I am studying Egyptian Arabic with The Pimsleur cds.  I find them effective and helpful.

"Are you taking a language course or you prefer study by yourself, at home?"

I'm a kind of person who don't perform well in a classroom. I learned some methods to get a good level in any language, studying by yourself. Nowadays we have a bunch of stuff on internet which can help us to learn any language for free. I've been studying Chinese for 3 years, one year in a classroom. Actually I have passion in learning languages, it makes things easier.