Post the Books you used for AP Studying!! (all subjects)

Test Preparation
1

<p>I think it would be good if everybody posted what books they used for each topic, and give their opinion. This will be a good thread for anybody taking the AP's next year so that they can find the best books easily. Alsol, any other links you may have, such as sample questions/tests would be helpful for next year. The subjects are all listed below.</p>

<p>Art History
Biology
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
Chemistry
Computer Science
Macro Economics
Micro Economics
English Language
English Literature
Environmental Science
European History
French
German
Government
Human Geography
Latin
Music Theory
Physics B
Physics C
Psychology
Social Studies
Spanish
Statistics
Studio Art
U.S. history
World History</p>

2

<p>I used CliffsAP and REA for Biology. Cliffs is the best for review, but REA does have six practice tests.</p>

3

<p>U.S.: PR, Cliffs
Physics: PR</p>

4

<p>U.S. - REA and giant AHAP review ( THE Giant AHAP review was AWESOME for the night b4 the test)</p>

<p>Chemistry- Princeton review</p>

<p>Stats, Geograplhy,psych, English Lit, English Lang- BArrons</p>

<p>AP US Gov and Comp Gov- REA ( really feel it is inaequate) </p>

<p>Biology- Cliffnotes [ they da bomb!]</p>

5

<p>US: REA, AMSCO
Calc BC: Barron's
Chem: Barron's and Cliff Notes
Mac/Microeconomics:Barrons + PR (barrons has too many mistakes. Sometimes you don't know what is right or wrong.)</p>

6

<p>Euro: Modern European History by Viault</p>

7

<p>APUSH: Princeton Review - good for night before, just to refresh, REA - good for the few weeks beforehand
Chem: Princeton Review - umm...if your teacher is like mine, you're screwed anyway - I'm using barron's for the SAT II, which seems detailed enough for review
Calc AB: Kaplan
Calc BC: none - we'd had enough practice..I figured if I didnt' know it by now, I wasn't going to - which ended up being true
Language and Comp - none
Biology - Kaplan</p>

8

<p>USH: Amsco is by far the best. I also had REA, Princeton review, and Barrons. NEVER EVER EVER get Barron's AP USH. NEVER!!!</p>

<p>Statistics: I had Amsco, Barrons and CliffsAP. I'd say Barrons was the best.</p>

<p>Chemistry: Haven't started revewing yet. Friends say PR is best for last minute cramming. Barrons has too much extraneous information.</p>

9

<p>World - Barrons and Princeton (Both were pretty helpful)
US - REA (Very helpful)</p>

10

<p>European History: </p>

<p>Cliffs - Helpful, I went over the bolded names the night before the test and a lot of them were in questions on the test. </p>

<p>REA - Didn't really use it. Went into too much useless detail that wasn't even on the test.</p>

11

<p>APUSH - online notes. I didn't find any book to be useful
World - Barrons and Kaplan (somewhat helpful)
Gov - Cliffs notes (helpful)
Calc BC - online refresher notes
Stat - Barrons, PR, Kaplans, online notes (nearly total self study since class sucked)
Compsci AB - Litvin's book (helpful), PR (poor)
Chem - Cliffs notes (helful), old arco book (helpful)
Physics C - PR (very helpful), Cliffs notes (poor)
Lit and Comp - Cliffs notes (helpful)
Latin - reading through translations</p>

12

<p>Cliffs is great for AP bio.
The Princeton Review book for AP Euro is a good review.</p>

13

<p>English lang - sheet of literary terms...ap passage analysis tips from website
calc bc - PrincetonReview for a comprehensive "what to review"..college level textbook for understanding whatever wasn't explained thoroughly..sparknotes and thomson & peterson's for example problems</p>

14

<p>APUSH - REA, Amazing facts/summary, highly recommended
AP Chem - Barron's AP Chemistry (didn't really look at it) , Chemistry: A Central Science study guide, Barron's SAT II</p>

15

<p>US History - REA and PR, both good stuff
English Lang - Cliffs, had a pretty decent glossary, and some of the online stuff for old prompts, but i thought the MC on the real test was easier than any practice problems i had seen</p>

16

<p>apush -- the sat II barron us history book tons of information (better than their apush prep book)
ap bio -- cliff note
ap chem -- the arco one
english lang -- rea (memorize some of the terms, they are really helpful)
english literature -- barron's</p>

17

<p>Econ - Kaplan, decent review but there are better books out there.. princeton probably.
English Lang - Barron's, don't recommend it. there's practically no review at all and it's the thinnest test prep book i've ever seen.</p>

18

<p>World History- Barron's rocks my world for this subject! My teacher also photocopied a bunch of charts and graphs from Peterson's, which are nice if you're a visual learner. I'm not, so I thought Barron's was better.</p>

<p>U.S. History- I thought Princeton Review was pretty awesome. I looked at friends' books- CliffsNotes and Kaplan specifically- and I thought they sucked. The Giant AHAP review was also really nice, and have any of you heard of 199 Things Every American Needs To Know? I thought that was hot.</p>

<p>Psychology- This was the one subject that I didn't need to study for, but I did anyway. Barron's (newest edition) is pretty good for this subject. Worst review book ever, by a unanimous consensus, is the REA Psych. It's unfathomably bad. Princeton Review is also pretty nice, although my teacher felt that some questions were very ambiguous.</p>

<p>English Language- Everyone who looked at my CliffsNotes for this subject was overawed by how amazing it was. Really, don't even try to get anything else. 5 Steps to a 5 is pretty decent for this, and my teachers were infatuated with it, but it emphasized stuff that people usually don't have trouble with, and can't compare to Cliffs. (I would also recommend downloading the 50 practice questions from the CollegeBoard website; they're pretty helpful, and can also be useful in determining if your review book's questions are anything like the real test.) The worst choice for English language would definitely be the 2005 blue and white Barron's- it has like 30 questions on grammar per test. The real AP exam usually has zero.</p>

<p>Physics B- My teacher recommended Kaplan, and we used it all year in class, because apparently last year everyone committed mutiny after trying to learn from the Barron's review book. However, I bought the Barron's, because I was really not benefiting from Kaplan, and I thought it was incredibly easy to understand. I'll probably still fail the physics... Oh well, at least I got 5s on World History and Psych.</p>

<p>Sorry this is such a long post; I hope it was in some small way helpful.</p>

<p>edit: Oh yeah, and Barron's for Human Geography, but only because I think it's the only one around. Kind of useful.</p>

19

<p>u.s. history - REA + Kaplan -- got me a 4 :)</p>

<p>english lang and comp - Cliffs -- didnt really help cuz the M.C. did not match the ones of the test, but i guess with enough practice it helped get me the 4</p>

<p>comp sci A - barrons
physics mechanics - pr
english lit and comp - cliffs
micro/macro economics - PR + Mankiw are good for prepping
calc BC - PR, helped me understand stuff during school year and get me ready for AP. Its straightforward and easier for me to follow along since i dont read my calc book</p>

20

<p>U.S. History</p>

<p>I used REA, along with AMSCO, and my textbook (although I didn't read half the text). REA and AMSCO are both really good.</p>

<p>And here are some of my teacher's links:</p>

<p>Practice tests:
<a href="http://www.historyteacher.net/USQuizMainPage.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.historyteacher.net/USQuizMainPage.htm&lt;/a> (mc)
<a href="http://www.mury.k12.ut.us/mhs/apus/dbq/default.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mury.k12.ut.us/mhs/apus/dbq/default.htm&lt;/a> (DBQ)
<a href="http://www.historyteacher.net/2002DBQsMainPage.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.historyteacher.net/2002DBQsMainPage.htm&lt;/a> (DBQs again)</p>

<p>Other review stuff:
<a href="http://www.teacheroz.com/toc.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.teacheroz.com/toc.htm&lt;/a> (a lot of links)
<a href="http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm&lt;/a> (trials!)
<a href="http://www.historyteacher.net/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.historyteacher.net/&lt;/a> (general review with practice questions)
<a href="http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mruland/APUS/ExamReview/index.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mruland/APUS/ExamReview/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>And of course, the Giant AHAP Review!
<a href="http://www.historyteacher.net/AHAP/Readings/THE%20GIANT%20AHAP%20REVIEW.doc%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.historyteacher.net/AHAP/Readings/THE%20GIANT%20AHAP%20REVIEW.doc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<hr>

<p>English Language and Composition</p>

<p>I used Kaplan, but I wouldn't recommend it. It was okay, but it focused more on reading passages than on the specific essay questions on the test. But it did do a good job of analyzing, I have to give it that.</p>

<p>And a link for TONS of rhetorical devices:
<a href="http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>