Customer Reviews

Cracking the AP Physics B and C Exams, 2006-2007 Edition (College Test Preparation)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book acts more like a condensed text book than a review book. It provides decent explanations of the physics concepts, better than other review books I've seen. It doesn't, however, do anything to highlight key forumlas, etc. It doesn't have any lists to review, or any other type of quick review feature. The problems at the end of the chapters are really good, and the answer explanations are USUALLY very good too.

My other complaint is that the integration of the B and C material is a little bit confusing. The C stuff is interwoven with the B stuff, and is supposedly marked, but I've gotten confused about it. My final complaint is that there is only one Physics B practice exam, and one Physics C practice exam. I bought this book because it was required by my teacher...I ended up buying the Kaplan AP book, which is better with the quick review, but lacking in the explanations, and the Sparknotes SAT book (because I'm taking the SAT Physics, too. This book is the best with the more basic concepts.)

This book was required for my daughter's physics class last year. The teacher of her AP Physics class has a very high pass rate on the AP Physics exams with the majority of her students scoring 4 or 5. She attributes this success to this book. My daughter scored a 5 on both the B and C tests. Now my son is prepping to take the AP Physics B exam and once again this book is required. I didn't even pause when he asked for a new copy of the latest edition.

Update: My son recently competed in a regional scholastic competition and took first place in physics. He's a junior taking the AP Physic B class and took first place against second year (AP Physics C) students. He used this book to prepare for the competition.

If you are taking Physics B, buy a Physics B book. If you are taking the C test, buy a C book. But please, don't rely on this book to study. This book does not qualify as a study guide. The questions are way too easy compared with actual AP questions, and though the explanations are clear, the material does not go deep enough into the subject. Especially the section on Fluids. The B test goes A LOT more into detail.

It is only good as a starter. Do the book before starting the course, that way you will have a fair idea of what the topics are about. The book is very readable and fairly easy to understand. But please, don't use it as a study guide.

I took AP Physics B in my Senior year at high school and had a HORRIBLE teacher. BY the time the AP exam was a month away, we had only learned about 30% of what we should have known for the exam because of our incompetent teacher.

I saw this sooner, and purchased this book in December and started studying it like crazy. It's a great book for reviewing some of the basic concepts like vectors, forces, dynmaics, torque etc, and it tries it's best to make subjects like Electricity and Magnetism and Gravitational Force easy to understand.

Get this book if you're trying to learn the fundamentals about the topics. IT has fairly easy questions and not many multiple choice questions for you to do, but it makes sure to explain each example problem you get in excruciating detail. Don't buy this if you're trying to get EXTREME review for the harder subjects, especially fluids, get a book with more problems and more practice tests.

WIth the help of this book and reading about a chapter a week, I was able to pass the AP Physics Exam with a 3. If I had studied this book more thoroughly, I probably would've gotten a 4. I highly recommend it.

This book is great:

+lessons are concise but very thorough

+all examples and questions have answers and most have explanations.

+it's easy to distinguish between [B] and [C] topics

-But be sure to check central for a thorough list of topics on the test

-There are a few mis-edits or explanation with computational errors. These are rare but can give you a headache for a few minutes until you figure out the error.

Conclusion: If you read a section, and comprehend it, you won't be baffled by any question in that topic come test day (I mean it).

This book's strength lies in the many practice questions it offers, and the thorough explanations of each that it offers. However, sometimes new content is thrown into the body of the questions, so to make sure you have mastered the all of the material you sometimes need to do all of the questions in addition to reading the text to make sure you are familiar with everything that the AP tests. Also, some sections of the book (most notedly the ones on electricity and magnetism) go into too much detail, while others (on waves, fluid dynamics, and nuclear physics) I did not felt went into enough detail for me to feel comfortable that I knew the material backwards and front. Another flaw of the book is that there are an incredible amount of typos- sometimes its just annoying misspellings in the text, but more often than not they are flaws in the practice questions- just minor things, but enough to take precious time away from last-minute cramming. I also caught an algebraic mistake in one of the explanations to the questions, that resulted in them providing the incorrect answer. I am giving it four stars, though, because in the end it did prepare me well for the test (I took Physics B) In fact, there were exactly two multiple choice questions that were almost exact repeats of problems this book has, which was a pleasant surprise.

This is the first AP test i've taken so this was the only prep book i have ever bought. It was a very useful tool for reference. it took about a whole month for me to cover the entire thing, working every B test problem in the book. Considering i didnt even take the full 2-year course, and still got a solid 3 using this book, I would consider it very helpful. My complaints were the shortage of practice multiple choice problems. theres 10 for each section, and only 1 practice test for B and one for C. I was unfamiliar with some of the problems on the test, but found a lot of them were exactly the same too. Overall i thought it was great and i plan on getting princeton review for my other tests.

I used this book for my AP Physics C test about 4 years ago at the recommendation of my teacher. I had a really good teacher who drilled us hard. My class had a 100% pass rate, 75% of us earning a 4 or 5 - all of us were relying on the class notes and this book (some of us, like me, were relying more on this book). I earned a 4 on the Mechanics section only because I had 4 other AP tests the couple days before that, I was worn out.

Regardless, from what I can remember, this book was great in that it gave several [difficult] problems and clear answers to many of the questions. I remember it helping in my studies for the class itself. Its better than the Barrons version because it gives harder questions, and better sample tests. Were it not for this book, I would have done worse, that much is obvious.

People say that you should use more than one book for studying this difficult subject; I have to disagree. This, along side your regular text book, is all you really need; everything else (at least in 2001) was useless, the Princeton Review book covered everything and then some. Now, I understand that some people like other books more (like Barrons or Cliffs), maybe because they understand the explanations better, but theyre pretty rare. I find that if people didnt like this book, they really like Barrons.

By the way, my class used Serway's book, and Halliday & Resnick as a back up source. E/M was made simpler by reviewing this book before class. And, as a note: you should also read the text book assigned, its a good habit to get into for college, this book would help complement your studies better, youll learn more that way and do better on your exam.

Seller promptly shipped the book and it was in the condition as promised. Good transaction!!

I borrowed this book from a friend for AP season. First in 2007 to take the B exam, and second in 2008 to prepare for the Physics C exams. My school did not offer any AP physics or honors physics courses, so I was relying mostly on what I learned in regular physics. However, this book was sufficient to prep me to get 5's on all of the physics exams. I simply read through each section, did the practice problems, and checked them to see if I got them right and to understand them. While this is a REVIEW book, it was also sufficient to teach me the material. Three days of cramming for the Physics C: Electromag section was sufficient to get a 5. One last thing about the AP Physics C tests - they are curved like crazy. They are very hard exams compared to the other AP exams. However, it is possible to do well on them even if you feel very intimidated.

Another book I looked at was the Barron's HTP Physics C book, but I found it went over my head on explanations, so I only did the first few chapters of it and then switched fully over to PR.