<p>How difficult is it to self study comparative government? I'm a rising senior, and when in college plan to hopefully major or double major in political science or international relations, and I would really like to be able to take the AP exam. My school doesn't offer many AP courses, so I was just wondering is it possible? Also, would it be worth it?</p>
<p>It will DEFINITELY be worth it. If you get a good scores, it shows the college you took individual action and learned on your own. If you didn’t get a good scores, you don’t have to report it and since you never took the class, it will not detriment you at all (infact, they will not even know you took the test).</p>
<p>I think self-studying comparative gov is feasible. Just be sure to soak in hte information…but as you have interest in pol. science, you may know a lot of the concepts already.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>it is very important that you get the right books. i reccomend ethel woods’s book. that book was amazing and will help you. dont get the rea book however.</p>
<p>I will also be self-studying Comparative Gov but as a rising junior. If anyone has any good books or resources let me know.</p>
<p>the Ethel Wood Guide to AP Comparative Politics is really the best. I don’t think you’d need much beyond this. Also, you want to get the newest edition because you need as much recent information as possible and it might have the scoring change in its grading scale for MC practice tests. Oh, and don’t bother with the practice book’s FR practice, just use the questions straight from collegeboard.</p>
<p>As for self-studying this because of your major, you have to be careful with that. THe AP CoPo class covers six countries: Britain, Russia, China, Mexico, Nigeria, and Iran. Now, it is quite possible that the intro class at the college you will attend covers different countries, more countries, or the countries with more depth. Depending on how the department is run, skipping ahead could be no issue, or you may be missing some crucial information and suffering for it in higher-level classes. While that is true for all AP credits, there is no “standard” curriculum for introductory CoPo classes like there is for other subjects. Also, you definitely have to check to see if your college will even take the AP CoPo credits.</p>
<p>On the test itself, this year’s wsn’t too bad. The MC was surprisingly easy, much more generalized (not detailed!) than I expected. the FR was hard though, simply because you don’t know what they will throw at you and they expect you to be detailed. I got a 5 and I had the class, but I had it only the first semester, so much of the information was not fresh in my mind (and I didn’t do the best job of studying . . . but apparently I did just the right amount).</p>
<p>I’m going to self-study AP Comparative Government and Politics this year, too. I bought the Kesselman '06 book as well as the latest Ethel Wood guide. Is it enough to just take notes and study vocab on each chapter, or should I use any other methods?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>