The school has three week long classes for students to allow for learning without…read moreinterruption. Based on a series of books adapted for different levels of knowledge. Obviously, for the system to work, the new student should be assigned to their appropriate level of ability. Students are evaluated and assigned based on online test responses, written answers to questions and interviews in Spanish. After the results, the lists are posted and they are sent to small groups. The general policy as outlined in the information guide is that once a new class begins no new student were added to the group. This seemingly comprehensive testing system would make a new student feel confident that they were matched according to their abilities. Not always the case!
Have heard some ambitious ones complain about teacher too slow to move on to the next topic so all the course content could be covered on time; for example in Level 3, when teacher has to spend more time to help a student having trouble with their (no pun intended) indirect pronouns. For others, classes they are put into are unpleasantly difficult despite their efforts. By the time a problem becomes apparent, they are already at the end of the first week; the grammar, composition and comprehensions exercises are just too difficult to follow.
The students are from many different locations in US, old and young ages, different abilities and backgrounds; can promote great learning experiences or give rise to tensions and disagreements if not well matched. Something else, the 'new' student may feel that the text book topics are not being covered adequately or parts are being passed over quickly. That may be because they are with mostly 'repeaters' and/or 'returners'. At the end of a course level, rather than moving onto the next one, some go back and do the same level again. Then there are the ones who come back every year and retake the same level.
Many found the school to be excellent because of the central location, teaching, conversational guides, hosts and group excursions. But some students were left instead with mixed feelings. From my time there in 2023 and from listening to others, there was too much variability in the overall quality to be sure of a great experience. That being said, the task of managing a school like this one is tough enough because there are so many moving parts. There is also the usual visitor adjustment to daily grind of commuting from suburbs, different diet, dry/stormy seasons and health problems for some related to air quality/altitude.
