5 Steps to a 5: AP Calculus AB

I got a 5 on the AP Calculus AB exam due in large measure to this book. A couple of weeks before the AP, I just worked my way through this book, and that was essentially my only preparation for the AP. I had a terrible calculus teacher, so I had to learn many of the AP topics entirely from this book. Particularly for volume and area problems, this book was utterly illuminating: I was incredibly confused by my teacher's fumbling presentation of the subject, but this book was all I needed to get me back on track. In fact, now that I'm in BC Calculus with the same teacher, I'm sorry that I gave this book away to a friend - 5 Steps to a 5 would certainly help on the simpler BC topics, as well!I also purchased the Barron's book before taking the AP, which I didn't like nearly as much and spent very little time using. Barron's is much, much harder than the actual AP, which is frustrating, plus the actual instruction in Barron's is a lot more difficult to follow.5 Steps to a 5 was all the preparation I needed for the AP, but you really need to go through the whole book to get the most out of it. It's some amount of work, but 5 Steps to a 5 easily guides you on the path to earn the top score on the AP.

This book is excellent not only as a pre-AP review but also as a way of keeping up with the Calculus material throughout the year. Every chapter reviews the concepts and includes many different types of sample problems to prepare you for whatever problem you may get on the AP. If you feel as if you don't know a certain topic, using this book to go through that chapter is extremely helpful, so this doesn't need to be used only for review a week before the AP. The extra problems in each chapter provide valuable practice on each topic. In addition, the book contains helpful lists of formulas and equations so you don't need to go back through every unit to find all of them. Finally, this review contains several practice exams so that you can test yourself before the real exam, and the exam problems are very similar to those that actually appear on the real AP.This book is definitely extremely helpful, both as supplementary review during the year and as review before the AP exam.

This book offers students an excellent review for the AP Calculus exam. All the complex problems and explanations are simple to understand and really helped me to understand the concepts that the AP exam tests. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a great review before the AP exam!

This is A greAt book-excellent sAmple problems, very well-orgAnized, helpful problem solving tips. This book covers All mAteriAls tAught in the AB course. The sAmple problems Are thoroughly worked out step by step. Excellent sAmple prActice exAms modeled After the reAl AP exAms. BeAutiful grAphs and diAgrams, eAsy-to-reAd font, And tips on how to use the TI-89.

5 Steps to a 5 is a thorough, excellent review for the Calculus AB test. There are many useful examples that are worked out for the student. And at the end of each section there are many additional examples for more practice. This book not only clarifies concepts, it also provides more than sufficient practice problems to test that one actually understands them. In addition the font is very aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I highly recommend this review book for anyone taking the calculus BC or AB course.