<p>Hi guys, I come from school that only offers 5 APs so I've decided to take up 5 self-study APs during my junior year to strengthen my college applications, possibly get college credit and because of my interest in these subjects. I'm shooting for 5's on these and I'm a little unsure if what I plan to use for my self-studying is sufficient to achieve this goal. So far I've come up with:</p>
<p>AP Human Geography - Barron's and PR. No textbook supplement (is this enough, or should I buy Rubenstein's?)</p>
<p>AP Environmental Science - Smartypants and Barron's. No textbook supplement (is this enough, or should I buy Botkin's?)</p>
<p>AP Statistics - 5 Steps to a 5 and Barron's. No textbook supplement (is this enough, or should I buy The Practice of Statistics?)</p>
<p>AP Psychology - Barron's, maybe PR?</p>
<p>AP Chemistry - This is the one I'm most worried about. I've taken honors chem so I think self-studying will be possible. I'm thinking of getting Barron's but I'm really unsure about whether or not I should get PR and/or a textbook to supplement.</p>
<p>I really would love to hear what you guys think and if I'm headed in the right direction. To people who have self-studied these exams before, could you tell me your approach to getting a 5 and if it worked? Thanks in advance, I'm really confused about the best approach to make because of all the contradictions throughout these threads...</p>
<p>You should be fine for AP Human and APES, Barron’s is plenty for both, and a lot of the questions are more common sense. I can’t speak for AP Stats or AP Psych. I’d be most worried about AP Chem too if I were you, if you get a textbook supplement for any of them this would be the one, zumdahl/zumdahl is pretty good at explaining different concepts. I’m not going to say it’s impossible but you’ll definitely have a busy year if you’re doing all this on top of your school schedule. If you don’t know this already, Princeton review is concise and good for hitting the broad main topics, they’re helpful to cram with the night before; Barron’s is very detailed and many of them are like a textbook in of themselves, but they can be very dry at times. Of all the Barron’s books I’ve gotten Bio is the only one I’ve managed to finish. One last thing, have you considered taking any of these online? Stats is supposed to be a good online class, and probably Psych as well, depending on your state, but no need to bother with AP Human or APES.</p>
<p>Thanks MS4211! I’ve heard what you said about Barron’s and Princeton’s from other people before but thanks for reminding me, part of the reason why I want 2 books for many of the APs is to use one for teaching and the other for cramming. I usually would take online classes for some of them but right now I want to develop my study habits and self-teaching abilities so that they are firm by college. I also want to prove to myself that I can successfully self-study for college-level exams and score well because it’s something I’ve never done before and I want to take on the challenge. Anyone else have any opinions? I really want to hear from more people who have self-studied these exams in the past and have good advice to give…:)</p>
<p>Not sure about anything else (only taken psych-easiest 5 ever. I studied for a few hours the night before, bombed the frq and still got a 5 lol) </p>
<p>Don’t buy anything for psych except Barron’s. If you know all of the material in Barron’s, you’re guaranteed at least a 96% on the multiple choice.</p>
<p>I self-studied for psych. Like I said, I studied for a few hours before the test. Almost all of the multiple choice was mentioned in Barron’s, and so I zoomed through the MC in 20/30 minutes and had plenty of time to double and triple check my answers. </p>
<p>So yeah. Just use Barron’s and you’ll get an easy 5.</p>
<p>Barron’s is fine for AP Psych. No need for PR.
Took a practice test in Barron’s the weekend before and got roughly a 3, read Barron’s over the weekend, and got a 5 on the exam Monday.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! I’m gonna order Barron’s (and PR just for review) for Psych. For APHG and APES I think I’ll be fine with what I have but I’m not fully sure; AP Stats and Chem I’m still really unsure about…are they even possible to self-study and get a 5 w/o a textbook?</p>
<p>AP Chemistry is a lot of content and not the best self-study course much like the Physics AP’s. The rest are definitely good self-study options though.</p>
<p>Is Chem really that bad? I really love the subject and now I’m starting to doubt if self-studying it is possible. I feel like I’ve read about people self-studying for it using Atkins and/or Barron’s (even w/o a textbook supplement) and still getting a 5.</p>
<p>For AP Statistics, I agree-Princeton Review won’t help. I recommend The Practice of Statistics textbook. If you can get through that, you’ll definitely be prepared! I never used 5steps so I can’t say anything about that.</p>
<p>My cousin got a 5 on AP Chen but he had a really good class. He said that he would have gotten a 1 if he self studied. Apparently selfstudying a 5 is possible, it’s also extremely difficult</p>
<p>I took AP Chemistry this year. I loved Honors Chemistry and wanted to continue the next year so I retained the maximum amount from sophomore year. However, what I learned in the Honors class was almost nothing compared to what I learned in the AP class. My teacher was amazing, and if he wasn’t, I don’t know how I would have been able to perform well on the exam. Self-studying, to me, would be impossible for Chemistry.</p>
<p>I suggest you start early. Try to have good study habits and very little procrastination. The first four are easier AP’s. I can’t speak for APES and Psych because I haven’t taken them yet, but Stats and HUG are definately classes that can be self-studied. In Stats, I didn’t do any hw, and I got a 5. In, HUG I did minimal studying (in 2 other clases right before tests) and a couple hours before the AP test and got a 5. (though I prob should’ve studied more, thought it was hard). In chemistry, I self-studied AP Chem in a month before the exam because I procrastinated. It was a lot of work… so don’t procrastinate… I ended up getting a 5 on the AP and 800 on the SAT. If I were you I would get a textbook. I used princeton review and loved it. If you put your mind to it, AP Chem is definately a class you can self-study. I know people who took AP Bio off of honors bio with no extra studying and got 4’s. My final words are… Don’t Procrastinate! Good luck. :D</p>
<p>You would get breadth but not depth if you self-studied AP Chemistry with a review book only. I know from experience. I used the Princeton Review to review for the AP Chemistry exam and I found that the stuff is very briefly explained but it does tell you a lot of things about chemical reaction writing on the 4th question and the short answer questions. My AP Chemistry class this year used Zumdahl 7th Edition and it’s a good textbook. I read most of the chapters in there when I didn’t understand what was going on in class. We basically covered pretty much all of the chapters in that book</p>
<p>My suggested self-studying technique for this class if you were to self-study: Read one chapter every 2 weeks and try doing the problems after every chapter</p>