17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Various Reviews for AP Chem books, July 26, 2005
This review is from: Cracking the AP Chemistry Exam, 2004-2005 Edition (Paperback)
So, being this the first year I took AP courses, I went a little over zealous and purchased 3 AP Chem books. Furthermore, a friend lent me another, and I skimmed through a few more. Let me say right out I got a 4. I was a bit disappointed, but I know I should have started studying harder and more rigorously. Even so, I believe that this book (Princeton's) positively contributed to my score.
Princeton Review
If you purchase only one review book, this is definately the one to get. This was the only one I really read through. The content was worthwhile, not too long, and fairly easy to read. I did most of the questions at the end of the chapters, but only took a quick look at the MC and Free Response questions at back of the book. I was a bit pressed for time. I finished reading the book the day right before the AP test. Really bad, I know. However, I had been preparing for a few weeks by doing old AP tests and tons and tons of old FR questions. I did almost all of the FR's on collegeboard' website. This book is definately not enough to get a 5, or even a four on. You should definately get a hold of old tests and do them! Also, try to keep up with the text book during the year to make sure you at least have some idea of what's going on. With that said, I can add one more high point of this book... the REACTIONS SECTION. The best I've seen. Very thorough, and much better than the other books. There are a few more rules than those in the books though, so make sure you ask a teacher or do enough to recognize patterns.
Barrons
This is definately one of the worse ones out of the lot. (Second worse.) I had read AP Euro review books before(since the test was a few days before) and was in the process of reading Princeton's chem book. How is this relavent you ask? Well, I've heard that some review books are notorious for huge, massive errors. I had personally never experienced this before and didn't notice any in the ones I had already read. Then there was the Barron's book. I looked at a few pages, and knew this was not worth the time. Specifically, I looked at the reactions questions at the end of the book. Some of the answers were WRONG! Very discouraging and wasted my time. Don't even bother with this book.
REA
The absolute worst one out of all of them. A friend lent this to me since she had it laying around. Please note that this book was from a couple years back (though review books don't change too much). I read about 1/4 of the book. Waste of time. Hard to read, wierd diagrams, doesn't contain what's need for the test. Really makes me leary from buying more of their review books in the future.
Kaplan
One of the better ones. The periodicity section in particular stands out. It was well written. I did not read this as I had absolutely no time, but it looks like a good, reliable, review. Seems a lot thicker than Princeton's, but would probably be more thorough. The reactions section though is definately inferrior.
This would be a good backup/ supplement to Princeton's version. Now I wish I did not procrastinate and instead spent time reading Kaplan's review.
Petersons
I did not have personal experience, but a friend owned this review guide. I did however have a brief skim through it. Every thing looked correct, and I liked the format and tone. It reminded me of Kaplan's (around the same thickness too), and my friend expressed that this was quality. There weren't any reviews for this on Amazon, so unfortunately, I did not get this.
All in all, I think I scored a solid 4 and not a 5 just because of the tricky multiple choice (I should have spread my time more evenly, but I did finish). And some dues go to my crazy chem teacher. He expected us to learn the material from reading just the really, really long text books and doing questions in the back. Most people didn't, and he often said he knew most of us would not pass. He gave a few lectures and stuff but not too indepth. I never comprehended the labs we did, but luckily there weren't specific questions on them. Also he said that some sections, like organic chemistry, weren't on the test. Except they were, and it wasn't just one question. Maybe if I had spent time doing the Princeton Reviews 2 tests, and reading through it again I could have gotten a 5.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A VERY worthwhile study tool, December 5, 2005
This review is from: Cracking the AP Chemistry Exam, 2004-2005 Edition (Paperback)
This book definitely saved my life. I was expecting barely a 3 on the exam; I got a 5, almost 95% due to buying this book. With barely a month left before the exam, with a teacher who had never taught the class before and an absolutely AWFUL, overcomplicated textbook, I bought this book and began looking through its sample questions and reading its review.
Not only did the review contain information that showed up directly on the exam, the sample questions were formatted in nearly exactly the same way.
My recommendation- DEFINITELY get this book, then study like mad. Do as many problems as you possibly can, and make sure to read over the explanations, since they REALLY help.
Good luck, and don't stress too much!
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I got a 5 so my opinion is valid, July 1, 2005
This review is from: Cracking the AP Chemistry Exam, 2004-2005 Edition (Paperback)
Let me start off by saying that i had a terrible terrible teacher. He was extremely incompetent and lazy. So for anyone with a really bad teacher then my amazing review is for you. The high point of this book is that it has tons of practice questions. The book is split up into different sections such as gas laws, thermodynamics, nuclear chemistry and so on. At the end of each section there are 15- 30 questions on the topic and 3-6 essay questions. The questions are a little easy, but the essays are often challenging and cause you to see a new aspect on the topic. Each section is only a few pages and provides the bare bones on the topic. If you dont have any foundation this book probably isnt a good place to start. It is excellent at refreshing memory if you once knew chemistry. I had almost 0 foundation so i used my text book with this review book. It is even good if you use this book at the beginning of the year as you read each chapter. The practice tests were good but much easier than the actual test so expect a slightly lower score on the real thing. If you master this book you can easily get a 3 and maybe a 4. However if you want a 5, like me, USE MORE SOPHISTICATED RESOURCES such as your text book or the Barrons. This book is not good enough to alone get you a 5 unless you are already smart enough to get a 5.
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