Juvenis

I'm not just gonna use the book for a quick review. Since my AP Chemistry teacher's tests are all AP-style questions, I think I need to study the prep book along with my textbook to tackle her tests.

equilibrium442

Princeton Review. Very helpful explanations, practice questions for each chapter and 2 (I believe) full tests... helped me succeed in AP Chem.

ToasterBoy2013

Personally, I liked "5 steps to a 5" best for Chemistry review. It helped when my regular textbook confused me. People seem to like the crash course book, too. I'd explore those or experiment with a few for your best shot.

vincentnguyen69

I'm gonna call out equilibrium- Princeton Review was below average. I had a fantastic chem teacher, went to Barns&Noble to study and browsed every review book. Barron's is the easiest to understand while still getting out most major concepts.

But whatever, just buy all of them. Trust me, you won't regret it, it's $20.

Got a 5

awkwardpenguin13

First off, I self-studied the AP, so I suppose you can take this with a grain of salt, but here was my experience:

I had Barron's from the beginning, and I must say, I absolutely hated it... I used it up until the week before the AP, and I'm pretty sure I didn't learn anything. xD

I switched to Princeton Review, and it was okay. Decent explanations and what not, but not phenomenal...

Finally, it's that Friday before the Monday AP, and I'm freaking out because I know I'm going to fail it.. Barron's didn't help at all, and PR wasn't doing much for me either... (Although maybe it's good to just complement the class)

So like I said, it's that Friday, and my 5 steps to a 5 book came in after waiting 48438 weeks. (Bought it off of eBay, lmao) Anyway, I crammed 5 steps to a 5, and I feel like I definitely learned a lot more compared to Barron's and PR.

In the end, I only pulled a 3, but I'm pretty confident if that book had come in even a week before, I could've pulled a 5.

Like I said though, I self-studied, so take my experience with a grain of salt.

FastNeutrino

I got a 2003 Barron's book from the library for self-study alongside the Zumdahl textbook (found online for free, score!), and it works well because I already know the material I'm going through. I don't know if it'd work as well in Lesley's case... it clearly didn't.

Bearlolx

princeton is absolute trash: spelling mistakes, rogue way of doing equilibrium problems that only works for easy chem 1 classes, and easy,off topic practice tests.

get the thickest book on chem you can find because its better to know extra info than so called "relevant info"

ketone

PR is good because it skims the general surface of the chem topics. Before every chapter test in class, just review the corresponding chapter in PR/ take the quiz at the end, AND go over you class notes, and you'll do well on the test.

Personal experience: In the beginning of the year, I didn't use my PR book at all because I thought it was intimidating and I thought I could just use my class notes to study. I got B's on the first 2 tests before I finally cracked open my PR book. I got A's on the rest of the tests in the semester and brought my grade up to a solid A.

Honestly, it's a lot easier to get a 5 on the test than an A in the class. As long as you follow above stated method, you should be able to get a 5 with minimal studying.

GET PR!!!

Juvenis

thanks, guys. I bought Barron's last week because of the amount of information and how it's rumored to have really hard practice exam questions.

@Lesley - maybe it didn't work out because it was the week before the AP exam. Barron's is also rumored to have abundant - if not superfluous - information. But I guess I need the info and the hard questions to do well on the tests.