U.S. Government and Politics (Cliffs
AP) by Paul Soifer
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Personal Review: U.S. Government and Politics (Cliffs AP) by
Paul Soifer

This 356-page book was written in the traditional narrative style of CLIFF
NOTES and READER'S DIGEST condensed books. If the large over-sized
fonts were reduced to standard and if the empty white spaces were
eliminated, the contents would have been condensed to 256 pages. This
made the information very manageable for studying.
The vocabulary and writing style were simple enough for a high school
sophomore or junior to handle. Also, the information was very well
organized and concise. As an example, let us exam the chapter on the
U.S. Constitution. The ten pages summarized and condensed 37 pages of
GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA, the standard text used in high school AP
Government classes. Basic information with a sprinkling of details and
updated examples was covered. Subtopics were sectioned off, and
important terms and vocabulary were bold printed for the reader to focus.
After the topic discussion, there was a 15 multiple-choice question test.
The questions were constructed in the same style as the items in the
actual AP test. Following these exercises were three sentence
explanations on each of the answers. All in all, the format as described
above was used for all other chapters that followed.
After the subject reviews, there were two sample practice tests. Again, the
multiple-choice answers were explained in detail. More impressive was the
author's treatment of the Free-Response Section. On each of the essay
questions, he provided scoring guidelines, sample essays, and analyzes of
the written works.
Appendixes were located at the end of the book. These contained a
glossary of key terms, a copy of the U.S. Constitution, a listing of important
U.S. Supreme Court cases, and an eight page listing of internet sources.
My only criticisms of this book focused on the second and third items in the
Appendixes. Instead of a copy of the U.S. Constitution, a better alternative
was to provide an annotated and simplified version. This document was
very hard to understand with its 18th Century prose and "high level"
vocabulary. Fortunately such a simplification does exist. It is located in the
latest Compton Encyclopedia under "Constitution." Secondly, the U.S.
Supreme Court case listing needed to be better organized. The cases
should to be individually grouped by Constitutional issue and sub-grouped
by whether they expanded or limited the specific civil liberty.
As a suggestion, buy Pamela K. Lamb's 5 STEPS TO A 5 AP U.S.
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS to accompany Soifer's text. Instead of a
narrative approach, the contents was arranged in outline format. In other
words, the information presented in U.S. GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
was further condensed in outline form by Lamb. This arrangement made it
easier for studying.
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