<p>I'm taking the following AP Classes next year: </p>
<p>AP Calculus
Advanced AP Calculus
AP Physics
AP Chemistry</p>
<p>and I've considered self-studying for: </p>
<p>Psychology
Human Geography
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
Comparative Government
US Government
US History</p>
<p>Any people who have self-studied for these tests? Have any pointers, suggestions, or comments on the test?</p>
<p>what is advanced ap calculus?</p>
<p>probably just BC</p>
<p>Yep... Its just what our school calls it...</p>
<p>Advanced AP Calc = BC
AP Calc = AB</p>
<p>All of those are doable. It is SO easy to plan "self-studying" at this point in the year, but when it comes down to it, it is a lot harder than you think to actually get it done. I think this because right now in the summer most of us have little homework, if any (some have Summer Reading projects).</p>
<p>When the burden of a full course load comes during the year, "optional" self-studied courses begin to be harder and harder to study for.</p>
<p>Unless you are really disciplined, I would only pick 1 or 2 "self-study" classes to really go for. I've heard Env. Science, Psych, and Human Geo are all easy - but colleges know that...so.</p>
<p>If you are doing it for the score and to make yourself look better - I would say forget about taking them. But if you are genuinely interested in the subject and want to learn more about it, go ahead and take a whack at teaching yourself. No matter what - you will learn something in the end.</p>
<p>Psychology and Human Geography should be two of the easiest on the list. I have no experience but I am self-studying psych this year.</p>
<p>good luck</p>
<p>US govt and comparative govt will probably be relatively easy to self-study.
But, I would not recommend you to self-study US History. There's a lot of information in the course, and you have to practice DBQs, etc. It would probably take up all your extra time.</p>
<p>US Gov is really easy to self-study if you're familiar with the rudiments (three branches of government, election process, how a bill becomes a law, etc.) I've heard psych is easy as well.</p>
<p>I already took AP Computer Science and AP world History self-study this year, and I felt like they went fine (I think I missed maybe 2 on the Comp Sci, and 5 on the World) but I haven't gotten my scores back yet. </p>
<p>It is tough to self-study, and part of it is I want to get credit. I did it my Junior year so colleges would see it, because I've only taken 1 AP class. But I'll take 4 my senior year. </p>
<p>I'm concurrently enrolled at the Community College this summer, so I'm not really "free".</p>
<p>I'd suggest psych. I took a really crappy psych class, so I had to self-study. I crammed for 2-3 weeks before the test using Barrons and got a 5.
Another advantage to the psych is that it's shorter than most APs</p>
<p>wow, you chose all the easiest AP exams. I'm surprised that Enviromental science isn't up there.</p>
<p>I think it's fairly foolish to self-study for a ton of APs unless, as someone above said, you are really interested in the subject. Even then, I think your time would be better spent trying to take a course online or at a community college or local college. If you are only studying for the test, there is a whole wealth of content and learning opportunities that you are missing. In US government class, for example, we were able to hold conversations, debates, and did thought-provoking assignments like papers and reports that self study would not allow one to do. AP tests are supposedly college level placement tests, but from my experience, preparing for the test sucks a lot of the intellectual enjoyment out of the activity. If you spend a ton of time cramming in facts for the DBQ, then maybe you have missed a chance to sit and talk about history for the sake of it. Of course, mine is the "woo-hoo-learning-is fun-lets-sit-down-and-be-scholars-of-the-world" approach rather than the "omg-must get-high-test-score-to-place-out-of-courses-and-move-myself-one-step-closer-to-
desirable-career" approach. It really depends on what your goals are and what type of person you are. I tend to be the person that only signs up for classes that I want to learn about, whether or not it is "AP" or whatever. It worked for me. I got into almost every school I applied to and will be attending my favorite of the schools I applied to. </p>
<p>I'm not a college admissions officer, so I honestly can't say what they think about self-studying APs, but I think that for me the tests meant much less than the classes behind them, and I think that colleges know that too. So if you do self-study, make sure that the college knows you're interested in the subject and you've devoted time to it outside the time spent reading a review book.</p>
<p>i self-studied u.s. gov't and u.s. history. you might much rather want to self-study gov't over history though because of the vast amount of information that history will bring down on you.</p>
<p>Any opinions or success/failure stories about econ?</p>
<p>My school doesn't offer either AP econ and I want to self study the two and AP statistics as well. (taking AP spanish 4 AP english 4 AP Calculus BC AP physics B and AP government)</p>
<p>Human geo is a breeze. Just buy the study book (there's only one mind you) and read it twice.</p>
<p>Devushka, </p>
<p>I just can't agree with that. If I were a college, AP classes wouldn't really matter, since its 100% based on the school. In my only AP class so far, our final exam was a class discussion, and the class median grade was an 89%. Only a handful of people actually took the AP exam. The class had nothing to do with objective knowledge... </p>
<p>On the contrary a good test score shows objectively that you are knowledgeable about the subject. </p>
<p>But then again, I don't think colleges should even look at GPA or high school transcript - its not objective. An A in one teacher's class may translate to a D or an F in another teacher's class, and colleges caring about GPA just pushes teachers to inflate grades even more. </p>
<p>Anyone knowledgeable about college admissions care to comment on whether colleges weight AP scores or AP classes more highly?</p>
<p>I'm in the same boat as Ilikedice, except that my school offers those classes, but due to scheduling I can't take either. Anyone have any specific advice/success or failure stories about AP Econ or AP Stat?</p>
<p>i crammed and learned statistics in a week and got a 4 on the exam. I'm sure if you have better study habits than me, you'll be able to get a 5 easily.</p>
<p>OMG OMG OMG I got a 5 on World History and Computer Science A, both of which I self-studied for. </p>
<p>ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG! </p>
<p>ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG! </p>
<p>I took a lot of studying, but it was definitely worth it.</p>
<p>Congrats!</p>
<p>However, the OP asked for suggestions, not frenzied elation. How did you study? How many hours per week? For how long? All that stuff...</p>