<p>This only applies for courses you're not self-studying:</p>
<p>If you take an AP course in school, then what exactly is the practical purpose in buying a review book. You're sure to have been taught all the necessary information, and I guess all one really benefits from is the accumulation of tests that the book has. Other than that, a majority of the book is simply the content - and it seems rather unnecessary for you to buy a book just for the tests.</p>
<p>I somewhat agree. I always bought a review book but only used the test page questions and maybe a couple of review pages on stuff I learned really early in the year to refresh right before the AP exam. For the most part, people only get them for practice questions which, like you said, is pretty unnecessary considering you have to pay for all those other review pages people hardly use.</p>
<p>I disagree, personally. My WHist teacher was great, but my friend let me borrow his 5Steps book for the last couple of days before the test, and it was quite useful.</p>
<p>I took both of the tests, and on the day of the actual exam (we took it at twelve) the AP students were given 4 hours before the exam to study for it. My teacher had given us a printout from the college board that outlined major topics in each time period that we needed to know, and when there was a topic I wasn’t familiar with, I went to that section of the book and studied it.</p>
<p>In fact, I didn’t remember much about the major Indian Empires, so I read about them, and ended up getting like 3 questions on my exam regarding it, that I probably would have gotten wrong otherwise. And if nothing else, if you take the practice exams and realize you have a deficient area, the rest of the book is helpful for reinforcing that.</p>
<p>I see how they help with reinforcement, but I’m pretty sure you could find the stuff in your class notes, couldn’t you?</p>
<p>For example, everyone in my Calculus class was getting a review book, but I just studied and memorized from my notes - we got several practice tests in class, and I just took those. I pulled off a 5 and 5 subscore, so it’s not really that necessary.</p>
<p>I suppose I could find the info in my class notes, but my jumbled mess of a binder didn’t have a table of contents, like 5Steps did :S haha.</p>
<p>In all honesty I never thought I’d get a review book and probably would have done fine without one. In fact I scoffed at all of my friends (all of which went to a much larger, much more AP-centric school than me) for blindly following the teacher’s suggestion to get one. I just used 5Steps because it was free and my friend sort of forced it on me (because he took the early exam and I took the late one). For me anyway, it was mostly just convenient…</p>
<p>HOWEVER, I really wish my classmates had gotten review books and uhh, actually STUDIED THEM (or their notes for that matter), because out of the 20 or so of us I got the only 5… Christ, the only AP our school has decent statistics in is Spanish, damn native speakers… no wonder they wont offer more AP classes… </p>
<p>Review books are great to do just that - review. You need to be able to go over a year’s worth of material in a couple of days before an exam. If you go to a school like mine, then a review book is needed to actually learn the material.</p>
<p>My AP World History textbook mentioned absolutely nothing about historical trends. It was generally a useless book that spat random historical facts at the reader and had pretty illustrations. My teacher’s tests, however, were all from previously released AP exams. Studying from a review book helped immensely.</p>
<p>For AP Biology, the review book helped clear up what level of detail I needed to know for the exam. I would have spent hours studying things like the eye and ear, but neither was discussed in the CliffsAP book. Neither showed up on the exam, either.</p>
<p>For AP Human Geography, I didn’t do my assigned reading (I was a silly freshman) and pretty much needed to relearn the entire course.</p>
<p>For AP Economics, it was nice to be able to check to make sure that I was drawing an oligopoly graph correctly or that I remembered the causes of appreciation.</p>
<p>For AP Calculus, I can imagine that a review book will only be needed for practice problems. Math comes easily to me.</p>
<p>My point - review books can have many functions. I think we can all agree that at the bare minimum they provide some sort of practice for the comprehensive exam. They’re also extremely helpful in class if you need to remember facts/formulas.</p>
<p>Yeah, I guess sometimes the class gives more material, but hey AP aside, it’s good to know it anyway</p>
<p>but I guess I see all of your points</p>
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<p>You shouldn’t say that. Unless you guys all took a makeup exam, the world history exam (for the past couple of years) was supposed to have started between 8 and 9 in the morning. Collegeboard makes you all sign an agreement saying that.</p>
<p>Yea we took the makeup exam, don’t worry 
My friend took the regular exam and gave me his book and I had a chance to look at it for a week or so before I took my exam.</p>
<p>Ah, gotcha. I did the opposite of you - I took the normal world exam and the makeup macro exam.</p>
<p>While we’re on the subject (sorry to hijack the thread) is the schedule for AP’s the same from year to year? I’m kinda curious if there are any unavoidable conflicts for the exams I want to take… no sense studying if I can’t take them… :S</p>
<p>yeah its always the same, on the same DAY, and they just shift the DATE back one</p>
<p>The schedule has been the same for 2008, 2009, and 2010. However, I know that it was different a few years ago.</p>
<p>Don’t forget to buy a review book!!! It is probably one of the most important things!</p>
<p>I’ll tell you why.</p>
<p>1) The teacher doesn’t teach you everything you need to know. Some teachers skip certain parts and then focus on other portions which might be less important (for example, some ■■■■■■■■ project you have to do).</p>
<p>2) The textbook isn’t designed for the AP exam. It basically just teaches you xyz topic which will include alot of stuff you don’t even need to know! </p>
<p>3) If you don’t buy a review book, how will you practice?</p>
<p>Here is what a review book will do:</p>
<p>1) tell you how the exam is going to work (ie. time, types of questions, how many essays etc.)</p>
<p>2) Give you a brief review of the topics covered and other information you need to know on the exam.</p>
<p>3) Practice exams.</p>
<p>Well, then I guess the need really depends on your teacher. At my school, AP teachers teach you everything and then after the AP exam, some might just let the kids do whatever they want, and the more didactic try to implement useless projects</p>
<p>Well, a review book is essentially all the notes you never bothered to take, so it would be priceless to many people. In addition, it provides practice tests, which are always invaluable.</p>
<p>I find review books to be priceless. Last year my AP World teacher was teaching in the basic order of the Stearns AP book which was way to detailed. Plus she didn’t really give us class notes, and when she did they weren’t that useful. I find a review book helps to consolidate all the necessary info and gives you sufficient practice.</p>
<p>thats exactly why you need a review book, manu101. It is a concise summary of what you should have learned and then practice for the exam.</p>
<p>Reading through the review material in the book and then taking the practice tests is the best way to get ready for the exam. I have found that in the final weeks leading up to the exam it has been critical for me to do this to feel really prepared for the exam.</p>