<p>And read the information about home-schooled kids. Call AP Services and get the list of AP coordinators at local schools and call them. say you are homeschooled and maybe one of them will allow you to take the test at their school, and will order the test.</p>
<p>I had to do that because my school administrators are ****s.</p>
<p>Okay, so, I think someone on this thread might already have said this, but some high school rankings count the amount of APs taken by each school's students. Private schools don't usually need such things to boost their rankings, but public schools need everything they can possibly get. </p>
<p>Something I forgot to say earlier is that you should be informed about AP exams in general, because if you approach your counselor in a way that makes you seem like you know what you're getting into, they tend to trust you more. If they don't believe you about the whole self-studying thing, print out a page from the Collegeboard website. If you have trouble finding an adequate page, I can do some research and find one for you later. In addition to being informed, you should also appear to be confident. </p>
<p>I go to a Canadian IB school, so you can already imagine the ignorance toward the AP program in general, since it isn't very common here. When I went to see my guidance counselor about taking an AP exam at another school, I kind of needed to explain the entire system and program to her, and it really helped that I knew the answers to every question she asked. If I had appeared to be uninformed, she definitely wouldn't have let me take the exam.</p>
<p>edit: I just saw what fhqwgads2005 said, and you should attempt to take the exam at another school, but it's not at all impossible that you are asked to get a permission form. You can contact a variety of schools, though, because not all will ask for permission, but be ready if they do.</p>
<p>My son goes to a private school, and all we did was email the collegeboard, get the locations the test was being offered, called the public school, and for $83 bucks, they said no problem. THough they don't have to say yes, most will and there are certainly plenty of schools on the list. It was easy as can be...find a good online program to help you prepare.</p>
<p>Thank you so much everyone, I mean it. I'll be sure to talk to my counselor tomorrow about these APs, and I'll remember to be confident while doing so. Thanks for all the responses, they've really been helpful.</p>
<p>lol, i had a somewhat similar experinece...my principle just didn't let me take the tests and said I should have informed him of this like 3 months ago..........and blah....blah..and he said he didn't encourage taking the test wihtout taking a course.....</p>
<p>And I talked to him about three times..........and he finally agreed...But he disagreed mainly because he didn't want to spend 3 hours to supervise my test</p>
<p>so my suggestion is be really diplomatic..never show your anger, or anything, just always be nice, and all, (you can curse after you come out of her office, lol).......and just say you alreay ordered all kinds of prep books and started your learning for a long time...</p>
<p>Haha, it worked... I actually think that there was a slight misunderstanding between us, but I did tell her that I have already begun preparing (somewhat true) for the AP Euro exam and that I didn't feel challenged by the history curriculum at my school.</p>
<p>I'd like to thank everyone again, and give a special thanks to rockermcr. I was so distressed yesterday, because I thought I wouldn't be able to take ANY AP exams except for the ones that they offered courses for at my school. Now that this is cleared up, I plan on self-studying Art Hist. and see how that works along with Euro. Thanks again, everyone!</p>
<p>I self studied. The administrator wouldn't let me take it at my school, so I just went to another school to take it. No big deal. How can she stop you from signing up to take it a another school? There is no way she could punish you for taking an intellectual challenge without looking stupid.</p>
<p>The rankings system that folks are referring to is put out by Newsweek magazine, and is calculated by taking the number of AP exams taken by a school and dividing by the size of the senior class. The list only considers public schools, so private schools don't even make the list.</p>
<p>A caution to self-studiers:</p>
<p>Make sure that you can really do the self-studying. It's important to be brutally honest with yourself about your own abilities.</p>
<p>I have one student who was enrolled in an AP version of a course at our school, and found that the AP pace was too rigorous and too difficult. This student dropped from the AP course into the non-AP version, and insisted upon getting extra help to prepare for the AP exam. When the student was informed that this was what the AP course was for, the student replied that "it wasn't working for me".</p>
<p>This student continued to "self-study" and did eventually take the test, although that student is currently receiving a D in the non-AP version of the class. I would be shocked if this student self-studied their way to success.</p>
<p>I think it's stories like this particular one that cause some counselors, administrators, and teachers pause when it comes to a student who "swears" that they can self-study. A number of students can, and I think it's fantastic if you're one of them. But if you're one of the students who can't, you're only jeopardizing the chances of other people who aspire to self-study and you're gaining yourself precious little by setting yourself up to fail.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info MathProf, but I just want to say that my problem is fully resolved now. (:</p>
<p>And yeah, I do agree that there are a lot of people who fool themselves into thinking that they can self-study APs when they really aren't capable. But I have straight A's in class & I'm in high honor roll .. I'm taking AP Chem and AP Calc BC as a sophomore which is unheard of in my school. But the counselor didn't know about this, and I don't think I even mentioned my name to her.</p>