Barron's How to Prepare for the Advanced Placement Exam: AP: Psychology (Barron's AP Psychology Exam) [Paperback]

Robert McEntarffer (Author), Allyson Weseley (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series; 1st edition (March 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764109596
• ISBN-13: 978-0764109591
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 7.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best AP Psychology book, August 31, 2000

By 

"babydoll2983" (new york) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barron's How to Prepare for the Advanced Placement Exam: AP: Psychology (Barron's AP Psychology Exam) (Paperback)

Basically, there are three ap psychology review books. There are slight problems with all of them. REA is completely off topic. While REA is usually one of the best for test prep, it just doesn't cut the cake in this one. Princeton Review is usually one of the worst. It over simplifies things, give sample questions that are way too easy (which means you're screwed for the real test)and doesn't include all the info. In this case, Barrons is the best. It's concise, covered almost all the information on the test, and gives accurate sample questions. it includes a handy summary of the famous people you have to know and what they did. It's only flawed is that it failed to cover a few facts, but then again, no book can guarantee a complete coverage of everything that can possibly be covered. I strongly recommend the Barrons for anyone who intend on getting a 4 or 5 on the psych test.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Personal Favorite of the AP Psychology Prep Books, September 9, 2001

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barron's How to Prepare for the Advanced Placement Exam: AP: Psychology (Barron's AP Psychology Exam) (Paperback)

Barron's begins with an overview of the AP Psychology exam, giving the areas and relative coverage of the topics one can expect to see on the AP test. The book then devotes 13 chapters to psychology review.

Chapters included are as follows:
Methods, Approaches and History
Biological Basis of Behavior
Sensation and Perception
States of Consciousness
Learning
Cognition
Motivation and Emotion
Developmental Psychology
Personality
Testing and Individual Differences
Abnormal Psychology
Treatment of Psychological Disorders
Social Psychology

At the end of each chapter you will find multiple choice questions (usually about 15 per chapter) that pertain to the topics in the chapter. Answers are provided on the pages immediately following the questions. The best part of this is that they tell you WHY the answer is correct and why the other choices are incorrect. The final chapter in the book explains how to write for the free response questions. This section is short, but helpful. In addition, there are 2 practice tests in the back of the book. I strongly recommend working these tests under timed conditions to help you improve your pacing and determine which areas you need to study most. Analysis sheets for the multiple choice sections are provided at the ends of each of the tests. These analysis sheets indicate the topic from which each multiple choice question was drawn, allowing students to quickly and easily identify their strengths and weaknesses. This can be especially helpful to students who are unsure of which topics require more attention.

AP psychology is among the three AP courses that I teach, and Barron's Prep Book is the book that I require my students to purchase. If you can purchase only one, get this one. If you can buy two, Princeton Review is worth buying simply for the test-taking and essay-writing strategies. I do agree with the other poster that indicated that the level of difficulty of the questions in PR is not on par with the AP exam. I would say that Barron's questions are of approximately the appropriate difficulty level, if not slightly harder than the actual exam. As I tell my students, purchasing the book won't instantly give you a 5 on the test, but actually using it just might.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Review of Psychology Subject, could use more info, March 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Barron's How to Prepare for the Advanced Placement Exam: AP: Psychology (Barron's AP Psychology Exam) (Paperback)

This review book was good preparation for the AP test, but it lacked some information. It gives relatively in depth reviews of each topic, and it will prepare you sufficiently for the AP. But, if you are looking for that 5 on the AP, you better have some other material, like class notes or packets of some sort on the subject at hand. However, if you need to get a lot of studying done in a little time, it is perfect. It doesn't take long to go through and it is concise and fact packed. I thought it was a great review, but i also used my course notes to study.