At this level it comes thick and fast. It isn't so much being thrown into the subjunctive (you get plenty of practive throughout at those) but the rate at which the complicated odds and ends get introduced: ablative absolute, future particple; consecutive and conditional clauses, gerunds, passive intransitive verbs, etc.
These are presented almost one-per-lesson and their comprehension is essential to understanding real Latin, of course. Among this, we're hurled into Latin poetry...for which you need the patience of a Saint...the jigsaw puzzle without being shown the picture.
I felt there was insufficient practice material, texts in particular, both in prose and poetry. Here we have that dreaded break from "school" Latin to the real stuff and it isn't nice. To compensate, the Teacher's Guide does have full translations, allowing lone students to check if they've understood each passage (or find out why not). In the absence of adult education on Latin in your area, you may be happier with such help.
I looked at the Cambridge course but inspecting the Teacher's Guides revealed no translations of Latin texts, an omission in my view - one needs to stack as many odds in ones favour at this level. Presumably Cambridge think everyone has a classical language school just around the corner.
In short, the Oxford is the more succinct, provides translations and model answers (in the Teacher's Guides), but is consistently hard work. I would have been a lot happier had Stage III been divided into two parts, each perhaps a little longer so that one's deflowering into "real" Latin was a little less painful.
Oh, those innocent days of Stage I!
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