<p>I was studying for AP CS earlier, and thought I was doing pretty well on the questions. So I finish, go check my answers, and end up getting half of them wrong. I feel dumb. Thoughts on Barron's books?</p>
<p>Sometimes Barron’s has wrong answer keys. Also, the questions tend to be harder than on the actual test.</p>
<p>That’s what I’d heard (the latter), and is why I bought the book. But man, it’s killing my confidence lol.</p>
<p>yeah barrons has a lot of wrong anwers for practically every series (AP, SATII, NYS Regents). just gotta know when its right i guess</p>
<p>Wrong answer keys?? Wow and here I thought I was just really dumb at math.</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve found wrong answer keys in my Barron’s AP Calc book. Sometimes, they have the correct answer listed in the answer explanation, but the wrong letter. They’ll be like, “and that’s how you get x=2, so the answer is A” when A says 3 or something and B is the one that actually says 2, just an example that I’ve found. I’ve also found that the practice questions in Barron’s tend to be more difficult on some AP tests than other companies’ prep books, just as someone else here mentioned.</p>
<p>Barron’s is noticeably tougher in their SAT, SAT Subject, and AP books (and probably other subjects as well) than both the actual tests as well as other company prep books (at least for math and physics).</p>
<p>That is by design, and it probably works well for some, but I’m not a fan.</p>
<p>As a general rule, yes, Barron’s is tough, but can be good preparation. Do you guys think Barron’s AP English Lit practice tests fit into that general category as tougher than the actual exam? This year I have Barron’s for AP English Lit & AP Calc, and then I have other brands for my other APs: Kaplan for AP Euro (which I’m not really liking all that well and think my class textbook and lecture notes are better, so I’m primarily studying those), and 5 Steps to a 5 for AP Spanish Language & AP Psych, and AP Calc. I ended up with 2 AP Calc books because I bought 5 Steps to a 5, but then my school figured out they magically had enough money all of a sudden to buy Barron’s AP Calc, enough for everyone in it, and my teacher decided to give us assignments out of that book for the last few weeks.</p>
<p>Just an update, I tried to use my Barron’s AP CS book for review. It made me feel incredibly stupid. But the AP CS exam ended up 10x easier / 10x less tricky. So yeah.</p>
<p>Barron’s is evil.</p>
<p>Weird… exact same thing happened to me with Barron’s. Missed a ton of practice questions that I wouldn’t normally.</p>
<p>I’ll probably stay away from them from now on.</p>
<p>I don’t like Barron’s. I find that it just confused me more. Thats why I got Princeton Review all the way :)</p>