Customer Reviews

Cracking the AP Calculus AB & BC, 2002-2003 Edition (College Test Prep)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you click my name, I gave a review to a similar AP Calculus review book. Both books are good, but this one is by far superior. The other book is great if you are just looking for some tests, but this books comes with the full package. If you need solutions this is the book. It also teaches you everything you need to know about Calculus AB. Since I am not taking BC, I am not sure of that material. I would recommend this book to anyone taking the AP exam.

Last year I skipped the pre-calc test and studied for the BC test essentially using only this book and got a 5. I admit, it's not going to teach you calculus like a class will, but it will make you do well on the test. And that's the thing, calculus is taught so poorly in high school (and college) that it comes across as boring and tedious. The Princeton Review tells you what you need to know and the fastest way of doing it. In that sense it's infinitely better than most classes, and is well worth the cost of owning a copy.

I purchased this book nine months before the test date but I did not study the book until three days before the test date.
Three days before the date, I did the AB practice test. It took me about 3-4 hours, and I got about half wrong. Two days before, I went over all the problems I missed and I copied down the solutions in red pen on the margin. The day before the test, I did another set of practice test. This time, I got about 12 wrong, and by this time I was really familiar with the test format and concepts I should know.

The multiple choice part of the actual test wasn't very hard. But the essay part was REALLY HARD. But I managed to write something down on every problem. Looking back, I think that it is my actual Calc class that helped me to do the essay part. (I only used the practice part of the book...)

I ended up with a 5, and considering I didn't know about 80% percent of Calculus, I think this book really helped me on getting my score.

I absolutely love this book. They should teach regular classes using this book.

Princeton's famous for great AP Prep (in most cases, anyways), and they certainly executed the AP Calc book well! The review is concise but thorough, and every subject is basically covered. Very impressed by the examples and tests provided in this book. Certainly the best choice!

The actual free responses on AP exam were very hard. This book has very easy multiple choice section and free response section. Try not to depend too much on this book for practice tests. However, it does sharpen your knowledge about all the concepts, which are very important to know for the exam. I did manage to get a 4 in 2002. The free response section was the killer.