I was wondering which prep book would be the best for AP World History, Princeton Review, Barron’s, or something else. Also when should I buy and start using the prep book, I’m in my 3rd week of school.</p>
I’d recommend Barron’s if you want a detailed and in-depth (almost like a text book) review book. That’s what I used and I enjoyed its level of detail, because it also helped for preparing for in-class tests and semester exams as well as homework assignments.</p>
Do you know a good one for AP US?</p>
AMSCO and REA Crash Course. The former is good for studying and reviewing throughout the year, and less for last-minute review (it’s fairly lengthy). Crash Course is excellent for quick last-minute review before the exam.</p>
These two are definitely the most-recommended and I already swear by them both even though I’ve only been in the class for 6 weeks. :p</p>
Soooo
when should I get it?</p>
When people talk about studying for APs, they always talk about books, but I think it is important to remember other options as well. I should preface this by saying that I haven’t ever studied for an AP Exam more than a week in advance of the test date, and for most of my exams I only studied a day or two before. So really, I suppose this advice is better for last minute procrastinators like me.</p>
Sparknotes makes AP Spark Charts which provide a really good overview of the entire subject matter. The history ones have timelines of significant dates as well, which is nice. The world history one in particular in especially lovely because it has separate timelines for cultural events, political events, etc. (Unless they’ve changed it this year…)</p>
I promise that this is not the advice of someone who did poorly on their APs…
For what is is worth…
I received a National AP Scholar Award this year for taking the following tests in high school (scores in parentheses): World History (5), Biology (4), English Language (5), European History (4), Psychology (5), English Literature (5), US Government (4), and Human Geography (5). </p>
I did take AP classes for all of these tests, but I went to an average public high school, so read into that what you will…</p>