AP Course, international student: Too late?

Test Preparation
1

<p>Hi Everybody,</p>

<p>I'm (apparently) new to this website and I'm stunned by all the great information that is avaible here.
As an international student it is a lot harder to find reliable and usefull information about American universities. Allthough I've read 2 Books and numerous websites about studying in the US, I haven't heard anything about AP Courses untill today. :(
Now I wonder if it is still possible to make the AP exam in Computer Science in this year. </p>

<p>My background:
I'm a senior high school student, living in Austria. I will graduate from high school in June, but I'll be drafted by the military at the end of this year. My military service will come to an end 8 months later, so I'll apply in this fall to colleges for fall 2006.
I want to study Computer Science, and I do think that I'm (hopefully very) talented on that field. My father was and so am I.
Just for fun I've learnd some Java this year and it was pretty easy. The only problem is, why should the colleges believe me that I'm talented.
Computer programming competitions are very rare (actually that is the case in all subjects) and the few that actually exist are nearly unknown to most parts of the students. Often the deadlines pass without anyone noticing it. Last week our school quietly hung up a poster about such a competition, unfortunatelly the deadline was the following day. :rolleyes:
In the only math competition we ever had in I our school I ranked at first place school-wide.</p>

<p>To keep it short, what I wanted to state is that this might be my only real chance to show my talent before I'll have to apply to colleges.
But is this still possible?
And if so - where? (The nearest big cities are Munich or Vienna)
Finally, can you recommend a good preparation book to the AP Course Computer Science AB?</p>

<p>PS: I'm so angry, if I had known that before. :(
But it wasn't mentioned in any of my books.</p>

2

<p>Most likely, the only places you will be able to take the test is at American schools in your country. As for taking AP exams this year, it is probably too late to register - the official deadline to contact other schools to register was March 1st. </p>

<p>However, since you're in Austria, I seriously doubt that not having AP exams will hurt you. Does the Austrian curriculum have any similar college level exams, like the G.C.E. "A" level examinations, French or International Baccalaureate examinations, or German Abitur? Even if there arn't any, what is important is taking the highest level of courses avalible to you. Doing a quick Google search, it appears that a Calculus course and the equivalent of an AP Foreign Language course are required to receive the Austrian "Matura". Taking other advanced courses like this will put you on par with other applicants to top US universities, even if you don't have official AP exam scores</p>

3

<p>Thanks a lot, that sounds good at least. :)</p>

<p>Yes, in Austria there are final college level exams and they are very similar to the German Abitur or the British A levels.
I will take the subjekts English, History, Math and Computer Science, and all of them are very demanding.
Furthermore, I'im pretty sure that I've learned enough foreign languages (English, Latin and French + my mother language German). :D
That leads my to another question: Should I take the SATII Test in German? It's my mother language, though.</p>