Questions about AP exam review books

[EKT]

My daughter is taking AP Art History this year (this is her first-ever AP; she's taking it through PA Homeschoolers).

She's requested one of the big, fat review books, and I have a couple of questions:

• Does this look like a good one? (AP Art History is not a super popular AP course, so this is the only test prep book I've found online. The copyright date is 2020, so I'm hoping there's been no major changes in the test in three years. Thoughts?) 
• How did your student use their test prep book? (Did they work in it in small chunks across the school year, or did they use it as a crash course at the end of the year? Another way?) 
• In your experience, are the test prep books worth it? (It's not cheap, so I want to make sure it's something we'll actually use and benefit from.) 

Thanks! 

[turkeypotpie]

We haven't done art history yet, but in prepping for it (potentially for next year?) we found this:

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/907316357

If you use Anki for flash cards, this deck has all 250 art pieces with their time period, artist, and contextual type. I would imagine adding something like this along the way during the course might be helpful, especially if your student is comfortable adding mnemonics to hard-to-remember pieces.

I assume it would be highly preferable to keep working throughout the year with the card deck to avoid forgetting many many art pieces, but the AP exam books are great for big-picture content review at the conclusion of your course and to have a big stack of practice tests to mimic the 'real' AP exam experience. 

I think the last big change to the course was in 2015, so the 2020 edition should be just fine for your exam book! 

[NittanyJen]

3 hours ago, EKT said:

My daughter is taking AP Art History this year (this is her first-ever AP; she's taking it through PA Homeschoolers).

She's requested one of the big, fat review books, and I have a couple of questions:

• Does this look like a good one? (AP Art History is not a super popular AP course, so this is the only test prep book I've found online. The copyright date is 2020, so I'm hoping there's been no major changes in the test in three years. Thoughts?) 
• How did your student use their test prep book? (Did they work in it in small chunks across the school year, or did they use it as a crash course at the end of the year? Another way?) 
• In your experience, are the test prep books worth it? (It's not cheap, so I want to make sure it's something we'll actually use and benefit from.) 

Thanks! 

What does the instructor say? Some courses have a ton of review built in and no need for a separate review book.

I tell my AP Stats students NOT to buy review books unless they really have a lot of extra time on their hands, because I already provide practice tests and plenty of review. But some students like to buy them anyway, for still more practice, in which case, I do have a few on hand that I will recommend so they don't waste their time.

My recommendation is... ask her instructor for a recommendation, based on the course plan and their experience, as well as any feedback you get here.

 

[Guest]

When my DD did AP Chem, she used a practice book for the practice tests. She was taking a class that wasn't technically AP prep, so she found it helpful to help her fill in gaps and learn how the test works. She went through it in small chunks through the year, then took 1 or 2 full length practice tests in the weeks before the AP. It was her first AP, so it gave her some more confidence to have done the practice exams.

[Momto6inIN]

We never did an actual class, just self studied. But each time they spent the first 3 quarters on learning the material and the last quarter on test prep with a book like Barron's.

[Guest]

Because we had to pay quite a bit to get get DD a seat to take the AP exam (local school wouldn’t let her in, so we had to go to a private tutoring center to take it, and they charged $$), I felt that investing in the cost of prep books was a worthy investment. I would rather have paid a little (little compared to teh cost of retaking the test)  for prep books than have had to pay to retake the Chem AP 🙂. 

 

[Clemsondana]

My kid has done 3 APs so far - chem, bio, and US history.  The chem was done entirely at home, while the other 2 were done after taking co-op classes that were not AP but were comprehensive enough to cover the vast majority of the material that would be on the AP exam. I got the 5 Steps to a 5 books, but they don't have those for every subject.  Kid did find it useful to take practice tests and did use the books to review when we were places without a computer and kid had time to kill.  At the time, kid wasn't driving yet and would sometimes get dropped off early for sports practice so the book was good for studying while sitting around waiting for practice to start.  Kid has always been good with reading/studying in quick bursts, but I know not all students are like that.  Some students also prefer a physical book, so it may be worth it just because some kids do better with a book that they can hold.  

Kid did find that the videos on the AP website, which you get access to once you are registered, were good for review.  Their first AP, chem, came during an overscheduled year and kid didn't start prep early enough, but once they found the videos they thought they were pretty good.  For the next 2, kid had a better understanding of how to prepare and started reviewing about a month/5 weeks before the test.  Kid found that the content of the videos mostly matched what had been covered in the classes, but thought the videos were helpful in helping you to figure out what AP thought was important.  I don't think kid would have done as well on the essays without that prep.  Kid tends to give really good, thorough answers, but AP more thinly slices the material.  For instance, if it says to name 3 differences between the US and UK, my kid might have said 'They physical land is different, with one being a small island and the other being a large 1/2-continent that physically touches other countries' while AP would have listed UK is an island while US is not and US is large while UK is small as 2 different items.  This seems like a trivial difference, but apparently one of the questions on one of the tests asked for many (a bigger number like 5, 6, or 7, not 2-3) pieces of evidence to support something, and without specific instructions kid would have never come up with that many.  Kid got into the habit of watching the review videos while eating , which they said was easier than reading while eating since you didn't need your hands.  🙂  

[mathnerd]

My son took 2 AP's last year. Both were taught at home and he went through the Barron's test prep books for a quick review and then worked on 2 practice tests around 3 weeks before the exam. He took AP Comp Sci A and AP Calculus BC. In addition, for the AP Comp Sci, we added another prep book called "Be prepared for the AP Comp Sci Exam" by Maria Litvin: my son preferred this one compared to the Barron's because it was more interesting to work through than the Barron's book. Overall, my son preferred the previous year's tests for practice (the ones that you can get by registering to the AP sites) because he found the topic reviews in the test prep books too repetitive and slow going.

This year, he will take 3 AP's and I will buy the Barron's books for those 3. This is just for quick review before taking the older practice tests from the collegeboard website.