I had to buy another book and ended up picking this as well to get above free shipping. Figured that I'd rather buy this for an additional $7 than spend money on a shipping fee. I'm not sure what I'm allowed to show but thought I could write down what's included in a chapter.
Chapter 4: The simple pastx) Introduction to the simple past (half a page).
- Complete the table with the simple past forms of bauen and sagen
- Complete the table with the simple past forms of laufen and lügen
- Complete the table with the correct verb forms (infinitive -> simple past)
- Complete the table with the correct simple past forms.
x) Some spelling and pronunciation tips.
- Conjugate the following verbs in the simple past in the person indicated.
- Derive the infinitive from these nouns and then translate them
x) Info on special cases.
- Complete these sentences with rennen, nennen, etc.
- Give the third-person singular simple past and past participle of these verbs.
x) Info on when to use als, wenn and wann.
- Complete these sentences with als, wenn or wann.
- Translate these clauses introduced by als.
x) Info on asking and giving time.
- Write out these times with nach/vor and then with the 24-clock.
- Circle the correct response.
x) Info on saying yesterday, today and tomorrow.
- Translate these time phrases.
- Translate the following words to fill in the crossword.
x) Self assessment.
Here's the German contentI got it today so I've only skimmed the book but it seems fairly comprehensive. Some answers are simple to figure out from the introduction but others give you no help whatsoever. In chapter 13, you're told that there's no definitive rule for loanwords and then you're supposed to write down der/die/das for 14 new words such as Informatik and SMS.
It highlights one of the issues with traditional workbooks. You're recommended to go back and redo exercises but it's difficult to erase written answers. I really wish Assimil would include some kind of digital product such as pdf/flashcards so you could study them. Obviously it's like buying a car and then complain that it doesn't fly but my point is that there's room for improvement.
I reckon it works well both as a quick summary of the language and as a self assessment test for false beginners. It's tempting to go from one course to another to make sure that you know everything but it's probably wiser to go through a book like this and figure out exactly what you need to improve. I lack experience of similar workbooks so I can't really grade it.
I wouldn't mind another 200 pages but maybe it would lose its uniqueness and just become a workbook among others.