7th Edition, Barron's AP World History

This book contains so much information, ensuring that it will cover everything but also hindering its ability to serve merely as a review book. It has so much information that, to some extent, it might as well be a world history textbook. Based on the detailed curriculum that the College Board has on its webpage for AP World History (http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/4484.html?excmpid=MTG243-PR-16-cd), this book may contain too much information. Even if you are self-studying for the exam and this book is your only source of information, it still may contain too much information.
This book also suffers from some organizational problems. For example, the book denotes important vocabulary terms in boldface. The problem is that there are too many boldfaced terms throughout the reading sections (some chapters have over 100); this may make studying all of the vocabulary terms highly inefficient.
Another example of this book's organizational issues is its Short Cut chapters. These chapters are supposed to act as shorter versions of the larger review chapters but instead serve as analysis-focused chapters that introduce some new information.
Furthermore, the book organizes the information in the Scenic Route chapters (the larger review chapters) solely into dense paragraphs. This may not trouble some readers, but I prefer the way that other prep book brands (such as 5 Steps to a 5) tend to organize information in a way that makes the information easier to process.
Through the possibly excessive information and organizational issues, the book ultimately makes it difficult for the reader to know what is most important. There are boldfaced terms throughout the reading, so the reader cannot pinpoint any especially important parts. The Short Cut chapters cover some different information, so they, too, do not help the reader to pinpoint especially important parts. Other review books (such as those of 5 Steps to a 5) usually have review sections at the end of each chapter; this review book does not.
However, the book has some features that prevent it from earning less than three stars. The Short Cut chapters do provide some analysis that should prove helpful on the exam's essays. The book has some practice tests in which the questions are formatted to match the most recent exam (which is something that 5 Steps to a 5's 500 AP World History Questions to Know by Test Day does not do). The book also has some interesting tips regarding the structure of the exam. Furthermore, if you do bother to study all of the book's information (which I would say is inefficient), you will probably know enough to guarantee a 5 on the exam (however, other prep books probably have enough information to help the reader earn a 5 as well).

The Crash Course in AP World History was the best - simple, comprehensive, great organization. Second would be 5 Steps--its organization was simple and comprehensive. Barron's AP was better than Princeton's review in that its lay-out and language were easier to read and comprehend. Last would be AP World History. It didn't have ideas or segments classified. It was one long narrative really.

growing up, history used to be my favorite subject but since India was competitive, my parents used to encourage me to study more of science and maths so that I can get in Medical school which I did but when we immigrated to America and I got an opportunity to train my son for SAT/AP , I chose the entire series by AP for my son. I must say, we are impressed with the content and the ease of studying this book....it doesn't intimidate you.

The book was in great condition but the description said slightly written on and when I recived this product nearly every page had some sort of note that a previous person had made on it and that ruined the book all of the practice tests were done and now I can't even completly study due to the markings in this book!

I asked my students to purchase the physical book and I decided to but the electronic version. The mistake? I cannot email or message my students exactly what pages to read because the digital version does not match the pages with the physical book version. Why it does not have the option or feature to do this is beyond me. From now on, I will but the physical version only with the Barron's AP prep book

This book is perfect for anyone that wants to keep up with their class throughout the school year or if you are self-studying for the test from the beginning of the school year, it exceeds all my expectations. One VERY important thing to note is, if you have 1 month or less left to study for the test and you are self-studying DO NOT buy this book no matter how fast you think you can read and understand the book. I bought this book with a month left for the test to self-study thinking I can self-study all of world history in one month using this book and boy was I wrong. Unless you have no school in the month leading up to the test and can dedicate day after day for a month reading this book do not buy it for self-studying. On the other hand, if you're buying this as a supplement to the class or to self-study with a wide berth of time left for you to study this is a must have product. The book provides you with 2 options on how to study it. You can either read the shortcut sections with condense about, oh say, ~40-50 pages into ~15 pages or you can read the scenic route which covers everything in depth. What this book does so well that school textbooks can't do is analyze the major themes of the AP World History curriculum that you are tested about. Another feature the Barron's book has that other books don't do as well on is teach you how to nail the FRQs (Free Response Questions) and the tricks behind it. Good luck to everyone taking the test in ~1 week!

Edit 11/22/14: Got a 4 on the APWH test without taking the class for the test and only studying the 2 days before the test using this book. When I opened the test up I was smiling because I realized how this book literally covered every single question asked but what dropped me to the 4 was that I misread the prompt on one of the FRQs. I still HIGHLY recommend this book because the APWH test doesn't have a planned revision for the 2015 year (since it had its biggest change in 2014 which this book is made for).