Self Studying 4 APs

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I just wanted to know how feasible you guys think it is to self study 3-4 APs, while taking two others, not to mention the SAT/ACT and the Subject tests. </p>

<p>If its ok, when should you start studying? What should you use, a textbook, or a good study guide? Which ones would you recommend? The AP's I'm thinking about is:</p>

<p>AP Human Geography
AP Economics (Micro and Macro)
AP Psychology - possibly</p>

<p>Last year I did self study AP World History (as a sophomore) and got a 5, though I hear that test is not so hard, so I don't want to take these lightly. This year I am taking English Lang and US history as classes. </p>

<p>What do you guys think?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>I heard that if you want to self-study for AP Psychology, just read the Barron book twice and just memorize the vocabulary! I'm thinking about self-studying for AP World History, so what can I do to prepare for the exam?! I meant what did you do to prepare yourself for it?!</p>

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>well for the world history exam, I was taking AP European history at the same time, so I knew basically like 30% of the test. I like history too so that may have helped. I experimented alot I would say. In the first couple of weeks I actually read some textbooks for the ancient civilizations, but once I got to the romans and the greeks I would say that I dumped the textbooks because I realized I was running out of time (1.5 months before the test) so then I bought Barrons, since its very detailed, good for actual self studying, I would highly recommend it from the start. Took the barrons tests, read select chapters that I didn't know much on, etc. Then towards 2-3 weeks left I took Princeton Review to review everything completely, I marked the book and everything. </p>

<p>All the while I took alot of practice tests. By far the PR practice tests are the best, but I took several ones from different guides, and some in Barnes and Noble, etc. </p>

<p>Anyways, yeah, hope that helps. To tell you the truth, I was very unconfident before I went in to take the test. I thought I was really going to fail it, but the actual test was easier then the PR tests, so I did well. The essays I thought I bombed too, just be analytical, and try to think of different ways of looking at things.</p>

<p>anyone have some insight?</p>

<p>It's good to do it if you're highly motivated. Like you have to study like every week. Sometimes it's hard.</p>

<p>I'm self-studying for AP Psychology and it's pretty easy. I'm using the Barron's book and I've never taken a Psych class before. The book is extremely well organized, and it gives a lot of comprehensive, real life examples. I would highly recommend it. Like sciencenerd said, you have to study at least once a week. I don't have enough time to study during the week because my school isn't nice about homework or tests. So long as you set a regular study schedule for yourself, you should be fine. It also helps to have someone to talk to (like someone that took the exam in the past, or someone else who is also studying for the exam) about the different topics and stuff to memorize. </p>

<p>By the way, I think Psych is a very easy thing to self-study for, and it's also very interesting. Good luck!</p>

<p>hey A-san
i'm actually doing self-study for macro and micro economics this yr. i'm reading the textbook called "economics" by mcconnell and brue. and i'm also using 2 workbooks by john morton. one for mac and one for mic.
hope that helpd.
good luck</p>

<p>thanks for the replies guys.</p>

<p>rockermcr, do you take notes when you study? How long do you study once a week?</p>

<p>IvyHopeful, how long do you study econ? How often? Do you take notes when you study?</p>

<p>I study for approximately one hour to two hours per week, and that's only on weekends. Since the Barron's book is not a textbook, it sort of hurls new words along with their definitions at you, so you have to read every chapter about two times to retain all of the information. At the moment, I'm not taking notes. I'm just reading through the book. Once I finish reading it once, I will reread it while taking notes. I'm starting so early because I don't have a lot of time, and I want to make sure that I can feel secure about taking the exam in May. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>I'm taking an introductory college psychology course which basically covers the AP test and it is EASY. We're using "Psychology: Themes and Variations", which I doubt you would want to buy (like $100 for a used book). Barrons should be more than enough. Check out appsychology.com.</p>

<p>I am taking AP Human Geo in school and it is fairly simple and common sense stuff. Barrons should get you through it.</p>

<p>It's definitely feasible especially with those subjects, just read the barron's for human geo and psych, and grab a text or something for the econ</p>

<p>i self-studied 3 aps my junior year (both phys C exams, and us history) and I did fine on all of them, so it's definitely feasible for you to those.</p>

<p>thanks for the replies guys.</p>

<p>Stupak, you self studied Physics? I am thinking about doing that next year. How did you manage it? Are you planning on doing something science oriented in college? Did you have a teacher as a tutor?</p>

<p>I am self-studying four ap's too and taking 2 classes too! Physics B, Econ, Psych and Human Geo- selfstudy
AP English and APUSH - classes</p>

<p>Wow there's a lot of self-studiers here. Why do a lot of people self-study the subjects. Don't your schools have enough AP classes? </p>

<p>It's only good to self-study when it's actually going to be worth it and you actually like the subject.</p>

<p>I like the challenge. :) </p>

<p>But don't get me wrong, many of these subjects are in the field of my interest. As for physics, well, I just like physics, and unfortunately, next year we might not have AP Physics.</p>

<p>what about self studying AP Calc AB and AP Computer Sci A (no previous programming exp?</p>

<p>For self-studying Micro/Macroeconomics, is it a must to read textbooks, not just books like PR and Barron's? What about Psychology? Is the barron's alone really enough for Psychology, without reading any textbooks?</p>

<p>a-san: I wont recommend self-studying physics c because it is a really hard class even with a strong calc background. I think the class really helps you learn and practice the material. However, if you have to self-study, I recommend the barrons book. Even though it has a lot of mistakes, it is a good book to review with.</p>

<p>yeah, I dont need physics C anyways. B should be enough. :)</p>

<p>1ksy: I'm self-studying for AP Psych and I'm only using the Barron's book. It is definitely more than enough. Naturally, you can't read through it once and get a 5. All of the chapters are jam-packed with information, so you need to read them 2 or 3 times each to fully absorb all of it. I never took a Psych class before, but it always interested me, so I decided to self-study it. The Barron's book uses clear and consistent examples for all of the sections, so it's really easy to follow. In the section where they talk about psychological methods of research, they use the same example for each of the methods so that you can compare and contrast the differences in between them. They do this for all of the sections. It has practice questions at the end of each chapter, about 15 every time, and they delve into nearly every bit of info that you learned throughout the chapter so that you're sure you know everything you should. Also, there are two practice tests at the end of the book. We all know Barron's for being harder than the actual tests, so it's excellent preparation. As you might imagine, I highly recommend it!</p>

<p>I go to a school that offers only the IB and not AP, so I decided that I might as well self-study for some AP exams to cover my bases and because it's a lot more liberal than the IB. With the IB, there is a much stricter curriculum, and you have six classes that you take, but with AP, you can take as many as you want. I wanted to do IB Chem and Bio, and Philosophy, so that left no room for Psych. I chose Philosophy over Psychology because there's a Psychology AP, but no Philo AP, so I thought I might as well try to take both.</p>

<p>I barely slept last night because I was having nightmares about my SAT results (I think I dreamed about getting a 400 like 5 times!!), so what I wrote might not be very clear, but try to understand. lol.. Sorry</p>