Is self studying good or bad?

<p>So I am a rising sophomore. Next year I want to take Ap calculus AB/BC on artofproblemsolving.com, a very rigorous course on the website. However, my school says they only give credit for a class and put it on a transcript if I take the class at the school. So if I chose to take AP Calculus on aops(Artofproblemsolving) then it will basically be like I am self studying for it, right? Now I hear all the hype about self-studying looks good and everything, but I am not so sure. All a college will see is that I got some score, (hopefully a good score) on the AP Calculus exam. I heard top colleges don't really value ap scores that much, and it would be better to take an actual class that goes on my transcript. Also, what if I don't do good on the exam( although I really doubt it). I will effectively have wasted a year of math. Junior year, I am planning to go to a boarding school that gives a placement test or something to students to determine what class to put them in. If I do good on that, then I will probably be able to take multi-variable calculus or some other higher level class. So this could show that I really do know my calculus, and it is not just some lucky ap score that I got.</p>

<p>The big problem is that if I self study an ap class then it won't show up on my transcript which bugs me. </p>

<p>If the school offers the course, highly selective colleges would prefer that applicants take the course rather than self-study. Personally, I would not shell out money, if I wasn’t going to get credit for it.</p>