<p>so I'm looking into some AP prep books and i saw that people on cc were raving about amsco. i went on amazon and it has like two stars review. my question is-why? if cc'ers love it, how come it has such a terrible rating?</p>
<p>also i know that the apush test is changing next year- how much? are old prep books still useful? or should i just get new 2015 ones?</p>
<p>From what I remember (took this exam in May 2010), AMSCO is extremely comprehensive such that knowing all of the material in the book will all but guarantee you a 5. It’s possible that the negative reviews are from people who were expecting a shorter book.</p>
<p>In September 2013, a conservative blogger noticed that the book reworded the second amendment so that it stated that “people have the right to keep and bear arms in a state militia.” Conservatives took this to mean that guns can only be owned only if one is in a state militia. All of the negative reviews are from outraged conservatives upset about that one page and how “liberal propaganda is corrupting our children.” The book has since been reworded to the original amendment. If you’ll check the dates of the reviews, you’ll see that most of them were within the week that the blog came out. The book is still by far the best resource for studying APUSH and the negative reviews should not deter you from buying it. </p>
<p>The blog is here if you’re interested <a href=“http://www.dailypaul.com/299365/high-school-ap-history-book-rewrites-the-2nd-amendment”>http://www.dailypaul.com/299365/high-school-ap-history-book-rewrites-the-2nd-amendment</a></p>
<p>Edit: Also, AMSCO is releasing a new edition this year I believe, so it should reflect the changes in the test as well as anything else.</p>
<p>Are you kidding? I love AMSCO. I can’t imagine why people would have a bad opinion of it. It greatly simplifies everything mentioned in the official APUSH book, the American Pageant, into actual understandable language and was much more concise than the actual book (who needs to know about the color of george washington’s pants on the day of the battle, seriously)</p>
<p>I highly recommend it. I have never taken APUSH, yet I just did a quick read through of that and McGraw’s 5 Steps to a 5 and I got a 5 on the AP exam. (This was while concurrently taking HUSH, but trust me, not alot of studying was done at all) The book is fantastic.</p>
<p>While the test style might be changing, the content of the history books itself is not likely to change (as you know, it’s history), so I think AMSCO will still be useful to you. You can get another review book for practice questions or something if it really changes that much. Or your teacher more likely than not is going to at least some practice with you with the new style in the school year. </p>
<p>So, yeah, my recommendations are AMSCO or 5 steps to a 5. Both are awesome</p>
<p>AMSCO is brilliant, the poor reviews were due to conservative nonsense over a single sentence in a 700 page book. I would also highly recommend Crash Course, which is simply incredible. In fact, anything by Larry Krieger is great. </p>
<p>Crash Course is significantly better than Amsco and much more brief and to the point as well. Amsco has absurd amounts of redundant information.</p>
<p>I’m gonna build off her question – would old Crash Course and AMSCO books still be useful? History never changes, but the information would still be just as good and the changes aren’t so dramatic that I have to worry about getting a newer version, right? I will get PR 2015 version though for practice tests.</p>