<p>Next year is my senior year and I would like to cram as many APs as possible into my schedule. My school does not offer AP US Government and Politics but I have seen a practice test and it looks as if it could be very easy with some self-study. This is directly related to my planned college work and I would love to be able to take the test.
So my questions are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is it possible to take an AP exam without having taken the corresponding course? (I have taken World and US already if that makes a difference)</p></li>
<li><p>If my school does not offer the exam, how would I go about taking it?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks so much!</p>
<p>My school doesn’t offer AP Lunch, so I’m self-studying by eating like Michael Phelps.</p>
<p>OT: </p>
<p>1) Yes, there are several APs that are easily self-study–able. My school offers AP Gov, and I’m taking the AP this May, and I can tell you that it is definitely a self-study course. As long as you prepare for the test, it’ll be fine.</p>
<p>2) Even if your school does not offer the COURSE, it should offer the EXAM. If not, then you’d have to take the exam at another school. How you’d go about that, I have no clue. But that’s what I’d imagine would happen.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Yep. As a matter of fact, I’m self-studying a couple of classes, including AP US Gov (which relates to my major/future career)</p></li>
<li><p>Your school should still administer the exam. If not, you can do what I’m doing and take the exam at another school. Talk to your guidance counselor / AP coordinator.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I considered AP Lunch but the courseload would have been too rigorous. Got AP Homeroom as a tradeoff though.</p>
<p>Thanks so much to both of you, very helpful. I’m with you MarineBio, one of my majors will be political science and self-studying got me a 5 on World and hopefully will do the same for US. (I say self-study because the teachers were absolutely awful.)</p>
<p>I wish my school offered Psych, but it doesn’t 
I wanted to take it! And self studying is too much for me…</p>
<p>Yep, you can take the AP exam without taking the class. I’m doing that this year for AP Psych. For AP Gov, yes, that would definitely be an easy self-taught class. I basically self-taught myself that one and got a 4 as a sophomore. It’s easy! I took the class, but it was taught by the worst teacher at my school that year- they gave him a chance at an AP class, which he failed miserably, it was his first, and last year teaching AP. So basically I had to study it myself because all we did in class was watch non-AP gov movies, listen to music, and talk, and hear stories about the teacher’s kid and his life.</p>
<p>Sounds exactly like my APUS teacher this year. Absolutely unqualified to teach and incompetent to the utmost. He was a mediocre teacher up until about the Jefferson presidency, at which point our class devolved into a void of nothingness. He has neglected to teach since then. Self-study is my only choice. I would complain to school administration, but I already used my “Fire a teacher free” card last year. The AP World teacher couldn’t keep his political mouth shut, and it got pretty bad.
As you can tell, my school has a problem with the competence of its AP program :p</p>
<p>Yeah, so if you’ve already self-studied some and are motivated to do it, especially when it’s related to your college major, you should do it. You could probably do AP US & Comparative Gov even. Idk how you take an exam that your school doesn’t have. My school- I’m taking the AP Psych exam even tho we don’t have an AP Psych class, but we have a regular Psych class, and for some reason offer the AP exam for it- the teacher is good for that, but I just couldn’t fit it in my schedule with 4 other APs at school. So talk to your guidance counselor or someone in charge of AP at your school, if there’s someone who works with that specifically.</p>