AP Prep Book Reviews

<p>Here are the ones I’ve used:</p>

<p>Princeton Review: AP European History 4.5/5</p>

<p>Has a good understanding of the general trends of history and I felt like the practice tests were similar to the real one. I read it once, underlining stuff, read it again and made note cards for all the key terms, and just plain read it through one more time before the 2009 exam. I pulled off a 5 having done nothing but read Palmer all year and review with this book for a month or so beforehand. However, it does have some factual mistakes - it said the Black Death was in the early 1400s, for example. </p>

<p>Princeton Review: AP US History 4.5/5</p>

<p>Good details on the history of the US, especially of the pre-Revolutionary era. I felt that the practice test MC was significantly harder than the actual MC on the 2010 exam…but I don’t have my score yet so we’ll see. I wish it had time lines like in the AP Euro book. </p>

<p>Barron’s: AP Biology 5/5</p>

<p>In-detail, systematic, and well-written. The practice test MC was MUCH more difficult than the 2010 MC; on the Barron’s MC, I skipped at least 10, on the actual test, I skipped 2. Although people swear by Cliff’s for Biology, I say go with Barron’s. </p>

<p>REA: AP Latin Vergil 3/5</p>

<p>Its practically the only review book for AP Latin Vergil. Had too much pointless information, the MC were extremely unrealistically difficult, and did not focus enough on the Aeneid. I think it should have had an interlinear translation of the lines of the syllabus and less on how to answer the questions (it has 12 chapters of information about the test format). It did, however, have a cool Aeneid plot review section and provided some useful information among those 12 chapters or so.</p>