<p>Title says all. Will doing Campbell and Zumdahl alone help me with AP Bio and AP Chem? Are the problems in Zumdahl challenging enough for AP level?</p>
<p>I have heard that Zumdahl is slightly above AP level for chemistry and will get you well prepared… I’m not sure about Bio.</p>
<p>My school uses Campbell and people do generally well on AP Bio. I can’t personally vouch for it as I’m taking the class next year, but I’m sure the textbook will be more than sufficient (i’ve seen it-that thing is HUGE). As for Chem, our school uses Chang so I really don’t know, but Zumdahl is always the textbook that is suggested on here. Good luck with the classes, I’m taking both next year as well.</p>
<p>Campbell is far too detailed for AP. It’s better suited for a college bio class. Moreover, Campbell is even less useful for the new exam. Zumdahl is pretty good, though.</p>
<p>My school switched from the 9th edition to 7th edition for Campbell for AP Biology, which are both formatted completely different for some reason. The 9th edition is extremely detailed, where as the 7th edition gets to the point and adds some depth. The 7th edition I think is better for the new AP exam, but it wouldn’t hurt to read out of both. I started off reading from both the 9th and 7th editions when I had the time, but then I ended up reading purely from the 7th edition, looking into the 9th edition just to do some homework sets.</p>
<p>As for AP Chemistry, my class read out of Brown’s book Chemistry: The Central Science (an old edition - revised 8th - though). However, most of our problem sets and test questions came out of Zumdahl (which I didn’t know until I asked my teacher about textbooks near the end of the year). The book is perfect for the mathematical/calculation aspects of chemistry (which range from one-step to insane, judging on the questions on tests from the book), but not so much theory. Regardless, both books mentioned are pretty good books for AP Chem. The only downside for the Brown’s book is that it was missing an important detail, the ionization constant, for various calculations (it wasn’t addressed until the practice problems in the book). I personally only looked at a couple of chapters in Zumdahl, but it seems to be a pretty good book.</p>
<p>My chemistry class used both the Brown and the Zumdahl, and I definitely preferred the Zumdahl. It’s a good textbook, and the problems are definitely thought provoking. In the past, my teacher has only used the Zumdahl and has had great success.</p>
<p>Ah. Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>I’m prepping for USABO, so I’m reading Campbell anyway, and I just wanted to check. I don’t think any current books will really help with the AP Bio exam, lemon, since it’s crit thinking and whatnot. With Campbell, however, I’ve heard you can get good info on a lot of bio stuff, so it might help me with the exam.</p>
<p>I ordered Zumdahl, but they ran out of stock and gave me a refund lol</p>
<p>Re-ordering tomorrow</p>
<p>Well, actually, our school just switched from Campbell to Mader, and I have to say, Mader is a far better textbook in terms of depth of coverage and not having much extraneous information. Besides, TeamRocketGrunt, textbooks aren’t necessarily supposed to be tailored precisely to the AP exams, especially in terms of formatting subtleties. That’s what prep books are for. The fundamental purpose of a textbook is just to give you the content you need.</p>
<p>Yeah, I hear Mader is pretty good, but the IBO’ers seem to recommend Campbell the most.</p>
<p>They are both college level textbooks and they are both excellent resources to prepare you for the AP exam. In fact, they both go more in depth than the curriculum is intended to go.</p>
<p>Yeah, I hear Zumdahl does a really good job of prepping for USNCO, so I’m killing four birds with two stones lol</p>
<p>Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>Campbell AP Edition - 8
Chapters 1-22, 24-27, 40, 43, 45-46, 48-49, 51-56 are what we covered for the AP test. I got a 4.</p>
<p>I took AP chem and our school used Zumdahl. It has more information than you need to know for the AP exam. My teacher just told us what lessons to skip in the book. I didn’t like the book initially, but it got better as you got deeper in the book, especially in the math-y sections.</p>