onebir,
You seem to have had some Chinese study experience before, so some of the stuff in the early tapes might seem like slow going. But, depending on how much Chinese you do have under your belt, you might be able to use some of the tapes in modules 7, 8, and 9 to suit your purposes.
For example, in module 7, Society, Part One of each tape in the sequence has a modified version of the approach used in the first 6 modules. Introduce, listen, repeat, then a moderately long dialogue. However, Part Two, probably corresponding to the back side of the tape, has a number of long dialogues (2 to 3) using the stuff you drilled in Part One. These dialogues are longer, and more sophisticated than anything that has come before in the previous modules. They are based on vocabulary introduced in the first part, but overall, I haven't felt the vocabulary load in this course is excessive. If you have had exposure to the stuff used in a one year course in China, I don't think you'll have any problems. The dialogues are at almost full speed, so they should give you some feeling of satisfaction, and confidence after you finish them. And with 8 or so of these Part Two tapes in each of the last 3 modules, I think the sheer volume will give you plenty to chew on.
Hope this helps.
TBZ
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