<p>Hey, I was wondering what is better/helped you get a 5 more, Cliffs or Barrons for AP Bio.
Thanks</p>
<p>Well, I have both the Earth Science and Biology books from Barron’s and they capacitate ample, in depth information about each topic that pertains to Biology. I don’t know about the other, but I’ve been using Barron’s as a resource and its really helpful.
Hope this helped :)</p>
<p>This CliffNotes vs. Barron’s thing is really bugging me too, since they seem to be the only praise-worthy publishers that have updated their content for AP Bio.</p>
<p>That said, I just came back from Barnes and Noble where I spent almost 2 hours (no joke) comparing the latest editions of AP Bio CliffNotes and Barron’s. This is what I found:</p>
<p>CLIFFNOTES:
—Talks in more detail about each of the 13 labs of AP Biology (70ish pages vs. 20ish pages taken up in Barron’s)
—A few more insightful pages on testing strategy for the multiple choice q’s and grid-ins, BUT maybe not as much for the free response essays (see below)
—Less pictures and diagrams than Barron’s
—Has a more technical tone</p>
<p>BARRON’S:
—Much more review content in general (504 pages vs. 408); the content that isn’t on the AP exam is marked by the Barron’s “owl” symbol
—I would say slightly more review questions per chapter, but each chapter had different amounts of questions so it was hard to tell
—More visual aids than CliffNotes
—Less coverage of the 13 labs, but more diagrams
—A whole chapter on writing better essays, but not as much MC and grid-in strategy talk as CliffNotes</p>
<p>This is all I remember for now… I’m leaning towards Barron’s since the visual aids might help me understand the “big picture” the CollegeBoard is testing. Several reviews on Amazon for Barron’s state that the extra content will get you a 5.</p>
<p>BUT the lab coverage in CliffNotes is very in-depth and technical. It explains the process of experimentation (an important topic) better as well. Is understanding the labs more beneficial for studying for the AP exam? Additionally, Paul Andersen currently recommends Cliffs. SO, I have no idea which book to go with.</p>
<p>Anyone who took the test and got a 4 / 5 have any insight?</p>
<p>Thanks Qman! That really helped alot. Yeah, I’m probably going to get Barrons too, though I wish it has more insight for the labs.</p>
<p>NP. I am still on the fence though between the two and it’s killing me. Does anyone who took the new exam have any insight?</p>
<p>I took the exam last may and got a 5. It was extremely different, but struggling through it helped a ton. I used the new Cliff’s book AND the barron’s book, and found both to be useless after taking the exam. The sheer amount of detail listed in that book was NOWHERE to be found on that exam. It was mainly reading information (like a passage), analyzing some data, and then answering basic biological questions based on the data/passage. </p>
<p>Honestly, I didn’t think it was that bad (FRQs were a joke…) but I had an amazing teacher, the year prior to mine she had a 96% 5 rate (100% pass rate), but this year she said she only had 20 or so 5s out of her 96 student (something like a 92% pass rate). That can be attributed to her having 3x the amount of students though.</p>
<p>This is going to sound insane and probably stupid, but take it from someone who got a 5 and thought the exam was easy. My teacher gave us a project in the last few weeks prior to the exam that was going into the frameworks and defining basically everything and ensuring we knew every detail. To no surprise, those examples that we came up with for each little standard were EXTREMELY useful in answering the FRQs. The majority of the topics were also covered in the multiple choice, so everybody had an immense understanding for each topic.</p>
<p>I would recommend it to your teacher, for us it was a huge project consisting of 4 quiz grades and 2 test grades. I highly recommend doing this, it was the best preparation I had and was incomparable to any review book (they are way too specific).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I always use barron just because it has more materials and the review problems are more challenging.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! I decided to go w/ Barrons (alot thanks to QMansc’s post) just to let anyone curious to know, know.</p>
<p>@HobbitHopeful sounds like a really good idea, can u go a little more indepth of what the assignment was? I think I might do that as the exam gets closer</p>
<p>@HobbitHopeful what were those examples?
@ Zeppelin how was the AP bio exam? All tips are welcomed… : )</p>
<p>@whph2017 Check the frameworks. They’re listed throughout the curriculum :)</p>
<p><a href=“http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/10b_2727_AP_Biology_CF_WEB_110128.pdf”>http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/10b_2727_AP_Biology_CF_WEB_110128.pdf</a></p>
<p>@wph2017 The Bio exam MC was a joke. I’m glad I didn’t even try to study for that. Its mostly to all reading a passage and answering questions (you will have to have AP Bio knowledge though to fully understand the questions.
The FRQs on the otherhand were ridiculous, I did super crappily on them, mostly because it was heavily based on the systems and ecology (both which my teacher didnt bother teaching, instead giving us independent studies to do). Though in hindsight, they wouldnt have been to bad if i wasnt bsing half of the frqs.</p>
<p>Moral of the story, if your teacher doesnt teach you something but its a big chunck in your prep book, atleast attempt to learn them. The systems frqs are probably the reason I got a 4 and not a 5 on the exam. </p>