Im taking AP Bio next year, which prep book is best?

<p>Please help me out, thanks a lot!</p>

<p>id say defffff sparknotes. it went pretty much hand-in-hand with the test.. some of the questions were close to word-for-word out of it in my opinion. i think it helped me a ton :)</p>

<p>Cliff notes is good for at least a 3(I got a 3).</p>

<p>Barrons is also good, but gives a lot of detail. A senior in my class got a 5 by using it.</p>

<p>i dont agree.. ive used cliffnotes for all of my ap tests and have always done better than a 3. barrons seems wayyy too technical for me.. sparknotes pretty much dumbs it down and gives you all the important stuff only and none of the extra stuff.</p>

<p>again, only my opinion</p>

<p>here is what i concluded from my friends
use barrons alone side with class (very detailed)</p>

<p>use cliffnotes for review (ties things together, the big picture)
(all the ones i talked to got 5's =D)</p>

<p>Barron's has some good charts and tables, but then again so does Campbell's 7th edition textbook (you probably will sue this in AP bio anyways).</p>

<p>I like Barron's table that shows the differences between all the animal phyla.</p>

<p>cliffs. all i read and i got a 5. also, buy the cliffs 5 biology practice exams (or just do it at borders or something) for better practice. it was a really accurate version of the test. slightly concerned with details, but it was still a fairly accurate exam. my friend knows phillip pack (the author) and apparently hes making a new edition soon.</p>

<p>With cliffnotes, you can get higher than a 3. </p>

<p>I got a 3 becuase I was a lttle bit more interested in US History, so I studied more for US History. I wasn't as motivated to study for Bio as much as US hist.</p>

<p>Cliffs. It's generally known that it's the best for bio.</p>

<p>Fun fact: when I took the Subject Test for bio, the first question was pretty much exactly the same practice question from the Cliffs book (on animal behavior).</p>

<p>Cliffs, read it instead of the school's textbook and made an A. :D Campbell's is way too heavy to lug around.</p>

<p>hmm, seems complicated. i have enough to buy one book, lol. i think i'll go with the barrons. it doesn't matter if it's more detailed or more difficult to read. as long as it has all the info, it'll be good.</p>

<p>thanks a lot to all those who posted.</p>

<p>You have to read and thoroughlyunderstand Campbell's if you want to guarantee a 5(not all the chapters but just those relevant to the AP Bio test)</p>

<p>cliffnotes. only prep book i used and got a 5</p>

<p>princeton review and barrons</p>

<p>i liked sparknotes for SAT II.. i basically had to self-study and used mainly sparknotes, some princeton review</p>

<p>cliffs and barron's!!! cliffs has better explanations and summaries, but barron's questiona are alot better</p>

<p>go probably with cliffs because i used 5 steps and i was screwed this year so mad, oh well this blows (strangly this was my most studyed exam, and most unentrested also) but yeah 5 steps sucksed</p>

<p>As you can see from every post before mine, Cliffs and Cliffs 5 practice tests are definitely the best ways to go. I read Cliffs 3 times a month before the test and got a 5. Also make sure you review all 12 labs before the tests. The stupid DNA restriction enzyme question (circle thing) killed me!!
Anyway, Good luck with your AP Bio class!</p>

<p>Does anyone know if Cliffs is coming up with a new 2007 Edition and when will it be released? Thanks</p>

<p>hmm.. I only use Cliffs. It seemed for the most part sufficient, but the last essay on the 07 exam was not covered (it was constructing a plasmid). While taking the exam, I did not feel as though the book prepared me, but I received my score today and I got a 5 :-)</p>