<p>Hello.
Some people said they self-studied just from prep books and got 5s on AP exams, but I read authors telling the following on Preface, Foreword, or Introduction section of Barron's AP Statistics, Cliff's Biology, and Barron's AP Computer Science:
"...textbook must accompany this book."
"You should consider this book as a supplement to your textbook, your lab exercises, and your teacher's lecture notes."
"While a review book such as this can be extremely useful in helping prepare students for the AP exam, nothing can substitute for a good high school teacher and a good textbook."
These authors all seem to tell me that I can't just study from these prep. books but need to study textbooks too.
Do I really need textbooks?
Thanks.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the subject.</p>
<p>And also, whether you just want to get a good score, or to actually learn.</p>
<p>AP Statistics and AP Computer Science are so straightforward that you don't really need textbooks.</p>
<p>Biology may be a different story.</p>
<p>I agree with the previous poster. In subjects like psychology, you really don't need a textbook at all if you have Barron's (the introduction of this book also tells you to have a textbook handy). With Barron's AP psychology, you learn all the stuff that a textbook would teach you just in less detail. If you really want to learn psychology, get the textbook, but if you think it would be a fun subject to learn and sort of skim through, you don't need a textbook at all. Like the previous poster said, many people self-study for the sake of getting a good score and acquiring stuff to brag about on that Harvard app or pretty much just to anyone who will listen. </p>
<p>I, myself, am self-studying psychology. I chose to self-study it because I always wanted to learn psychology, but my school doesn't have it in AP or IB, and it just has a normal class. I have other classes that are much more important to me, and there's really no way I could work a psychology class into my schedule. </p>
<p>There are some APs that are considered the BS APs (ex. Econ, Enviromental Sci., Psychology, etc.) and for those, you don't need a textbook at all, just a good review book. If you observe carefully, not many people self-study APs that don't fall into the BS category. I plan on self-studying AP chem because chem is my favorite subject (<em>gasp</em>) because my school doesn't offer it. I will definitely get a textbook and a review book for it, because I want to really learn the material.</p>
<p>The only reason the preface of every review book repeats the whole 'textbook-necessary-this-book-is-only-for-review' crap is because they don't want to get into any kind of trouble. Say they promised in their preface that their review book would guarantee you a 5. Little Johnny thought that he could skim through the book in 15 minutes, the hour before the exam, and get that 5, and then he is exposed to the true horror that an AP exam really is, and gets a 1. He, and his parents, won't exactly be too happy about this.</p>
<p>What I would suggest you do is try self-studying without a textbook, and if you feel that you need one, or that you really want to learn, buy one, but, otherwise, your money would be better spent if it were donated to a charity.</p>
<p>P.S. I really don't know what's wrong with me. All of my posts are 347 page essays.. Sorry!!</p>