Barron's AP Chemistry 2008 (Barron's How to Prepare for the AP Chemistry Advanced Placement Examination) by Neil D. Jespersen Ph.D.
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Book Reviews of Barron's AP Chemistry 2008 (Barron's How to Prepare for the AP Chemistry Advanced Placement Examination)
Book Review: Comprehensive but a lot of superfluous information
Summary: 4 Stars
Mastering all the contents of this book would guarantee you a 5, but is not always an easy thing to do. I bought this book 2 weeks before the test and found it extremely difficult to cram all of its contents (I have 100 in AP Chem)in such a short period of time. It was even more upsetting when the AP came out to be not even half as difficult.
If you have a solid background of AP Chemistry and just need a review book that is concise with a lot of good practices, I would recommend Princeton Review. ( Trust me, Princeton Review is more than enough to get you a 5. Don't get yourself panic by buying this overly-complicated book)
Book Review: Thorough and hard
Summary: 5 Stars
I like the Barron's Chemistry because it is extremely thorough, almost like a textbook in its approach. The multiple choice questions are a lot harder than those that you will find in some other reviews, and hard is good. I actually taught review classes from this book, and found that it was remarkably complete.
Caveat, there are a few errors here and there, but if you know what you are doing, you will catch them immediately. I have not seen a book that did not have a wrong answer or typo somewhere in it.
My suggestion is to use Barron's through the year, then pair it with a quicker thinner review book at the end, because this book is not a "quick brush up" kind of a book. And yes, do questions from old exams, free response questions, and lots of them.
The Chemistry AP is very hard. You simply cannot be "overprepared."
Book Review: Excellent review but inaccurate practice tests.
Summary: 3 Stars
Overall, this review book is undoubtedly the best out there, for it is much more in depth than Princeton Review. Like every review book, however, it does contain its occasional errors such as stating 25 degrees Celsius is 300 Kelvin. As long as you're somewhat knowledgeable about chemistry topics, these errors can be overlooked. Regarding the practice tests, they seem to be much more difficult than the actual AP exam; it's probably best to just use past exams provided to you by your teacher. Nonetheless, if you're in need of a review before a test or a cram session before the AP exam, this book is certainly recommended. Book Review: not very helpful for AP chem
Summary: 2 Stars
there are so many mistakes
that it's not even funny.
i spent more time figuring out what's wrong in my calculation
(and found out that the book is wrong)
than actually studying for AP chem exam.
The review is too much into details that it looks like a chem text book,
not AP exam guide book.
Book Review: Review is Helpful, Test is Not
Summary: 2 Stars
The review in this book is pretty good. That's why I like it. But the practice tests have to be taken with a grain of salt. Many of the questions on there are just ridiculous. 2-dimensional diagrams of pi bonds: probably not on the test (especially the rather crudely drawn ones presented here). And the math is not representative of the AP Chemistry test. On the real test, you are not expected to do complex logarithms and square roots in your head. And, as mentioned earlier, the answer key is riddled with mistakes. These include answers to the wrong question, thinking the question was the opposite of what was asked, and answers that just don't match up with calculations. Also, their explanations are short at best.
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