Opex

It offers an okay review...and okay practice tests. But it doesnt go over the dbq's and test format really well.

When my accomplished history teacher abandoned our class this year in october- we thought we were all done for when it came to passing the AP exam later that may. However, all hope was not lost, thanx to our replacement teacher and our review books.
Around February, everyone in class started purchasing review texts, and by looking at my friends' i can give you the definitive answer: Kaplan was the best. It uses a glossary like format to allow you to get only the information you need to study without reading a long narrative (like the Princeton Review's Book). It also divided the material into chapters and provided a test of real AP questions at the end of each one. Cliffs wasnt too bad, but it lacked a lot of key information and Barrons was absolutely no help at all.
When my friends and i formed a study group, it was me doing the teaching and them (with their inferior study guides) listening. Kaplan and long term studying can definately lead to a 5 on the AP test.

APEX is company which produces the college board AP Exam review and is the only outside producer of AP products which the college board endorses. After taking several of APEX's online classes and online review courses(and scoring 5s on the exams in which I took the courses), I knew I could trust this company. I also new that with APEX's partnership with Kaplan this was definitely going to be a promising test prep. I certainly received exactly what I expected!! This is a fabulous and complete test prep that fills in many of the holes that other test prep companies have left out.

If you're interested in succeeding on the AP English exam then this book isn't the way to go. I took the exam last week and I can conclude from my newfound knowledge of the exam that if you have common sense, you can do the multiple choice section. The free response section, however, requires practice throughout the school year-if you have a good teacher then you have nothing to be worried about. The literary terms in the Apex book are out of this world-I'm serious too. Sorry, but I didn't see buildungsroman on the test. I can suggest the Cliff's notes book though (I didn't buy it but my teacher had it and they have a great literary terms list). I will give this book praise where praise is due: it has three practice tests-but you can get them free from your teacher. My final wise words of advice are-if you're going to study, start in late March at the very latest.

"AP English Language & Composition: An Apex Learning Guide" is a multi-level course text, which transforms newcomers into intermediates in a very short time. Its syllabus is such that home-users would have little or no problems getting around it.
The book is articulate; and combined modern communicative techniques with a thorough step-by-step coverage of grammar, Comprehension, and Composition. It makes learning joyful!
Just like students, any teacher who relies on this book would value its broad coverage. It is very straightforward.
Its good organization means that teachers who use it, could design lessons (and similar activities) with great ease. This book will suit anybody who is interested in improving his or her writing skills.

This review ONLY pertains to AP Macroeconomics: Compared to The Princeton Review's study guide from AP econimcs courses, Kaplan's is much longer, possibly too long. Each section is followed by review questions that, while not reflecting AP type questions, test your knowledge of the chapter. While doing these review questions, I noticed that they were far more detailed that what the AP test covers--very general macroeconomic concepts. With too many AP tests to prepare for, I dropped the Kaplan review after 2 or 3 chapters and picked up The Princeton Review's more concise study guide. TPR (The Princeton Review) offers a very good review with great practice exams (I didn't try Kaplan's exams). While taking the AP exam, I felt well prepared and very comfortable with the general concepts, as I did not encounter any detailed questions about economics concepts. As for the accuracy of my recollection, I'm writing this review three days after taking the Macro exam. In general, TPR is more concise than Kaplan, which is not to say one is better than the other, but time can become in issue during May testing. Also, FYI, I believe the Kaplan reviews from 'Apex Learning' are some kind of new edition(s); several AP teachers at my school recieved free copies for marketing/feedback purposes. In order to provide a helpful review, I'll try and remove any ambiguity by stating that I recommend TPR's AP Micro/Macroeconomics (5 stars) over Kaplan's.

I bought this book to review for the AP Micro-Macro exams with little consideration of other options. I'd advise you to do otherwise, namely, to buy another book.

To me, the review of concepts in this book seemed minmal. Although the book's cover says it includes 2 sample tests, it really only includes 1 -- 1 micro and 1 macro.

It's not that Apex Learning's book is terrible, because it's not -- I just think that, after reading some of the reviews of the Princeton Review Economics book, I regretted buying this one.

US Government was the first AP course I ever took, and being first, I wanted to make sure I got a good grade on it. So I bought this book and began to study it about every day for a month before the AP test. However, I found the book very confusing in some parts. Most of the words they used you had to get a dictionary to even understand. The other criticism I have is that the practice tests and questions were way harder than on the actual test. I got what would be equivalent to a "2" (out of 5) on the book test while I got closer to a 4-5 on the actual test. Good book though, but I would definitely not reccomend you use it on its own to study for an AP Exam with -- use your textbook too!

I have taken a year of AP Statistics, and I'm about to take the the AP test. I bought this books because somebody recommended it because of how good Kaplan books usually are. I was truly disappointed with this book. The review material did not feel like review material at all, but just random formulas and facts bunched together. I would recommend getting the Baron's Statistics book instead. It's a good book to prepare you for the AP.