Barron's AP Chemistry

I pre-ordered this book because it's a new AP format this year. Once it was released, the book arrived to my house very quickly. There's plenty of practice tests with answers and explanations -- which is helpful since I forgot a lot of material. I'm very happy with the quality of the book as well as the price.I got a lot for the little I paid. :)

Book is good but it has extra information. What I mean by that is not everything in this book will be on the AP exam. Everything on the APexam has been talked about in this book but everything talked about in this book isnt on the AP exam. Its a good book for a good practice.

I chose Barron's because of their well-known hardcore cracking books. The book itself is more than enough (which may not be such a good thing) and over teaches you. On the one hand you get a firm review of ALL concepts and theories required, yet the manner is not consistent with the current exam format (I took the official practice test so I know). Also, the book tries to reconfigure itself under the new format by teaching the required concepts, yet also has practice questions that relate to past exam material, so it's a bit "presumptuous" in that sense. In addition, there are MANY mistakes in the Q/As, yet this is understandable since the format of the exam changed abruptly. Overall, I would recommend this book only alongside another cracking book (Princeton Review/5 Steps To A 5/Kaplan) and I highly suggest one read the AP Chemistry Course Description & Overview, which is posted on the official AP Chemistry site on CollegeBoard. Good Luck!

I have been a high school tutor for almost 30 years, and I recommend the Barron's prep books in chemistry and calculus over all others because they contain individual practice tests on each topic (great to take just before tests since most teachers do an "AP style" test) as well as enough full practice tests.

Hey all,I am an AP Chemistry teacher (3rd year) and I sat down to read all of the available AP review books released for the new 2014 AP Chem exam. After reading through the Princeton Review, Barron's, and 5 steps to a 5, I thought that Barron's was overall the worst choice for a comprehensive review book. Barron's had by far the most information in it, yet it was often TOO much. Their diagnostic 1 test contains between 15-20% Organic Chemistry questions which is NOT on the AP exam (although admittedly wouldn't hurt). Furthermore in comparison to the past 8 years of AP exams (available on Collegeboard), the questions seem TOO hard.On the upside, Barron's does an excellent job helping students identify their weak points. In addition to providing detailed answer keys (which all 3 books do), they also provide a table which help students figure out which TYPES of questions they are struggling with and WHICH CHAPTERS those questions are coming from. This will enable students to key in on their weak points easily and to me this feature is the highlight of the book.In conclusion, if your students can do Barron's, they'll do very well on the test. But time is limited for our AP students and Barron's feels like the wrong tool for the job. (Why learn how to operate heavy machinery when a hammer will do?) The book reads more like a college textbook than a review/skills focused book and over-complicates the subject leading students to believe they need to learn around 3x as much information. Hence I believe either of the other two (Princetons or 5 steps to a 5) will serve my students better and I have steered them in that direction.

Having taken the actual AP test literally just 2 hours ago, I can say with certainty that this book WILL NOT help you prepare for the test very well. The review book is simply too thick and covers WAY more material than what is actually tested. The questions in the book seemed much more difficult than the ones in the actual test and the style of the practice free response questions were different from that of the real one. Finally, as many others mentioned, there are too many mistakes in the book. For a published material of academic content, this is just absolutely embarrassing.To prepare for the test, I had also gone through the Princeton Review, which I found was MUCH MUCH better than this one. It is concise and the questions were similar to the ones I saw just a few hours ago. I am confident that I got a 5 on the test, thanks to the help of the Princeton Review.Bottom line:FORGET ABOUT THIS BOOK. GET THE PRINCETON REVIEW

Seemed to help review for the NEW chem test this year. The questions seemed to be aligned with what the college board wanted. It was one of the better ones I found for 2013-14 school year.

Great resource and very helpful for high school student. Covers additional material not covered in class with explanations and examples. It helped prepare our student.