<p>Hi, I'm going to be a sophomore this September and will be self studying for these exams:</p>
<p>Ap European History
AP World History
AP US History
AP Psychology</p>
<p>My goal is to get 4/5's on all of them. I've already purchased about 10 new/used review books for the 4 AP subjects and will be studying at least 45 minutes on each everyday during the summer and 20 minutes once school starts.</p>
<p>Should I start studying over the summer, or should I wait until school starts? </p>
<p>I love to learn, so lack of motivation will not become a problem for me. Thing is, is it worth taking so many AP exams/classes just to improve my application? My school doesn't offer AP classes until junior year, and I want to stand out. Btw, I will be taking these AP classes junior year:</p>
<p>AP Chemistry
AP Calculus BC
AP Statistics
AP French</p>
<p>Actually, I would say go for it! You can get history out of the way, and they all tie into each other nicely. Of course, if you’re just starting out, ESPECIALLY as a self-studier, this is a rather difficult route. If you think you’re capable, go for it. If or when you decide it’s too much, you could, as Keasbey Nights said, try self-studying a “small” AP, like Psychology or Human Geography. </p>
<p>Try it! If anything, you can always retake.</p>
<p>Do more during the summer and less during the school year. That’s just a better use of your time. I think you can do it, if you like history. For a person who dislikes history (like me), self-studying 3 histories in 1 year would be suicide.</p>
<p>Granted, since you’re not taking any APs next year, you may be OK doing the 45/20, because I doubt your classes will give as much homework as AP classes.</p>
<p>I’d say it would be more than worth it to take on that many APs, just for the sake of earning credits. If you have good review books for those subjects, you should have no problem being ready for the exams if you study every day from now until the exams. The summer will be valuable for getting a head start on the material.</p>
<p>All these ppl say to go for it. But realistically speaking, and whether you like history or not, it’s going to melt your brain. 3 AP Histories have A LOT of stuff to be memorized. Please trust me when I say that although they’re not hard, they have a lot of info that i don’t think you’ll be able to process fully in one year. I mean sure you can still take it, but i will predict your scores to be from 3-5. You can still get a 5, but the chances aren’t that high. Maximize those chances by spreading it out in other years. Remember, Quantity > quality. It’ll be better to take 5 APs scoring 5s than say 7 APs with 3s. So this is what I recommend:</p>
<p>Soph:
Pick ONE history. I recommend World since it’s the hardest, and it’s only your soph. year.</p>
<p>Junior:
U.S definitely. It’s the easiest out of all three. And junior year is your prime and hardest year with all your SATs/ACT and stuff. So you’ll want to do well this year. </p>
<p>Senior:
Euro. Semi hard. But hey, it’s senior year. At least it’s not World. </p>
<p>Thanks for the advice everyone! But I’m not interested in self studying any AP exams senior year because by the time I take the exam, I’ll have already decided which college I’ll be going to.</p>
<p>Is AP Human Geography pretty easy? I heard that AP Environmental Science is a piece of cake but I’m not much of a bio person.</p>
<p>I would choose one of the following (Euro, USH, World) and do psychology. I recommend getting most of the reading out of the way before the summer. Buy a textbook and a prep book. Read the textbook over the summer (highlight/take notes/whatever works for you) and review the prep book over winter break, spring break, and a week or two leading up to the AP.</p>
<p>You don’t have to be a biology person to take AP Environmental Science - or AP Biology, for that matter. APES gave me my love of public policy. I highly encourage you to take it, as being in that course was one of the best decisions I ever made. In my opinion, it teaches you a lot about making informed opinions about extant policies, in addition to formulating ideas for new ones. It’s a great opportunity, and if you can self-study it, I urge you to take advantage of it.</p>
<p>On taking three history classes:</p>
<p>It’s too much. I would advise you to do AP World and Psychology, and to save AP Euro and APUSH for junior and senior year. AP U.S., in my opinion, is easier than AP Euro, so I think you should do APUSH junior year (since you have a pretty tough prospective schedule) and AP Euro senior year.</p>
<p>AP euro has a lot of information. I don’t know how far your intelligence can take you. You might not even know. But you’d have to be a genius to be able to memorize AP euro, AP world, and AP us. Buy “Modern European History,” that should give you a taste of AP euro (its like a condensed textbook - more specific than the actual exam, but should DEFINITELY serve as your textbook. towards the exam, you can buy PR or Crash Course because they have more general content aimed at the test.) </p>
<p>If you can gulp “Modern European History” (the book), then try doing that for 2 other major tests that require just as much information. Psych is easier than those 3. </p>
<p>If in the end you can take in all the information from 3 huge history APs, then you truly are intelligent.</p>