<p>Hey guys, so right now I'm a freshman in high school, and am currently self-studying two AP classes. Next year, I am going to take honors biology, and I was thinking about self-studying for the AP exam after taking that course. The main reason I wanted to do this is while AP Bio is offered at my school, it's a year-long course (I'm on a block schedule), and it's only offered junior year. I thought it would be a waste of time to take bio twice in a row... Anyways, now they have that new AP format thing. So my question is, should I continue with my plan, or wait and take the course junior year when the new course is implemented? Also, I guess you should know that my school is very unpredictable and courses offered one year could be totally wiped from the system the next, so you never know what will be offered and when it will be offered. Any advice?</p>
<p>Self-studying a science has never made sense to me. The lab experience adds skills that come in handy in college. AP Biology is designed to be a follow-up course to high school biology. Harvard is very stingy with giving AP Credit, especially for a test taken in Sophomore year without a course. Take AP Courses to learn, then take the the test.</p>
<p>Of course, this is heresy to say on CC, but taking a bunch of self-study APs doesn’t always send the message you intend to colleges, especially selective ones that look carefully at the whole package, not just scores and transcripts.</p>