Is it possible to self study and pass?

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
1

<p>I want to do some self-studying for some AP tests (psychology, French, and music theory). I don't know if this is too much to self-study, but I do take French classes at school although they go at a painfully slow pace. I know my French IV class won't prepare me for the AP test but I might go out of my way to study. Is it enough just to get a prep book like Barron's and study and do alright on AP French language? btw, what is on AP French language? Is it like the AP English Languauge, which I've taken. If so, then I think I won't do it...</p>

<p>What about psychology? Again, is it possible to buy a Prep book and study for it through that? Is studying over the summer and then refreshing my mind before the test enough?</p>

<p>For music theory I already have a good background, but not advanced stuff. My piano teacher can help guide me through that but is it hard? I'm not really sure what's on it.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input.</p>

2

<p>It is possible, people do it all the time. Why are you going to do this? Share your goal and folks here could probably help you more. Are you seeing this as a way to gain college admission? You want to be the AP Scholar from your state? Lots of reasons people rack up APs. </p>

<p>AP State Scholar
Granted to the one male and one female student in each U.S. state and the District of Columbia with grades of 3 or higher on the greatest number of AP Exams and then the highest average grade (at least 3.5) on all AP Exams taken.</p>

3

<p>Well, I'm going to be a senior next year so I don't think it will help with my college admissions (or will it?). I guess I want to do it so I can get a head start in college, plus I like learning, and I'm not doing much over the summer anyways. The French and music theory are practical, since I would really like to increase my French skills and I play the piano and am a classical music enthusiast and classical pianist, so I would be motivated to learn music theory. The psychology seems interesting to me, and I heard it isn't all too difficult.</p>

4

<p>Have at it. You could do just as well to buy a text book, work it, take the SAT11 and get college credit. Nothing hard about that either. Text book, a review book, old exams you should be good to go.</p>

5

<p>So for psychology for example I can just get Barron's (which everyone seems to rave about) and that would be enough? Or do I need to get some 10 pound college textbook along with it?</p>

6

<p>Yes, the 10-pound college textbook might be a more interesting read though. But numerous people I know bought Barrons and got a 5 in Psych through self-study.</p>

7

<p>Check out amazon.com reviews, they've been reliable for all my self studies so far.</p>

8

<p>You could buy a book now, start studying, and finish studying before the March sign-up deadline, and take a practice exam...and if you feel good about it, then sign up.
Or procrastinate and start studying after March and just not show up if you don't feel ready.</p>

9

<p>Actually, I did the bulk of my studying in April, and I felt like I did very well.</p>

10

<p>I did the psych in about 6 weeks and got a 4. If you're serious about getting a 5, start earlier, obviously. I would recommend some form of a study guide - I used the princeton review, but barron's will be fine, and this book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0534597874/sr=8-1/qid=1151892926/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-1877976-9293701?ie=UTF8%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0534597874/sr=8-1/qid=1151892926/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-1877976-9293701?ie=UTF8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The French will be just like the Spanish - extensive reading and listening, with an essay, fill-ins, short oral answer and a picture sequence. It depends on your French ability, obviously, but you'll need to know all 14 tenses and be able to speak without hesistation on obscure topics - a tall order without a teacher, but certainly possible if your pronounciation is good already.</p>

<p>No clue about the music theory.</p>

11

<p>It's def. possible..
i self studied 9 this year and probably passed most of them (most likely ALL)</p>

12

<p>virtuoso_735, </p>

<p>You can definitely self-study those tests and do well. I've self-studied 4 APs already, including Psych, and gotten 4's or 5's on all of them, so I will share my experience with you. </p>

<p>I crammed with the book SparkNotes Psychology 101 beginning 5 DAYS before the test. Knew very little about Psychology beforehand. Got a 4. You can virtually guarantee yourself a 5 if you start this early.</p>

<p>I highly recommend Psychology 101 by SparkNotes for anyone self studying Psych... everything that was in it was on the test. It is a short read (about 200 pages, and pocket sized), well organized, every chapter has bulleted, bold vocab and topic reviews so you can essentially skip the chapter, read only the review, and know everything. The chapters are very informative and to the point.</p>

<p>I didn't get the Barron's book for Psychology, but I got their books for a multitude of other subjects from Match Level 2 to European History, and I think I have enough experience with Barron's to say that Barron's truly sucks. </p>

<p>In a typical Barron's book, 50% of the content is stuff that is LITERALLY NEVER TESTED on the exam. I mean stuff that is not even on the test syllabus. Barron's throws in this junk to confuse you and give you the crappiest score possible on your first diagnostic test. Then as you work through the book and learn all this obscure crap no one needs to know, your scores (slowly) rise on their rediculously hard tests. By the time you've worked through the book, exhausted and severely humbled, you feel as though there is no chance in hell you can do well on the real test. This serves to fool students into thinking that Barron's is "comprehensive" and "prepared them well for a very hard test." Luckily for the Barron's student, he only needed 10% of the knowledge he acquired to do well on the exam. Unluckily, Barron's wasted his time teaching him the other 90%. If your time is worth anything to you, don't waste it on Barron's.</p>

<p>I have had good experiences self-studying with Peterson's, REA, SparkNotes, Cliff's, and with the thick textbooks used in college/high-school classes. But believe me, Barron's is not the way to go. </p>

<p>As far as Music Theory, I would highly recommend the following websites:
<a href="http://www.musictheory.net/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.musictheory.net/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.htm&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.emusictheory.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.emusictheory.com&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.teoria.com/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.teoria.com/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You really don't need a textbook for Theory. My class used Tonal Harmony by Kofka which is an extremely popular book, but I don't know why. I found it unfocused and verbose and it is written in what reads like parody of a pretentious academic's writing style. Plus half the book is material that is beyond the scope of the AP exam. Track down a book on writing counterpoint, and use that instead of Tonal Harmony. </p>

<p>Half of the test tests your knowledge of music vocabulary, and the other half tests how well trained your ear is. Learn to recognize common chord progressions, harmonizing, part writing and dictation, and you should be good. Also order the 2 released tests (with cassettes) from the CollegeBoard store. Practice with those and you can ace it, particularly if you have musical training already.</p>

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<p>Thannks obsessedAndre for the advice!</p>

14

<p>I studied AP Psych on my own this year and I got a 5. :) I started prepping about a month before the test. I read through a college-level psychology text book (the information is a lot more interesting, and therefore easier to remember than the info in test prep books) and also used websites that accompany text books. If you search through Google you'll find these sites... they have quizzes and flash cards that will help you prep. I think the site that helped me most though was the AP Central site. If you sign up you can see questions and sample answers from past years.</p>