Easiest APs for individual study

<p>So on your college app, do you just write, "by the way, my school didn't offer this class, and I found the subject matter to be very interesting, so I self studied -- and hey, I got a 5!"?</p>

<p>human geography and us gov are both pathetically easy.</p>

<p>APDoolittle, what books did you use for AP language prep? I really love languages, so I think it'd be fun to self-study another one. How long would it take to self-study Italian? Out of curiosity, how many AP tests have you taken throughout HS? (your name intrigues me)</p>

<p>Hey Cooljoe! Your enthusiasm for languages is awesome! :)</p>

<p>Ok, first of all - thanks for your interest in my username.</p>

<p>I'd actually like to briefly explain to you what it means. You may have assumed that I made it to show how "little" I have to "do" to score high on my "APs." Haha, well that may be true for my foreign language APs, but that's actually not the reason I chose this particular username. I'm actually an actor, and in my last high school show, My Fair Lady, I played the hilarious role of Alfred P. Doolittle. I still have no idea what the "P" stood for, but that was a great show and my username reminds me of those great times. Indirectly, I find it is appropriate for CC as many CCers take AP courses and exams.</p>

<p>And no, contrary to some CCers' belief - I don't talk to my AP textbooks! Haha ;) I ocasionally cursed at my Giancoli's Physics text book in frustration - but I don't actually understand the language of AP textbooks.</p>

<p>.....Wait, what am I saying? Yes I do. Haha, w/ the foreign language ones especially. Ok, MAJOR contradiction just now. I guess I'm trying to say that I don't talk to textbooks like Dr. Doolittle talked to animals :D</p>

<p>Ok, now that I've established my sanity - I've taken 12 AP tests throughout HS (which might seem a tad insane - but not as insane as some CCers).</p>

<p>Sophomore year I took AP World History and AP Spanish.
Junior year I took AP U.S. History, AP Psychology, AP English Lit, and AP French Lit.
This year I took AP Biology, AP Physics B, AP English Language, AP Calculus AB, AP French Language, and AP Italian Language.</p>

<p>Of the 6 APs I took in 10th and 11th grade, I scored three 5's and three 4s. I'm pretty sure this year I scored all 4s and 5s w/ the exception of AP Physics which may have been a 3 or 4.</p>

<p>Ok Cooljoe, as far as AP languages are concerned, I first want to clear up that I'm a native Spanish speaker. I was born in Colombia and came to the U.S. when I was 8 DAYS old - so I've lived here practically all my life. I grew up speaking both Spanish and English. So, as you can imagine, learning French and Italian isn't extremely difficult for someone who already knows Spanish fluently. This is true of learning any two or more languages within the same language family. I took AP Spanish in 10th grade and scored a 5 on that test.</p>

<p>I basically taught myself the French language in a few months to a fluent level. I used a Barron's book I picked up at Border's called, "Barron's Master the Basics: French." Don't let the name fool you, it teaches you much more than the French basics. The grammar section is astounding and prepared me for the rigors of AP French quite well (and I studied this book in like 10th grade)! I highly recommend it as a supplement to whatever AP review book for French you decide to buy (or as a supplement to your textbook).</p>

<p>I "self-studied" AP Italian - or at least that's what you would gather from my transcript. Actually, I didn't have to do much at all the whole year. I did briefly go over some stuff in "Dr. Macaluso's Guide to AP Italian" which is one of the few good resources out there for AP Italian. It's a decent book, but it isn't spectacular - in my opinion. In Doc's defense though, it is the first year of AP Italian. It must be difficult to come up with a comprehensive guide before any official College Board exams are released. I do suspect though, that great AP Italian review guides will hit the shelves once this year's AP Italian exam is released - so if you're keen on Italiano, then look out for that.</p>

<p>Now, I don't know much about the other AP World Languages (i.e. Russian, Chinese, and Japanese). I plan on continuing to study the languages I can speak fluently at Princeton. I also would like to enroll in a beginner's Chinese course in the fall. I'm looking at a career in international law, and I find knowledge of foreign languages to be an invaluable resource! To learn more about the other AP World Languages, I recommend that you create a free account on <a href="http://www.apcentral.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.apcentral.collegeboard.com&lt;/a> and read about those languages. I would pay special attention to their course descriptions - as they offer good insight as to what books are recommended for preparation.</p>

<p>If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me. A lot of CCers come to me w/ AP questions for a variety of subjects, so I guess you can say, in a way, I am a sort of Dr. AP or something. I dunno - but feel free to PM me for more advice!</p>

<p>I hope my advice has been useful to you, Cooljoe, and to anyone else interested in "self-studying" AP languages!</p>

<p>Good luck to you....</p>

<p>.....or as one would say in Italian:</p>

<p>In bocca al lupo!</p>

<p>-Jon ;)</p>

<p>AP Psychology.
I did take a college level psychology class at a CC, in the fall. But alot of what I learned was not on AP. So I had to study mostly on my own.</p>

<p>So you don't need to take the ap class to take the ap exam? Because, I want to major in business, and is it a good idea to take Ap Gov. and ap psyc.? So all I need to do is self study and I'll get at least 4 ?</p>

<p>Nope - no ap class required. It's kinda funny in the survey part where they ask you how many class discussions you had, and how much work you did outside of class. I wrote zero for all :-). AP Government was quite easy (the free response is a joke - it's like - tell me what does this graph say? Is the sky blue?). I haven't taken psych but I've heard from many that it's quite easy. AND Politics and Government is really interesting.</p>

<p>So to sum it up, what are the easiest APs?</p>

<p>THE LIST</p>

<p>-Human Geography
-U.S. Politics and Government (Comparative may be a bit harder)
-Economics (both Macro & Micro)
-Psychology
-Environmental Science</p>

<p>lol my AP Euro teacher was so bad that i told all my friends to put 0's for everything as well (by the way, except for 1 question, all of them actually WERE zero's)</p>