<p>I borrowed a arco calculus prep book published in 2001 but the newest one is in 2007 (peterson's). Does this matter at all? Also, how long before the exam should I start the prep book? (some subjects like APUSH are 8 weeks but calculus is relatively shorter in terms of content). Thanks</p>
<p>I don't know about specific prep books (I just used the textbook).</p>
<p>Reviewing calculus isn't particularly easy. Actually, I think it's easier to review for US than for Calc, because if you don't understand the fundamentals of calculus, you're kind of screwed if you don't learn it fast!</p>
<p>I would review as soon as possible. Why not?</p>
<p>! Make sure you know your graphs! Like, if you're given a certain graph, what does the area under the curve mean in terms of rate? That's very important.</p>
<p>! Make sure you learn slope fields. It hasn't shown up for a while, so expect it to show up this year. </p>
<p>! Go on the collegeboard website. There you'll find lots of practice free-response questions. Go over the 2007 one; I took that one, and it was way harder than most people expected.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that slope fields has shown up on the AB exam every year since 2004 with the exception of last year. I believe that it was the first year it was introduced on the AB exam, though you might find more examples from the BC exams. Slope fields questions are frequently paired with separable differential equations, so I would be ready for that.</p>
<p>Frequently, the first question on the exam has something to do with areas, volumes of solids of revolution, and sometimes with volumes of known cross-sections.</p>
<p>They tend to like questions that involve discrete data sets that would require knowledge of rectangular approximation methods as well as trapezoidal approximation methods.</p>
<p>They also like something that involves recognizing the integral as accumulation.</p>
<p>Lastly, I would make sure to expect something from the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus family.</p>
<p>I would recommend taking old tests. The College Board ones are best, and I would take the 2007 test, but only after you take some of the other ones first.</p>
<p>I don't think the 2007 test was significantly harder, but it was a little bit more algebraically intensive than students were used to, and I think that threw a lot of people for a loop.</p>
<p>definitly use barrons for ap calculus AB
I got a 5 and that's the book that I used for extra problems.
good luck!</p>