hi, i’m a junior in APUSH right now, and our teacher said that we learned enough of the basics that with outside studying we could do well on the AP gov test, which i’m planning on taking in may. in your opinion, what guide is best for studying for an AP test that you’re not taking a class in? thanks so much! :)</p>
Princeton Review should be good.</p>
Ps, I’m self-studying AP US gov too :p</p>
Princeton Review is horrible for AP Gov. Crash Course is the way to go. Read it two or three times and you’ll be set.</p>
I’ve heard both, but i guess you’ll have to see for yourself.
I’d trust Crash Course over PR though</p>
I wasn’t a fan of the Princeton Review at all. I felt like it meandered around the concepts and didn’t give concise definitions. It also spent too much time on useless acts that don’t come up on the exam. The AP Gov exam is extremely vocab-based, with a few court cases and popular acts.</p>
^Are there any other books you would recommend? The only book I’ve heard that works is PR, and I haven’t heard if Crash Course is effective for Gov as it is for USH.</p>
My brother and I had PR and Crash Course. I took PR and he took Crash Course. I started earlier than him. I got 3 and he got a 5. I don’t know whether the book made a difference.</p>
What about Cliff Notes and 5 Steps to a 5? Along with PR, those are the only books I have. Will I be able to score a 5 using these three texts?</p>
Kaplan’s is very good</p>
I self-studied gov a year after I got a 5 on the APUS exam. I got a 5 on gov as well and the APUSH knowledge makes gov very easy. There are only a handful of chapters that you need to actually read (ie. the ones on media, bureaucracy, etc.) but I ordered a textbook called the american democracy by Patterson. I got it Amazon for around 3 dollars. I then bought the princeton review book, and ordered two released exams from collegeboard. While some might say its a lot of money, 3 credits for gov is worth a lot more.</p>