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Would you recommend cliffsap for the following Ap tests: Ap English language, AP Biology, and AP Calculus?


btw, I am not taking these tests this week

By Sarasote (Sarasote) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 07:02 pm: Edit

the Cliffs AP has some good summaries/key terms you should know but i think the Kaplan/Barrons books are better

By Ecnerwalc (Ecnerwalc) on Sunday, May 02, 2004 - 08:38 pm: Edit

Anybody else?

By Chrisk (Chrisk) on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 11:21 pm: Edit

hah, I actually have all 3 of those books...

The only one worth the paper it was made out of is Cliff's Bio. It is actually very well-edited and easy to understand.

Cliff's Calculus... what a waste... I bought it because i'm taking an AB (part of C) course, and am taking the BC test. All i needed to study was the chapter on Series... well, Cliff's managed to make it a grueling, confusing ordeal. There are typos on almost every page (and i'm not exaggerationg). I was sitting at this page trying to memorize a formula, only to discover on some other page that the first formula was actually just a big typo. This book could have been assembled in a day, for all I could tell... Answers are mislabeled, problems missolved--anything you could possibly imagine.

Cliff's Language... another waste. I thought it was relatively useful, until I took the actual Language AP test... the cliff's tests gave me a completely inaccurate idea of what the actual test was like. Since the types of questions are totally different, the practice tests are useless. The example essays are also unrealistically graded. The only thing left in the book: the section of AP terms and review, which is very short and also completely worthless. The only thing that I liked about this book was the little graph in the front that shows the approximate percentages on the MC/essay needed to get a 5/4/3, and judging from the other things Cliff's has published, I wouldn't be surprised if that little graph is inaccurate too.

By Skiowad (Skiowad) on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 07:28 pm: Edit

For Calc, i've heard that Arco's is the best from people on this board; however, i used an older edition of PR and it seems to work pretty well for me. Cliff's for Bio.