great. He presented the material clearly and helped us make the connections between the new content and what we had already learned. I now have the foundation to be able to construct any kind of sentence I want in Spanish, but practice outside of class is imperative--there is so much to absorb in this level.

Very well structured review of more advanced Spanish grammatical concepts. Clear and well taught, entertaining classes.

Since I have taken Spanish classes at other places before but not for at least 2 years before I signed up with Berges, I wanted to find something that would serve as a refresher without being too elementary. Level 5 at Berges was the perfect answer!

This level effectively covered the subjunctive, conditional, and a few other small topics. As with past levels, the course moved quickly but without overwhelming. One concern is that a majority of class time was devoted to going over homework answers, with not enough time given to conversation.

Our class was small and conducted almost entirely in Spanish. Despite being a timid Spanish speaker and a challenging curriculum, I looked forward to every class.

The course is intense but well structured. It's a great ending to the entire series.

I have enjoyed the course very much, great material and great instructor

Before the class at Berges I didn't think I could learn the Subjunctive (it was just so darn confusing to me!). Even the Imperative tense tripped me up. I had taken two previous classes on the Subjunctive (at other schools) and had just about given up. I gave it one more try at Berges and was so glad I did! I found the style of teaching to be extremely clear. I enjoyed the simplicity of the book. It helped me that we went over the answers to the homework in class. I did study quite a bit every week, too, but in the end it was worth it! I may not be perfect with the Subjunctive, but the class helped me a lot!

The course was very challenging and enjoyable.

The structure is pretty good and has a nice mix of review to help remember what was covered previously in level 4. Nicholas was an awesome instructor and I really enjoyed his patient approach and willingness to go outside of the lesson plan of we have specific questions. Great guy and I recommend Berges in general

Level 5 was challenging but Ms. Melissa made it engaging and attainable. I've been very happy at Berges and I'm excited to move on to the conversation classes.

Highly recommended

Really enjoyed this class. Eva was patient and helpful (as always). In spite of the difficult subject matter, I feel like I have a decent grasp of the subjunctive, conditional, and imperative. Eva is great.

A tipping point in learning Spanish grammar.

The course covered a fundamental (but confusing) topic but Melissa taught it well so that it was easy to understand. Although it was a bit more challenging to grasp than previous topics, it is essential.