The placement test is not very accurate. The majority of students are placed in level one classes. We played wayyyy too many games, I was held back by the structured curriculum that the teachers are told to follow, therefore not progressing at the pace I needed to. I was in a class with someone who knew significantly less Spanish than I did, therefore I had to go at the same slow pace as him. I kept telling the teacher I wanted to go faster, cover more material, I even requested to be moved up a level once I found out there would be no end to the games (scrabble, jinga, word searches, etc) and was promptly moved up a level thankfully. I still found myself catching up very quickly, then being held back because the instructor was reluctant to cover more material than he was told to in one day’s time. My last week there I was just telling my teacher the lesson plan I wanted to follow.

As far as grading system, they keep secrets from you, and will never let you know about "grades". They give you these envelopes before you transfer to another campus, and you have to give it to the office and the next campus, but you cannot open it, they told me if the seal is broken, essentially I'm in big trouble. They wouldn’t tell me what was in the envelope, I still don’t know. I got one to take to my next campus every time. At the last campus I was told to take the envelope back with me to the US and give it to the study abroad office (because this program was to get university credit), I asked "what’s in the envelope?" and the academic coordinator got very defensive with me, and wouldn’t say. But I suppose the envelope is my transcript or grades probably. I should have the right to know my grades, but they didn’t make that a readily available option at CPI.

Workload was super easy, homework was nothing, ps- you don’t even have to do the homework they assign you over the weekend, my weekend HW was never once gone over by the new teacher I had the following week. And I should mention another thing, don't expect English speaking teachers, the majority don’t know English (including the staff)! So, you use your Spanish or you don’t get anywhere.

Some teachers are superb and some are lacking, but after 3 weeks, I figured out that the teachers will do pretty much whatever you ask. If you ask your teacher to learn something specific or a certain topic, they will usually accommodate you (as long as your classmate is cool with it too).

Overall, the school has a very chill demeanor; it’s not very intense in the curriculum (I may be biased though because I was in easy classes the entire time, going over stuff I had seen in high school).

Some advice: Don't bring too many things like binders, paper, index cards, etc...All you need is a spiral, a couple writing utensils, a folder (the paper ones fall apart in the humidity btw), and a spanish-engish translator.

#1 thing to bring is an electronic Spanish English translator, its heavenly (but pack it in your carry on! the x-ray machines at the airport will fry it if it’s in your big luggage!).

I bought the 105 Spanish Verbs book that the CPI website recommends, don't bother! It’s a huge book to lug around, and I never once used it. Like I said the class work was not very challenging. Besides you SURROUNDED by Spanish speaking experts! Including your host family, so there is defiantly not a lack of help when it comes to your studies. But if you are going to buy the book, its 0.99 cents on eBay vs. $16-$18 at the bookstore.