Cracking the AP Calculus AB & BC Exams, 2011 Edition (College Test Preparation)

 (11 customer reviews)

I almost gave the book a 4. The book is not perfect by any means. But in all honestly, it comes pretty close. From what I have heard, the problems are very similar to those on the AP exam. Princeton Review always does a good job researching and this book is no exception. One of the best features is how user friendly it is. It gives detailed explanations to EVERY problem in the book. In fact, over half the book is worked out problems, so don't let the size intimidate you. It also gives a friendly advice at the beginning of the book and an overview of what the AP Calculus exam covers. In terms of non-AP exam studying, the book makes a very good resource for studying before a test. There are notes for every chapter, and they are very clear and easy to understand. This book has saved me while preparing for many tests. And again, the practice problems are also helpful as they increase in difficulty within each set and all the problems are given very through, written out steps (versus just...Read more

I am a AP calculus teacher and use this book for my student to preform a course review right before the test is given. It does a good job of reviewing the topic and explaining every answer in term the students can understand. I have used this book many times and have good results with my students. My only complaint is that this edition (2011) is word for word the same as the 2010 Edition. Since the test has been adjusted for the 2011 season I would wait until an edition with the updated information is published.

Every single review book I've ever gotten (every brand too) has had errors in it of some type, but this Princeton Review book has some pretty obvious errors that makes me wonder if anyone actually edited this book. Even some of the formulas have errors in them which is really annoying, but for the most part this book does it's job. It teaches you everything you need to know, and maybe even a little more, which in all honesty is a little annoying. For example, there's a whole chapter about sketching graphs, which if I recall was NOT a topic tested on the AP Calculus exam. I'm using the book for Calc BC this year, so I'm reading it straight through, but for those who are taking AB, the book isn't very clear about which topics are only AB. Some chapters contain information that's relevant to both tests without specifying what you need to know for AB, so you may accidentally end up trying to learn stuff that you don't need to know. Overall, it's fairly adequate in review content, but...Read more