Customer Rating: 
Summary: better than barron -- much better
Comment: Especially if you're doing a lot of self-studying, I reccommend getting more than 1 review book. Make Princeton Review one of them. It is an organized, clean, no-nonsense format, with chapter summaries and quizzes and lots of charts and diagrams for you visual learners. It'll give you all you need to know. Just as importantly, it won't give anything you don't need to know.
The other good one is Kaplan. As usual, Kaplan is good at explaining.
Barron is very minimal and the format is a little chaotic so the facts are all jumbled up in your head.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good but not infalliable
Comment: As a third-year college biology student, I grabbed this book from the library on summer break for a quick review of my first year bio classes. It is exactly what I was looking for. It manages to deliver, in about 250 pages, a review that is not too detailed, but not too terribly skimpy on information. The rest of the book covers test taking techniques and gives you two full-length practice tests. Good choice for anyone looking for a quick review of the subject, as well as anyone who actually does have to take the test!
In response to another review, I would like to point out a couple of mistakes I did find in the text (which managed to bump it down to 4 stars). Pp. 313-314 talk about a virus with a genome made up of DNA being replicated using "the host's RNA polymerase". Quick quiz #1 on p. 333 asks the same question in questions number 2 and 3. Pp. 314 and 317 have an inconsistency in the order of events in the lytic cycle. And there is another question (I can't locate it right now.) In the chapter on organ systems, in which the cerebrum is said to control muscle movement.
All in all a good text, with a small number of errors, but I'm sure they could have done better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A very thorough guide
Comment: I bought this book in hopes of using it in preparation for the SAT M Biology exam. I never got to reading the book, but I did look through it after taking my exam.
On the whole, this is a very, very thorough book. I love the Princeton Review; the writing style is absolutely amazing, diagrams are well-drawn and labeled, and there are many supplementary facts throughout the book that you won't learn in your regular AP biology class.
Another thing I love about the book is that it is so thick. You may think that's a bad thing, that it's so long, but the truth is that the Princeton Review has done an amazing job of designing the book, so that each page has many diagrams and only the information you need to know. Thus, the book itself is very easy and fun to go through, as each page is not a long page of text like a normal biology book is.
I personally feel that, if you are a good biology student, you shouldn't need to study for the exam at all. But if you need to reassure yourself, this is the only book you need to get.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best book we used
Comment: My son and I studied for several weeks and this book was the best we came across. The sections were easy to read, it really boiled the subject down to the bare essentials and made it very easy to understand and the practice tests were great with no mistakes (unlike the Barron's book which unfortunately had several mistakes on each of the tests) It really seemed to cover the entire range of subjects in Bio and made it fun to do.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Product
Comment: This is a really helpful book!It has all the diagrams to explain the materials so that you won't get lost.It is so intresting that I just want to reveiw!This book makes reveiwing fun!I love it.
Summary: better than barron -- much better
Comment: Especially if you're doing a lot of self-studying, I reccommend getting more than 1 review book. Make Princeton Review one of them. It is an organized, clean, no-nonsense format, with chapter summaries and quizzes and lots of charts and diagrams for you visual learners. It'll give you all you need to know. Just as importantly, it won't give anything you don't need to know.
The other good one is Kaplan. As usual, Kaplan is good at explaining.
Barron is very minimal and the format is a little chaotic so the facts are all jumbled up in your head.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good but not infalliable
Comment: As a third-year college biology student, I grabbed this book from the library on summer break for a quick review of my first year bio classes. It is exactly what I was looking for. It manages to deliver, in about 250 pages, a review that is not too detailed, but not too terribly skimpy on information. The rest of the book covers test taking techniques and gives you two full-length practice tests. Good choice for anyone looking for a quick review of the subject, as well as anyone who actually does have to take the test!
In response to another review, I would like to point out a couple of mistakes I did find in the text (which managed to bump it down to 4 stars). Pp. 313-314 talk about a virus with a genome made up of DNA being replicated using "the host's RNA polymerase". Quick quiz #1 on p. 333 asks the same question in questions number 2 and 3. Pp. 314 and 317 have an inconsistency in the order of events in the lytic cycle. And there is another question (I can't locate it right now.) In the chapter on organ systems, in which the cerebrum is said to control muscle movement.
All in all a good text, with a small number of errors, but I'm sure they could have done better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A very thorough guide
Comment: I bought this book in hopes of using it in preparation for the SAT M Biology exam. I never got to reading the book, but I did look through it after taking my exam.
On the whole, this is a very, very thorough book. I love the Princeton Review; the writing style is absolutely amazing, diagrams are well-drawn and labeled, and there are many supplementary facts throughout the book that you won't learn in your regular AP biology class.
Another thing I love about the book is that it is so thick. You may think that's a bad thing, that it's so long, but the truth is that the Princeton Review has done an amazing job of designing the book, so that each page has many diagrams and only the information you need to know. Thus, the book itself is very easy and fun to go through, as each page is not a long page of text like a normal biology book is.
I personally feel that, if you are a good biology student, you shouldn't need to study for the exam at all. But if you need to reassure yourself, this is the only book you need to get.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best book we used
Comment: My son and I studied for several weeks and this book was the best we came across. The sections were easy to read, it really boiled the subject down to the bare essentials and made it very easy to understand and the practice tests were great with no mistakes (unlike the Barron's book which unfortunately had several mistakes on each of the tests) It really seemed to cover the entire range of subjects in Bio and made it fun to do.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Product
Comment: This is a really helpful book!It has all the diagrams to explain the materials so that you won't get lost.It is so intresting that I just want to reveiw!This book makes reveiwing fun!I love it.
Cracking the SAT Biology E/M Subject Test, 2007-2008 Edition (College Test Prep) Reviews: Page 2 of 2
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