<p>hey,
i just bought PR bio and Kaplan
i noticed that,
PR is fair and clear and gets right to the point
but Kaplan has deeper info, to brush up for each topic</p>
<p>by a combination of the two...assuming i have a solid grasp on both prep books....what score should i expect?</p>
<p>and something else,
i heard several people mention sparknotes...
concerning the online book and tests ...how helpful is it?</p>
<p>It seems really easy and simplified. But it's good practice on reviewing the basic concepts</p>
<p>My Bio teacher swears by Barrons, and claims every other thing on the market is too easy (then again this is the teacher that put SAT II questions on our Tests and Quizzes "to better prepare us")</p>
<p>I used Kaplan, found it to be very good, and got an 800. But really, it also depends on how good you are at biology and memorization in general.</p>
<p>Um, definitely depends on who you are, how much time you have, etc.</p>
<p>1 1/2 months before the test, I got PR and I sort of studied it, and did well (670) mostly because i froze up, every question was thoroughly covered-and a whole section (about 8 questions which I stupidly got wrong b/c I didn't review) were directly form the PR practice test. The practice tests are dead on too.</p>
<p>Friends with Kaplan 1 month before: they felt VERY overwhelmed-to the point that they didn't study at all, and bombed the practice tests, and either didn't take the test (just lost the $$) or got like 200's. More motivated people with more time probably would be fine. It's very confusing though, better for people with more advanced sciences reviewing for finals AND sat ii's. </p>
<p>Barrons 1 1/2 months: Very shady. Most kids in my class who were preparing had this and spent hours highlighting, etc. Ended up doing way worse than me (my class did so bad they thought that like 400 was passing and were overjoyed at the highest score with barrons-440!!!) for about the same amount of studying. Even though people are like "it's SO thorough" or whatever, it has whole chapters about like the food pyramid and has photosynthesis in like a page. Very uneven. And the practice tests were a TOTAL joke. I got 800 on like all 5, "Which is an animal?" I wonder!!!</p>
<p>Sparknotes-It's online, very basic. The practice tests were not AS easy as barrons, but I scored about 75 pts higher.</p>
<p>Whichever you pick, I suggest you go to the library and check out each book and see what the deal is. Then order from amazon (like $10 cheaper for some reason)</p>