AP Physics Book Reviews
AP Physics: Supplemental Study Guide
Princeton Review provides a comprehensive and concise review of each topic centered around the main equations students need to know for each section. The book also includes 5 multiple-choice practice tests of moderate difficulty, but no practice Free Response Questions are included. As our top recommendation, this book is the best choice to use as comprehensive review material and practice for multiple-choice questions.
2. 5 Steps to a 5: AP Physics 1: Algebra-based 2020 Edition
This book has a comprehensive content review along with 2 practice tests and access to "5 minutes to a 5" daily practice exercises. The word problems used for the “5 minutes to a 5” daily practice exercises are not reflective of the difficulty of an FRQ but are designed for quick content review. The last lesson in the book focuses on frequently tested topics as well as implements strategies for difficult problems. This book would work best in combination with FRQ practice from CollegeBoard’s website, as the content review is strong but the FRQ’s aren’t representative of the difficulty on the actual exam.
This book has content review followed by two multiple choice practice tests. The diagnostic test is all multiple-choice questions, and is similar in difficulty to the Princeton Review AP Physics book. They also provide thorough answer explanations with diagrams as well as show the work for equation derivations. If you learn well by following along with the work through the solutions, this book would be a good choice.
AP Physics: Practicing Skills
CollegeBoard keeps select FRQ prompts from old official AP exams up on their website for students to use as a free resource. These are great for students looking for free-response practice, as the wording and difficulty is representative of recent official exam questions. The link also includes sample responses for each prompt as well as how those responses were scored. Many books that offer FRQ practice use these prompts with their own answer explanations, but it’s always best to get the information directly from the source.
2. Basic Physics: A Self-Teaching Guide
The lessons in this book are interactive and problem-driven. The exercises have multiple parts, similar to the FRQ’s, and get progressively harder to illustrate more advanced concepts. One major limitation is that the multiple parts don't build off each other like they will in the official AP exam. Overall, it looks like a great resource for students that struggle conceptually but not for students looking to learn the material for the first time.
3. 5 Steps to a 5: 500 AP Physics 1 Questions to Know by Test Day
As the title suggests, this is a book with 500 multiple-choice practice questions. While not a good choice for comprehensive review, it has a broad range of practice questions. The questions are divided by concept and the answer explanations are thorough, making this book great for targeted review.
