AP English Literature and Composition Premium, 2025: Prep Book with 8 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice (Barron's AP Prep)

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I bought three review books -- this one, the Princeton, and the 5 steps to a 5 -- for my daughter because she needs help in this course. This is a close second to the Princeton's, mainly because the Barron's advice on how to tackle the essay questions is a little hard to follow. The sample student answers are very helpful because they show my daughter the level of writing her contemporaries are doing. Her class is only up to the Prose essay question at this time and has not covered the Poetry analysis yet. I enjoyed going over the Barron's coverage of the poetry analysis, the best among the three review books.

As an AP Literature teacher at a private high school, I have faithfully used Barron’s for several years with great success. This means that each school year, I have close to 40 students purchasing a copy of this workbook. The feedback from my students has always been: “I’m glad you made us use Barron’s- the exam felt almost easy after what that book put us through!” I frequently use the book as a “Do Now” to start class and for partner activities. The kids also love the comprehensive glossary.My BIG complaint: this is the 2024 edition and they still do not even have the last few years of FRQ questions in the section on past exam questions. It truly looks as if the last major update on the book happened in 2021 or 2022 (I have every edition of Barron’s since 2020). There are a number of ways in which the writing of the FRQ questions has changed in the last few years in addition to the MCQ’s going down to four multiple choice options- none of this is reflected in the 2024 edition. In fact, next to none of the questions or readings in any of the practice exams have changed since I began using Barron’s. As a highly skilled content expert, I am always changing my curriculum to better address the ways in which I see the Exam evolving- Barron’s should follow suit. Due to the lack of updating, I am having to supplement Barron’s more and more which is not the point when requiring my students to purchase such a text. Finally, this year my school will take the exam digitally (our first year of doing so) as we are now falling into place with the College Board going fully digital for all AP Exams. While I will still require my students to purchase a paper workbook like Barron’s, I would like to see a section on test taking strategies for digital exams.PLEASE DO A COMPREHENSIVE UPDATE. I want to continue to require my students to purchase Barron’s, but my confidence is starting to waiver a bit.

The print version is in no way updated. Tests still include Roman Numeral questions; AP got rid of those YEARS ago.