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Rating: 
Summary: Good Review, but No Guarantee of a 4 or 5!
Review: "Cracking the AP Physics" is a perfect book for a quick review before the AP or test during the year; its summaries are for the most part easy to understand, inclusive of major people and events, and concise enough to make for a quick read.However, this book is NOT an appropriate alternative to sitting down with whatever physics text book you use during the school year and really studying. I would strongly advise against relying on "Crack the AP Physics" for your primary study resource. I found that the AP exam that the book includes is good for seeing how well you know your stuff before really sitting down and studying, but again, is woefully inadequate to prepare one for the actual exam. I would strongly recommend getting other AP exams, questions and problems from your teacher to compliment this book. A decent buy as a review book, but by no means guarantees a 5, 4 or even 3 alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Satisfied with Princeton Review
Review: "Cracking the AP Physics" is a perfect book for a quick review before the AP or test during the year; its summaries are for the most part easy to understand, inclusive of major people and events, and concise enough to make for a quick read. However, this book is NOT an appropriate alternative to sitting down with whatever physics text book you use during the school year and really studying. I would strongly advise against relying on "Crack the AP Physics" for your primary study resource. I found that the AP exam that the book includes is good for seeing how well you know your stuff before really sitting down and studying, but again, is woefully inadequate to prepare one for the actual exam. I would strongly recommend getting other AP exams, questions and problems from your teacher to compliment this book. A decent buy as a review book, but by no means guarantees a 5, 4 or even 3 alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't expect to learn physics
Review: I bought this book thinking that it would help me during the course of the year of AP Physics C, as I currently have a horrible teacher who does not know how to teach, and most of the time I end up having to try to study. This book does a worse job than the textbook (which is very bad) at explaining ideas or even providing any problem solving tactics. It lacks alot of depth in many key areas including both mechanics and electromagnetics. For every topic, it gives a nice conceptual explanation and some really good analogies to think about, but then leaves you no clue as how to do the actual math or approach problems. It just throws a bunch of worked out sample problems without clearly explaining the strategies or what it is doing. Sometimes it just introduces some new ideas in the example problems themselves and make you even more confused of what they are assuming. Basically you must know the material before, and going through this book is simply a sort of review. Don't expect to use it as a learning guide. What you get is basically some very general and elementary summaries and example problems. However, the book offers alot of practice problems plus two full tests in the end, but other than that, it is totally useless.
Rating: 
Summary: Considering how inarticulate physicists are, a GREAT pick
Review: I must admit that I had a brilliant, genius teacher (Mr.Rosenbluth's the man!) for AP Physics B (the one without calculus), however, this book is by far a great choice. I liked it a lot more than my text book. It very clearly distinguishes between which problem is in what course. Namely, B covers thermal, optics, and wave phenomena, whereas the C course's mechanics has heavy duty torques, and angular mechanics. The C course also covers a lot of E&M with heavy duty Integral Calculus, and all these C problems are clearly marked "C." I would say that if a student had the most horrible class, and/or never showed up to class, but did all the problems and went through this book thoroughly, I would gaurantee any intelligent, disciplined student, at least a 3/5 (passing on the test.) I was fortunate enough to pull off a 5; but I probably would've had a much tougher time in the class without this book, and maxed out with a 4 on the test. Fair warning: you must know the Calculus, this book doesn't explain Calculus, however, the physics is very hard as it is. It should be noted, however, that you do not need to have taken something painful like AP BC Calculus. The calculus required for Physics C is pretty easy. I've still kept the book for future reference. What more can I say? For AP Physics, this is by far the best book out there, certainly better than that waste of paper, Barron's Physics book. Horrible, Barron's. Go with this book for acing the AP, whichever one you'll be taking. Goodluck.
Rating:
Summary: awesome book, not necessarily awesome prep
Review: I rarely give test prep books 5's, and I rarely give Princeton Review books high scores, but this one is different. The author is very smart and knows what he's doing. I took both parts of the Physics C exam in May 2001 (5 on both) and was at first worried since this book combines both B & C. However, you'll find that there are quite a few sections dedicated solely to C, which is helpful. The book is filled with many sample questions in each section, both multiple choice and free response and they're pretty close to the real thing in terms of difficulty. There is a ton of useful information in this book, which makes very valuable. The explanations are concise and to the point. But the real question is: does it guarantee you a 4 or 5? Of course not! No test prep book does that! To get a 5, you really have to do your homework if you're taking the AP class, and be dead cold in the material. Then, you have to do old tests to get the "true feeling." This book is great but should only be used as a supplement and reinforcement.
Rating:
Summary: Very Help full
Review: It's a very helpful book, it teaches you everything you need to know about that year's physics test. after studying with this book, i got a 5 on my ap examine. :)
Rating:
Summary: Don't expect to learn physics
Review: The makers of this series are particularly good at exploiting your fears about the AP test. No matter what they say, reading this book will not automatically guarantee a 5 on the AP exam. Whatever you would have received before getting this book will be the score you get after reading it. But, it's utility lies in the fact that, after taking the practice tests, you will know what sort of a score to expect. I consider myself to be one of those rare people in high school who actually understands and appreciates physics, and looking back at this book, I thought the attempt at teaching physics was horrible. Buy this book only for the practice tests.
Rating:
Summary: A Big Help for an AP Class
Review: This AP Physics book has been one of my best sources for studying for the AP Physics test. The AP Physics teacher at my school has never taught this class before, and her lectures are often not very helpful. The review sections in this book are very helpful--they include sample problems and questions that show you how to do the work. This is great for me because the tests in my class are based on the AP test, and using this book almost garantees a 4 or 5 on the AP test this May. If you're having problems with Physics, or just need a little extra help, this book is the way to go. The only problem I had with it is that it's hard to read this book and keep up with the one we use in class. Other than that, it's great.
Rating:
Summary: Not really great for the AP exam...but it still has its uses
Review: This book is good for reinforcing topics already learned in class, but horrible for self - study (which people with not-so-concise teachers will need to do). I've found myself better off getting a cheap college textbook with answers (or even the infamous Schaums series) and learning out of a written work like that. I'm still going to keep my Princeton Review book, however, because while it doesn't seem to work well for the AP Physics class (which I suspect deals with different teachers/teaching styles in an unstructured environment for teaching AP material) I think that I will find a good use for this book as a quick reference work as I move on to college - level material and beyond.
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