The Princeton Review Cracking the Ap U.s. Government & Politics Exam 2014 (College Test Preparation) CSM Edition

I am so thankful for this book. I basically used government class as a study hall the entire year, so without this book I would have failed. Luckily, our classroom tests happened to be very closely aligned with the AP exam, so before every unit test I would read the corresponding chapter in this book while highlighting key information, and then read the chapter again. That's it. Compared to the (busy) work assigned in most classes, this book is great; it weeds out the important stuff, gives you a handy glossary (know all those terms and you'll get half the questions on the AP test right), gives you TWO practice tests (I only had time to complete one, but I recommend at least doing both sets of FRQ's), and basically saves you a load of time and worry. What I love most about this book is that the information is concise, but it doesn't skimp on words when explaining concepts; everything I had trouble wrapping my brain around suddenly "clicked" when I read this book. I will say that rushing through this book the week before the test doesn't guarantee you a five; what you put into it is what you get out of it. For me, it was especially useful to highlight and sometimes take notes in the (huge) margins, since I tend to skim passages without absorbing anything. Needless to say, without this book I wouldn't have gotten a five.

I just got my scores back from the AP test after using this book and I got a 5. The most important part of this book is the practice tests. It is essential that as a student you do as many practice tests as possible to get used to the questions and to be prepared. I went through the review a little, but I primarily used it for the practice tests, which is, in my opinion, the way it should be used.TIP: In addition to this book, many more review problems and even released test questions can be found online through a google search. This helped me very much, and it will definitely help you as well :)

I bought this book all the way back in September to prepare for the exam, and it did a pretty good job for the most part. The review was very comprehensive—with the exception of a few concepts and vocabulary, everything on the test had been at least touched on at some point in the book. However, some concepts—particularly specifics of the bureaucracy—were covered much too in depth, and would be better if those specifics were cut down on a little bit. There also needs to be more of a connection among each individual topic—you need to know relationships between branches, something that is absent for the most part in the review book. The multiple choice tests were mostly accurate, although there are some questions that go too in depth on a certain topic or are specific facts that you would not be expected to know on the test (it's always better for the practice tests to be harder, rather than easier, than the real test). The free response questions, on the other hand, are much too demanding—you almost certainly won't need to state three examples of something, and most questions on the actual exam are more overarching, not on obscure topics (like scandals). A few additional concerns would be that the only free response examples provided are the ones in the practice tests, and that the drills are fairly limited by testing simply on content acquisition, not on application.To summarize, it's overall a slightly over-thorough review, and it lacks the connection between concepts, but I would certainly recommend it to a future student, as long as they use additional resources like released free-response questions. Hopefully, the 2016 version of this book will be improved, but for now this version is more than satisfactory.

AP Government quickly became the class for doing homework during the lectures and cramming the night before the test. The AP test was no different. Overloaded with other AP tests to study for, I literally did not start studying until the night before. That's when I bought this book after school. I read it all in one night (which I probably wouldn't recommend), skipped over the court cases (luckily, only the most common ones were on the test), and breezed through the AP test. I ended up getting a 5. This book has everything you need to know in it.

This book helped me a get a 5 on the 2015 AP gov exam and study for my final and unit exams, even though I took the class online and didn't feel as if I was up to pace with my in-classroom peers. It has everything you need to know for a Gov exam without the fluff, and it quite easy to read and learn from. It is also significantly cheaper than the current version, especially since there is no material difference between the two products.

I purchased this book for my Granddaughter who will be in Advance Placement Govt this year as a high school sophomore, she had required homework over the summer and this book was perfect for it. The teacher recommended this book and she feels it was well worth getting it. Arrived fast and in perfect condition. It gives great details and not hard to follow. God bless

I recommended that my AP US Government students buy this book because I think it is the best with regards to the curriculum alignment. I especially think that the practice tests are more aligned with real AP multiple choice exams than 5 Steps.Two things that could be better:1. Some of the information (even in the practice tests) is random and not likely to appear on the AP exam.2. The free response questions are not configured or scored the way real AP free response questions are done. They aren't written in the format that is always used. A student is much better off completely disregarding the free response questions in the book and using the actual, released FRQS (plus rubrics) found on the Collegeboard website.

I took the regular govt and read this book very carefully, The 20 hours intense reading and memorizing help me get a five. The test was very easy, I just read through the content review section and did the multiply choice and FRs from college board. That's it.