<p>I am a Chinese student. And when I was in Grade11 I learned APHG by myself and got a five. But I have to say that I love geography. I always spend a lot of time reading maps and learning many events or sites from wikipedia. So I just use one month read the textbook, about 100minutes everyday. And two days before the exam, I started to do the pastpapres which were released on AP website.
I never wrote essays before the exam, never! But I am a person with a lot of words, and 2012 APHG really touched some of my familiar topics. So I write very well.
I strongly recommend Barron APHG. It is a wonderful book. It covers all the main topics and has some concise glossaries.
But what makes APHG a little bit hard is the subject always needs you to know some important events or sites that are not introduced in the textbooks, such as Berlin Wall, Siberia railway, the architecture of Islam…
So you need to do some research</p>