Customer Reviews

Cracking the AP Psychology Exam, 2004-2005 Edition (College Test Prep)

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

 

 

When I first bought this book, I regretted it to an extent because I felt I had made a mistake in choosing; more people in my class had purchased the 5 Steps to a 5 series book on AP Psych, however I was wrong. This book not only became an important part in my individual study process, but when a piece of information was necessary, the class and the teacher had depended on me to look it up in this book. It covers everything and the practice tests get you "in the zone". Unfortunately, I don't know what I got on the A.P. test itself since I just took it, but I can say that I was super-confident, and this book was a major reason for that.

Update : I recieved a 5 on the AP test, thanks in part to this book. Shocker of the year. Hope this helps someone make a decision in buying a study guide. Good luck!

Even though this is one of the easier AP tests, I attribute getting a 5 partially due to this book. I had an excellent teacher, and knew the different chapters and topics really well, so when I cracked open this book about 2 weeks before the AP test, I appreciated that the Princeton Review people had put everything you needed to know in this book.

The main thing you need to worry about with the AP Psych. test is getting familiar with the way they word multiple choice questions. This book has excellent drills for getting used to them.

Also spot on in this book is their tips and strategies for the written part of the exam. The AP test is severely weighted towards the multiple choice section, 2/3 weight, compared to the essay portion, which accounts for 1/3 of your final score. You don't really need to worry about the written section, just follow the strategy PR gives you, and you will do fine.

Overall, this book is worth it for the practice tests alone, which are almost identical to the real thing. My teacher didn't even teach us how to approach the written section of the exam, and this book more than compensated for it, and I got a 5.

Besides this book, be sure to ask your teacher for old AP MC tests.

This is a wonderful resource for both teachers and students. It reviews the key concepts in a clear and concise manner and helps students with ongoing review of the course material in preparation for in-class tests and the AP exam.

The book is easy to read and explains everything very well. It also has practice tests with explained correct answers.

I was really disappointed with this book. Self-studying for the AP Psych test, I had several review books from the library and my Psychology teacher lent me a few textbooks that companies have sent him because my high school is beginning to offer the AP Psych class next year. I like having multiple resources because I feel like all of my bases are covered and if a concept is fuzzy in one book, I can look it up in another. I used this book to primarily take practice tests. They were terrible. There were several concepts I had never seen before from all of the books I went through. Many of the questions were set up to be very deceiving. For example, they would use a popular experiment that most psychology students know and ask you to identify the independent variable. Familiarity with the experiment leads you to choose one choice, but the question throws in a change to the experiment that is easily overlooked. Also, the many of the questions are worded terribly. Instead of testing your knowledge on a particular area, some of the questions have you wasting time trying to figure out just what is being asked and how to apply concepts in strange ways to ambiguous situations. I take the AP Psychology test in two days, and I hope it is nothing like the practice tests in this book.

I don't suggest this book, not even for the practice tests alone. Barron's was my favorite and Kaplan wasn't bad. But avoid this book. It's a waste of money.

I had high hopes for this book when I was studying for the ap psych test. I wanted to give it a chance even though I was already alittle wary because I didn't find a lot of the vocabularly from my regular psychology book in it. But when I took the practice test I really realized the flooks in the book:

- On the answer sheet they give you it only has bubbles for letters a-d, but on the questions it has choices from a to e.

- I knew I was very wrong on some of the questions, but some of the explanations seemed wrong themselves. Even after going back in the book, I could defend some of my wrong answers.

- Some of the questions could have been worded better

- They were too focused on tricking you on every single question.

- The book starts out with a review strategies then goes straight into outlining the course/ap test. The way it's broken down is helpful, but it's like reading my psych book over with less examples, weird vocab, and less pictures/graphics.

This book was a big disappointment and I would reccomend Barron's series instead.