Reviews Books

Really helped prepare for the AP exam. The practice tests are key. They really get you a good feel for the exam. Princeton Review does a great job.

This book will easily get anyone who really understands it a 5 on the exam, especially if you can score well on the practice tests in the back. It's better for review, rather than learning. If you want an AP book that you can learn from, I suggest using 5 Steps to a 5. I never really understood electromagnetic induction or nuclear physics from my textbook, and this book was even worse for that, but 5 Steps to a 5 cleared up all my issues with those topics in about an hour. I think that this book is way better for review, though, mostly because the questions they ask at the end of each chapter are better and help your understanding of the concepts.

Don't be discouraged if you don't score well on the practice tests in the back, because the actual AP exam is much more conceptual and less calculation-based. But if you can do the Princeton Review tests, you'll have no problem with the real one. It's not overly difficult though, so don't let that discourage you from buying it.

Overall, this definitely gets a 5/5 for its explanations and for being so concise and on target regarding information the exam will test you on.

This book was awesome. I used Princeton Review to study for 2 out of my 6 AP classes. I had this psych book and US history. The two exams I used Princeton Review to study for, I got 5s! In the other 4 subjects I got 4s. This book is the exact tool you need to push yourself from a 4 to a 5! It's great!

The product came quickly and in good condition. It helped my daughter study for the AP Psych exam.

Amzon is a good seller. I got my book in five days and am highly recommended.

This was the only book I bought to prepare for the CBEST, and I passed it the first time. This book has helpful test taking hints as well as all the math and reading information you need to pass the test. The most helpful parts of this book, though, were the two practice tests, which really made all the difference.

Cracking the CBEST was an excellent resource when I was studying to take the test. It gives test taking strategies as well as reviewing the information you'll need to know. I checked out several other CBEST prep books and this was by far the best.

For those of you getting ready to crack open the books and study for the SAT's, I suggest reading this book first. I just took the SAT's and found this book, the study tips and practice tests to be very helpful. I also liked the format.

Very well plan and presented material. Helped me a lot. Thanks.

this book is one of the best ssat prep books i have ever used. i took a practice ssat without any previous preparation and i did fairly well, but not well enough to get into my choice high schools. after i used this book and took the ssat for real, it raised by score into the 99th percentile. i have not received my high school letters yet, but i am almost 100 percent sure that i made it into my favorite high school.

My daughter used the previous edition prior to taking the lower level ISEE exam. It was the best of the other versions in terms of its study guide content and unit approach for math and vocabulary building and tailorability for lower level. Kaplan's was slightly better for the essay writing tips. But start early. This will take quite a few weekends to get through.

This book helped me TONS. I took my TExES and almost aced it. I'd recommend it to anyone.

This book is an excellent source to help you PASS the PPR! I read through other books and found this one to be more explanatory and easier to understand. It goes into great detail of all the types of questions that appear on the exam. I finally felt like I knew how to go about taking the exam without the confusion and frustration! I positively recommend this book to anyone who needs a better understanding of how to choose the BEST answer on the exam. This is the book that finally helped me PASS!!! Cheers & Good Luck!

This, like E. M. Forster's "Aspects of the Novel," is an essential work of criticism, and it's nice to see it back in print. Lubbock's outlook is an extension of Henry James's. He is more immediately accessible than the Master, and he illustrates the "craft" by reference to classic novels such as Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina," Flaubert's "Madame Bovary," Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," and of course James's own works, particularly "The Ambassadors." Lubbock, Forster, F. R. Leavis's "The Great Tradition," and Ian Watt's "Rise of the Novel" give you what you need to know if you want to understand the central canon in Anglo-American and European fiction.

This is the book recommended by graham greene in his autobiography.he had studied this book inside out before embarking on his illustrious career. I suppose no other stamp off approval is needed after that.....

If your chances of getting your child to study in advance for the SATs is minimal, this is the book for you. I examined many SAT Prep books, and this one offered the "condensed" version of what all the others included. For a quick review, it's great, and certainly less expensive that other prep products.

This book basically teaches you how to guess and what to do when you don't know the concept. They don't teach concepts like Barrons and Kaplan. No practice reviews. Only worthless tips and easy weak practice tests. I've got 800 in math and 700 in verbal with this book. This book has the worst practice tests. With Barrons, i got 700 Math and 550. With Kaplan, i got 780 math and 620 verbal. When i took my real SATs, I got 780 math and 640 verbal. So therefore this book sucks. I prefer Barrons SAT I Math Workbook for Math and Kaplan SAT Verbal Workbook for Verbal.

All Babylon 5 fans hear to this: you will really understand how our favourite series was set up, designed and came to life. The book is detailed and written for those who don't have a clue of any behind-the-scenes jargon. It really puts all fans inside the TV series, makes them a part of the building process. Also, if any of the readers has already bought the previous edition, please do spare the money and buy this really new edi- tion: it includes the complete Season 4 episode list and more (new) photos of the Season 4 episodes, plus real updates in the data. It comes to wonder then how the same duo (author, publisher) didn't thought of a real new edition of "The A-Z Guide to Babylon 5" but they reprinted the previous book as a ... "new edition".

Creating Babylon 5 is the sort of coverage B5 has deserved --but not gotten-- for years. It is worth the price for the pictures alone, but David Bassom's text can more than compete for your attention. His writing is as strong here as in the A-Z Guide to Babylon 5. Worth every cent.

The pastoral nature of this novel is such a disguise for it ends with the toughest, grittiest and most challenging ending I have ever read (stronger than Kafka's 'The Trial', or Christopher Priest's 'The Separation'). As a human being facing what we all face this ending is truly awful.

But what is Hudson telling us in this novel? Is it a Victorian approach to telling things that are otherwise inexpressible - that affection is not enough? That real love with all its manifestations must be honoured, because without it there is only death?

Here I find a challenge to psychoanalysis and all the techniques of psychology: 'I only discovered, what others have discovered before me, that the practice of introspection has a corrosive effect on the mind, which only serves to aggravate the malady it is intended to cure.' (If only I could stop introspection ......!) ) [page 279 Dutton edition of 1917]

But here the common man, Smith, plunged into this affectionate pastoral society, bemoans what he has just learned - that the young woman he loves can never love him as he wishes - 'I wish that I had never made that fatal discovery, that I might have continued still hoping and dreaming, and wearing out my heart with striving after the impossible, since any fate would have been preferable to the blank desolation which now confronted me.' [page 303-304 of the same edition]

I wonder what woman of Hudson's acquaintance he had to put aside with such enormous regret that he expressed these words!

Search this book out. Absorb its gentle fantasy and hold tight for a rough ending.

Other recommendations:
The Separation - Christopher Priest
The Trial - Franz Kafka
The Shepherd's Life - W H Hudson
Green Mansions - W H Hudson

JB Priestly wrote a book about time ('Man and Time') and in it he referred to a WH Hudson novel called 'A Crystal Age'. His couple of paragraphs about 'A Crystal Age' stimulated my interest but nowhere could I find the novel he referred to. However, I did find 'Green Mansions' and I have read it several times. It is a beautiful novel with an undertone of darkness (is death the darkness that we all live with during the beauty of life?). Perhaps 'Green Mansions' disappointed me a little after triggering my romantic nerve. I did, however, keep exploring the writings of WH Hudson - 'Long Ago and Far Away', 'The Purple Land', 'Idle Days in Patagonia' and the wonderful 'A Shepherd's Life'.

I have just finished reading 'A Crystal Age' at last. I concur with JB Priestley's assessment. 'A Crystal Age' is worth the effort of pursuing - it is a surprising first-person utopian novel in which Hudson's love of nature does not render him oblivious to the fact that there are downsides in all worlds - all imaginable worlds. Just like the dark shadows in 'Green Mansions'. The end of 'A Crystal Age' is so surprising - I believe very few readers would see what is coming - I certainly didn't as I rushed on towards it. There is a certain illogic to the ending, but there is also something that haunts me continuously.

'A Crystal Age' is a stronger less romantic novel than 'Green Mansions', but it is also exceptional for many reasons. I don't hesitate in recommending 'Green Mansions' but I also urge readers to pursue 'A Crystal Age'.