<p>How much do they actually change over the years?
i.e. If I bought a 2008 book would it really be any different than waiting for the 2009 books to come out?</p>
<p>It doesn't matter which version you get, unless the exam changes.</p>
<p>The books don't change in information at all really. For example, I looked at SAT II books from years past (i.e. 2000 vs. now), and they literally had the same information and practice tests.</p>
<p>The only time you may need to get a "newer" review book if you don't have one already is when the format of the test changes, obviously. However, even then the review material itself doesn't change. When I took AP Chem this year, I used an older version of the AP book, one that did not account for the change in the reactions section/free-response. At first I was worried, but when I compared the old book to the newer one kids had bought, the info was the same, and the tests were almost identical except for where the section changed; all the other essays/questions were identical.</p>
<p>Changing the year dates on the books is just to motivate you to buy the same material over and over again with the idea that it's "new," and since the AP's don't really change, they make tons of money off of the same book each year :-P</p>
<p>Oh yes.. PR doesn't even fix the typos in their previous year's version - which leads me to believe they just take 2008's version, slap on a 9 instead of an 8, then take a picture of a student studying, lay it in the background, and put it on bookstores' shelves everywhere.</p>
<p>Thanks guys.</p>
<p>I won some PR materials in the NVC, but they don't have the '09 editions of their books out yet. I'll just buy the '08 ones, somehow I doubt they'll be changing the Calc, Chem, or Physics C exams this year.</p>
<p>The only prep books that really change are the foreign literature ones, since the required reading list differs from year to year.</p>