It's that time again ;)

<p>Schools out, and I'm gonna hit the books. Stupid summer AP projects, along with preparation for the SAT. Math has been my weakness for many years, but as I continue to grow older I'm becoming more mathematical minded if that makes any sense. I used to be an avid reader, but stopped my freshman year. I'm picking up books now, but I tend to overanalyze CR passages at times. Writing is Pretty easy. I'm planning to order some SAT prep books, along with AP practice books for next year. Here's a list of books that I'm considering:
Barron's 25th edition
Blue book 3rd edition.
I have a few questions about a few books. I want to order a CR and M book for the SAT. I have DH v1 and v2. Should I order Barron's CR and Barron's math, or Barron's CR and Gruber's math?</p>

<p>AP's
What books should I order for Calculus AB, Bio, World, and Lit? I have one or two more AP's, but I'm probably not going to take the exams for those classes. </p>

<p>Please feel free to leave suggestions for any particularity useful SAT prep books or AP prep books.</p>

<p>Disclaimer: Sorry about grammar, spelling, and whatnot, I burned my index finger on an iron (hurts like a ■■■■) and I got toothpaste on it. its incredibly hard to type without my index finger so I got a bit lazy :P</p>

<p>I was in your exact position last year! But I was so busy that I couldnt study for SAT over the summer so now I have to do it this summer and take my SAT in October, my freaking last chance. And you are taking a ton of hard classes next year, so youll probably not gonna have enough time to study throughout the school year. Just push yourself to the fullest this summer and get it done and over with.</p>

<p>Books I got for the SAT: Direct Hits Volume I & II (for vocab)–I kinda regret purchasing it tho because I already knew most of the vocab from AP Lang vocab tests… I wish I’d purchased a book with more advanced vocab or something-, blue book, answers & explanations to the blue book by Peter something, Gruber Study Guide (for math), and the Elements of Style by Strunk. I havent used them completely so idk if the are effective, but im pretty sure they are based on what ive read. </p>

<p>Okay-I spent a TON of freakin money on AP books, and I regret it SO much. The class should be ENOUGH. It will be, trust me. If your teacher isnt that great, then your textbook will be. Dont get those AP books until after a few weeks of school when you can decide if you are learning adequately. I have a bunch of Barrons AP books in my closet all dusty and unused. Also, some of them are good while others arent. the history barrons tend to be awesome but the Calc one was HORRIBLE. </p>

<p>Also, youll probably not even have time to study the whole book. April-May is legit crunch time. But, I do recommend the history Barrons flashcard for histories, they were AMAZING!!!</p>

<p>Hahaha, thanks for the input. Yep, October will be my last SAT as well. I’ve only taken the SAT once, but didn’t score well. I was extremely nervous (too much pressure to score well, I kind of cracked under the stress). You may laugh, but I’m turning into a frugal human being. College is about a year and few months away, and I’m dressing about the financial burden that I’ll be putting on my parents. I usually order my books and stuff from amazon so it’s cheaper. Orders that are over $25 have free shipping/handling. I also cram for my AP’s towards the middle of April. I almost certain that our teachers prepare us for half of the exam. We’re almost never able to finish the curriculum, plus the books are quite outdated. I want to approach next year by using the prep books as a supplement to the text books we’ll have next year. I’m mostly worried about the SAT. I really want to break 2,200, even though I’m quite far from my goal. I’m a bit too ambitious haha. What about these books: Barron’s guide to 2400, Gruber’s math guide, 10 real SATs(or whatever that book is called.), Dr. Chung’s, hack the SAT?</p>

<p>I’m about to order books. Anyone wanna help please? Dr. Chung’s v. Grubber’s to break 620 and enter 750’s? Best CR prep book?</p>

<p>Why not use your public library? Mine is great so it might be a different situation for you but that’s where I would go first. </p>

<p>If you go on Amazon, I remember Dr. Chung’s book having a “Look inside” link so you can just check it out online. I’ve used Grubers for a bit just to refresh concepts but I wasn’t sure how much the book itself helped. I’ve also looked through Barron’s 2400 - nothing new in that either.</p>

<p>If I were you, I’ld just use CC’s guides and get ahold of QAS’s - practice is the most important factor.</p>

<p>What books should I order for Calculus AB, Bio, World, and Lit? I have one or two more AP’s, but I’m probably not going to take the exams for those classes.
^</p>

<p>For SAT, Barron’s is amazing for concepts/tips/tackling the SAT, so use that while you review.
Get the official sat book released by Collegeboard for practice tests, since Collegeboard is the one that actually administers the tests. (There are no explanations for answers on practice tests though, which is a bummer.) </p>

<p>For biology, a lot of people say to use Princeton Review but I found it the least helpful out of all of my review books. It barely covered the concepts and was too succinct, which can be easy to follow, but won’t help you much since the AP exam has some details that the Princeton Review doesn’t even care to mention.
Using a combination of Barron’s and Cliffnotes is the best. I made the mistake of ignoring the details because I was constantly told that “Collegeboard never tests you on details”. It turns out that most of the FRQ was based on the details that I saw in Cliffnotes/Barron’s and decided not to study.</p>

<p>For world history, a combo of Princeton Review and Barron’s is perfect. Don’t bother with 5 steps to a 5. To be honest, I think the Barron’s book had a bit too much information, but I skipped the extremely detailed parts. In the end, the WHAP exam was insanely easy because it was more analysis of passages than actual memorizing of facts so…</p>

<p>And not sure for calc AB or lit because I haven’t ever taken those exams.</p>

<p>Thanks. I’m definitely looking at Barron’s 2400 and a few other books. I’m in the lower 600 scoring tier, so would Dr. Chung’s be better than grubber’s? I’m also thinking about ordering Barron’s CR book. Are there any other CR specified books that are better than Barron’s? I saw Kaplan CR guide, but I’m not sure as to how much Kaplan will help. So for AP World should I go for Barron’s? I’ll order the guides for the other AP’s later. I’m also planning to take SAT2’s next year, so should I buy the College Board guide for that? I believe it has around 20 tests, 1 for each or something.</p>