BOOK REVIEW: Barron's AP Human Geography

Barron's AP Human Geography

So everyone is recommending Barron's. But is it really that good? (Well for AP HG it's pretty good). Barron's doesn't apply to all cases (I'm thinking of APUSH for example, even AP Bio, APES, etc).

But for AP Human Geo, I'm saying that it's definitely one should have (I'll need to borrow a copy of the other two "popular" study guides, Ethel Woods and ... Rubenstein? And to a compare and contrast. Of course, many people state this is "overkill".

It can't be overkill if you want to learn for the sake of learning, right? Let's embrace repetition :).

Highlights

Must say that the book is, like most others, very concise in its organization. It has bolded words with definitions. I heard that AP Human Geo is a "test of definitions" which does not help students actually learn the knowledge but instead only to memorize terms and forget them later, but I guess we must adapt to reality.

As AP Human Geo is a social science, it is important that we all have examples to back up our essays (in fact that should be true for all essays, regardless of the subject) -- the book offers some examples, but is still considered "too broad" by others. I don't know because 1) I don't have other books to compare to [I think I can borrow some soon] and 2) I haven't taken the exam yet! And when I do, it'll be too late.

As I have really little to compare to, all I can say is that this book is what the "popular" opinion supports. With its 3 "model tests" as well as interesting multiple choice after every chapter, I'd say that it is pretty good. Also, as AP HG is a relatively new subject, it is one of the few books that actually covers this, so there isn't much "choice" with regards to prep books for this subject.

I would recommend this book, though I do that with some hesitation as I have no "control" variable in this experiment =P.

G'luck.

Coming Soon! (Will update when I have something to compare to)