This book is so much fun! Grammar explanations are easy to understand and there are many good example sentences. I will definitely use N1 version as well!
Very nice explanations of grammar points, and it also has decent listening exercises.
However, the exercises at the end of each chapter only tests what you just learned in the preceding chapter and does not use content from earlier chapters. This is counterproductive for solidifying your grammar knowledge, as you might forget the contents of earlier chapters later on.
There is also no mock test which uses all grammar points at the end.
As a result, this book cannot be used on its own. You need to purchase a separate practice/drill book.
The texts are difficult, but in a different way than you see in the actual exam. The passages are very short but contain many advanced vocab. I guess the idea is you can mine the vocab while learning the grammar, but I found it to just get in the way of learning the grammar.
I appreciated the texts at the beginning of each chapter, the explanations in English (albeit they are very brief) and the listening exercises. However, what makes me give it 3 stars is that the exercises in the book are too easy to effectively prepare for the exam only using this book.
I have been following the Try! series since N4 , using the N3 as my only resource for grammar with excellent results, so it was obvious that I will follow line with N2. As previous versions, the structure is the same, which makes it conceivably easy to read and practice , particularly if you are accustomed to Try! books. Another aspect I noticed is the length . This one is considerably larger with A LOT of grammar points that in the end made me feel that I'm pretty deep into the daily language, boosting my confidence. On the other side, a weak point is the subtile differences between grammar points. In N2 there are many structures that appear so similar with little nuances differentiating them (the difference between あげくand 末に for example) More than once I ended up googling it up the aforementioned (which to be fair sometimes appear in the practice exercises but the book assumes you understand them) . Nevertheless, It is definitely a must for those preparing for N2 who also don't want to dive straight into the advanced Shinkansen Master books, which are not for everyone, particularly for self-study. ABK deserves my praise.