5 Steps to a 5 AP Physics 1 Algebra-based, 2015 Edition (5 Steps to a 5 on the Advanced Placement Examinations Series) 1st Edition

The pluses:- Nice and concise, written with a fair amount of snarky humor, too.- The questions herein do seem to match the new style fairly well.The minus:- A bit short on practice material, even though what's there is very good.Basically, this is a great book to get if you have 1 month to study the course material or want/have to cram for the test. It's kind of made that way. You'll see sections on each topic covered in AP Physics 1, followed by about 4-5 questions--no more--on that subject. And while the questions are consistently good and at a high level, the fact that there are only 4-5 of them leaves room for more. But then, if you're in a hurry to study for the exam, or this is your secondary source and you have a good main textbook as your first source, then this is probably exactly what you want.The test at the end of the booklet is very similar to what the College Board has put on its site in terms of sample questions, and this at least is a full-length test with answers included and thoroughly explained. So this might be worth getting for the practice exam alone, honestly. The only slight difference I've noticed is that this practice exam seems to have more electricity on it, especially static electricity, than College Board sources seem to have, so the weightings might be off. But in fairness, until we actually see the test, we don't know what the subject weights will truly be. All I can say is that the weights here don't quite match the weights on College Board practice problem sets... but they're close except for static electricity.The one other thing of note is that the equation sheet released by College Board is very different in layout/format from the equation sheet this book includes. But you can get the real equation sheet from CB's site, and it's actually probably going to be mostly useless anyway, as there will be almost no actual calculations on the exam itself--a fact both CB and this book's author emphasize consistently.

This book was very helpful in understanding basic concepts of physics. It discussed only the physics 1 topics-- no more, no less. I personally like it when books explain more than needed, but I guess for the purposes of AP cramming, this was actually a good quality.I give a positive rating for how good at explaining this book was.I give only four stars, and not five, however, because it only discusses the most rudimentary concepts. It does not go in-depth enough to truly get a 5. If I had only studied from this book, I would have felt very comfortable going into the test, because I would not have known enough.Keep in mind that I used this to supplement two years of high-school AP-level physics. This will definitely not do for self-studying physics 1, if you are looking to do that (in fact, I would never recommend self-studying AP physics in general).But, all in all, this book provided a lot of clarity for me in the knowledge that I had already known. When I think about this book, for me, I would say that it was succinct and clarifying. There were relatively few example problems, and very few calculations, but this is pretty much how the actual AP test turned out to be, so kudos to you, 5 Steps to a 5, for hitting the bulls eye on that. Ultimately, however, this was not in-depth enough for an actual 5, as the brand name states.I would definitely recommend this as a starter-base. And then I would supplement it with online resources for other topics in the Physics 1 curriculum that you are not completely comfortable with, if you are aiming for a 5 on the AP exam.

I personally think this book is one of the better ones if you need to review in a fairly short period of time(a week or two before). Half the book explains simple AP test taking strategies and the test. The other half is review material and a practice test. The review is quality, but not very lengthy and has less practice problems than other review books such as Barrons.It covers pretty much everything that you'll need to know for the test. This doesn't mean that you can just read this and get a five, quite the opposite in fact. The best way to prepare for the AP test is to apply yourself throughout the class. Review helps, but the test will challenge your knowledge and thinking skills that you acquired during the year. My biggest problem with this book isn't the low amount of practice problems but the way the practice problems are set up. The book has problems with real answers (like 200 N) while the AP Physics 1 test has more along the lines of F/4.On the test you'll probably use your calculator three or four times for the whole test. It's a very conceptual test. This book is decent, but I think it will need to be improved now that AP Physics 1 is in its second year.

As a student, I found this book to be the best book for AP Physics 1. I took the test the first year it was administered so prep materials were scarce and there weren't many options. My peers got other books and were confused by material that wasn't on the exam or covered in class. This book touches all the necessary bases and keeps it concise and comprehensive. Naturally, as it was the first year there wasn't as many practice questions as one would hope but the explanations for the questions were great. Overall, I strongly suggest 5 steps to a 5 for AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based for AP test prep.

This is the most useful resource for the new AP Physics 1 course that I have seen thus far. The most useful thing to me was the example problems that are similar to what may be on the new exam. With the exam being given for the first time in 2015, any questions similar to those on the exam are greatly appreciated as there are currently few resources for teachers to utilize.I have been a fan of Greg Jacobs review books in the past and appreciate the way he speaks directly to the students, giving them excellent descriptions of what they will see on the exam and how to best reach the goal of getting getting college credit.I highly recommend this for teachers and students.