Customer Reviews

How to Prepare for the Advanced Placement Exam (Barron's How to Prepare for the Advanced Placement Examination. Physics B)

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

 

 

First of all, the AP exam is majorly difficult so if you haven't put any effort in your class the test is going to be a nightmare.

The Barron's book is strong in it's practice exams. I found the questions to be of the same style and difficulty as on the AP, especially the multiple choice. And for some of the easier chapters (vectors, 1-D motion, waves), the summaries aren't too bad although the information is a little muddled.

But that's all that's really good about this book. The answers for the practice questions are to difficult to explain and a lot of the time just plain-out incorrect. They might explain how to do it mathematically and show the calculations which would be completely incorrect. Or they'd write the incorrect equations. If you're a strong Physics student most of this shouldn't bother you, but there were a few questions where the method they used to solve the problem was entirely incorrect. Also when the book tries to explain the more complicated stuff, the language is just no basic and clear. And they introduce a lot of simplified versions of the common equations, obviously meant to increase speed, but mostly just confused me.

This was the only book I used to prepare for the exam so I don't know how the other prep guides are in comparison. But I wouldn't recommend this book.

I used this book along with Princeton Review to prepare for the test two months ago. The Princeton Review one is excellent, and this one is terrible. Though I can't say I got a 5 because of Princeton Review, this one is absolutely ridiculous. It has two chapters on problem solving, which are actually not very useful. The review chapters are extremely confusing, and a lot of the explanations, equations, and even basic concepts, are wrong. There are very few examples. The practice problems after each chapter are way harder than the real test, making them practically useless, and ridiculously many of the solutions are wrong too. Wrong concepts, explanations and solutions are all over the place. It also has a chapter on rotation and a whole 15-page chapter completely devoted to relativity, which aren't even on the B test except for torque, rotational statics, and the mass-energy relationship, which added up don't even need half a chapter. There are also appendices, some of which are totally useless for the AP test, like the infinite series for the sine function. This book is absolutely horrible, so don't get it.

I find it interesting that the reviewer before me -- who gave the book one star -- wrote the review on 15 May 2000, when the AP exam was not until two days later.

Having used this book almost as my primary source for most of the fourth quarter, I have to say it does an excellent job of what it says it will -- helping a student prepare for the AP Physics B exam. From problem-solving strategies to excellent short summaries of each topic to sample exams to even a review of algebra, the book provides everything needed to succeed on the Physics B exam.

With a teacher who was out with a serious illness for most of the fourth quarter, I knew I'd need extra help if I was going to get through the AP exam. (It's one of six I took, so it's not like I haven't experienced the "fun" of these exams before). I picked up this book and found myself quite happy with it, and its review of dozens of test topics definitely helped me through both my physics class and the AP exam itself. In retrospect, I wouldn't have done as well as I did without this review guide.

Barron's AP Physics B Review is the only study aid I recommend to my Advanced Placement Physics students. It contains beautifully concise summaries of all the topics covered by the Physics B exam. For this reason it is useful to the student searching for a comprehensive, yet to the point, review of physics. I also recommend this book to beginning AP Physics teachers in search of quality exam questions. Unfortunately, because this book was published in 1995, many of the exam questions--especially the multiple choice--are not of the same format type as that of the current exam. Also, I wish more sample exam questions were included by Wolf. I am eagerly anticipating a new AP Physics B review to match the new exam format.

This book is really helpful cuz it has all the information and its very concise. It's great especially when you have to cram for class tests and the AP exam. This is definitely the book for Physics B.

Wolf provides me not only all I need on the test material with clear and comprehensive, but also some valuable knowledge associated with it. This book is seven times as light as my text book, but the former is perhaps more valuable.

The biggest complaint that I have with this book is that the answers explained are horrible. They are either useless or only confuse you more. I would highly recommend you to buy the REA(Research & Education Association) Review Book if you can find it. The REA Review book had an answers explained section that is quite helpful, not only telling you why an answer is right, but why each wrong answer is wrong. I have also found the test questions to be much more difficult and confusing in this book than any review book I got and from the actual exam that I just took. I also found many blatant errors in this review book. For example numbers 44 and 60 on exam I have typos in their answer choices. The back of the book is different from the answer choice. There are many others that I found and probably many more that I did not find. I am rather sorry that I wasted my money on this book and urge you not to do so as well.