Hurra!!! Po polsku review — the classic Polish coursebook series (A1–B1)

What this book is

Hurra!!! Po polsku is one of the best-known coursebook series for adults learning Polish, published by the Prolog language school in Kraków. It teaches Polish in Polish using a communicative method: dialogues, everyday situations, vocabulary in topic groups and grammar presented in tables. The publisher describes it as the first series to take a learner from scratch to the B1 certificate exam.

• Volume 1 — roughly A1–A2 (authors Małgorzata Małolepsza and Aneta Szymkiewicz).
• Volume 2 — roughly A2–B1.
• Volume 3 — B1, with mediation tasks and extracts from literature and the press.

Volumes 2 and 3 were written by other author teams. The series has been republished in a new edition (2020–2023), with video clips in each lesson and a DVD of 28 short films for volume 1. The ISBN above is for the new-edition student's book of volume 1; each volume has its own workbook, and audio and video come through the publisher's app. For volume 3 (B1) Prolog also sells a separate book of sample certificate tests.

Who it suits best

• Learners in a language school course — many schools in Poland use this series.
• People with a tutor who can explain grammar and answer questions in their language.
• Learners who want to stay in one series all the way to B1 instead of switching books.

Who should pick something else

• Self-learners with no Polish at all: the books contain no translations or explanations in other languages, and reviewers describe the series as hard to use without a teacher.
• People who only need exam preparation at B1: a dedicated B1 book will be more efficient.

What's inside

• Student's book with lessons built around dialogues and situations, vocabulary, grammar boxes and exercises.
• Workbook with homework exercises and an answer key.
• Audio recordings for listening (MP3 and video through the PROLOG app in the new edition).
• Films (new edition) and a teacher's guide.
• Volume 2 (new edition) adds wider vocabulary lists, grammar tables and writing tasks; volume 3 adds mediation tasks and authentic texts.

What learners and teachers say

It is the most-reviewed of the Polish-published coursebooks on our list. Across shops it has hundreds of ratings — for example 4.9–5.0 out of 5 on Empik for the separate volumes (several hundred ratings in total), around 4.3–4.5 on Amazon for volume 1, and 4.03 from 36 ratings on Goodreads (checked October 2026). About 35 written reviews in five languages tell a remarkably consistent story.

• Praised: lots of varied exercises for homework and class; clear grammar tables — "the grammar is explained very clearly, with tables summarising what you just learned, plus exercises", writes one German buyer; a modern, communicative approach with cultural content. Many reviewers used it on university or evening courses and liked it there. Among teachers it is a reference series, called a "milestone" in teaching Polish to foreigners (quoted in Szamryk, 2017).
• Criticised: everything is in Polish, so it is not for a beginner studying alone — about a dozen reviewers say so, including several who gave five stars. "For a beginner learning solely from home, I would NOT recommend this without an online course guidance or a tutor," writes one; another calls it "quite good as a book to support a taught course, but not so great as a stand-alone learning aid". Other complaints: too little vocabulary and no word lists, recordings that are fast and noisy for learners, the student's book has no answer key (the workbooks do), and some buyers of the new edition could not access the videos.

Our verdict

A solid choice if you study with a teacher and want one series from A1 to B1. For self-study, choose an English-medium book or a course with explanations instead. In the last months before the exam, add a dedicated B1 book and our free B1 practice tests.