<p>Why wouldn’t they? You can take as many exams as you want. Just write to CB that you are self-studying and need a school where you could take the exam, they will send you a list of schools nearby which offer testing to external students, you will contact the school and take the exam 
It is really simple.</p>
<p>Can anybody give me some suggestions?
I am thinking about self studying Envi Sci, Psycho, Hum Geo, Stat, and WH starting from Christmas to the exam days. Will the work load be too heavy? I am really self-motivated though.
How much time is needed for each listed AP exam?</p>
<p>Hi happysunshine,
I’m in the same position as you (kinda). I wanna self study Human Geo, US History, and Physics B. I’m not taking as many AP’s as you, but I’m a freshman so… ^^;</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I did not heard of APs until recently; that’s the disadvantage of being international. I know that I have already missed a few years but I will still try to make up the gaps.</p>
<p>Ooh international?! that’s awesome! if you don’t mind, where do you live? Good luck!</p>
<p>Ps. the course load seems a like a lot. I think WH will be the one with the most studying, because of dates and stuff, then Stats (just because it’s math xD). I’m not sure about Psych or Human Geo though. Envi Sci. I’ve read is a lot of common sense…</p>
<p>Well, I can tell you that Human Geography is the easiest thing ever. I didn’t even read a single page of my text, took no class, and stayed up all night right before the test doing math hw. I got a five.</p>
<p>I will advise you not to consider AP Environmental Science so lightly. I took it as well my freshman year, and read through two entire prep books (Kaplan and Barron I think). I ended up getting a three, as NONE of the material from the books was on the test. It was ridiculous, and I’m terribly disappointed, but I guess I’ll live. </p>
<p>So anyway, I would definitely avoid Kaplan and Barron’s for APES. </p>
<p>Good luck!
And btw, if you’re not a math person I don’t recommend taking stats as a freshmen. It requires some upper-level math concepts and is generally taken following AP Calc BC (although it is much easier).</p>
<p>My school offers all the AP’s with exception to maybe 1. Will self studying help minimally?</p>
<p>Also, how do you self study? As in, how do you register for the AP exam, take the tests, get graded?</p>
<p>^ The way you self-study is that you organize your study plan (ie. buy a prep book, study materials and so on). To register for the exam you have to go to the student bursar office (student fee office). They handle anything that has to do with money. You pay your fee and they order the materials for you. On test day you simply go to the testing location (library, cafeteria etc) and take the exam. Make sure you tell your teacher that you will be absent for the day of the test so turn in homework early.</p>
<p>Oh yea and I found a pretty decent guide to organizing your AP courses. One of the major benefits to self study is that you can take extra AP exams but make sure you will get credit for those exams in college as some colleges don’t accept certain exams. Here is a good read, has a planning worksheet too which is rather helpful:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.apexamreview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=7&Itemid=17[/url]”>http://www.apexamreview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=7&Itemid=17</a></p>
<p>already took physics b, did ok in the class
know calculus</p>
<p>would it be too hard to self-study physics C? has anyone done this before?</p>
<p>My school offers no AP courses so how do I go about taking the exam?</p>
<p>Is there a school nearby that offers any AP courses, note2self2011? If so, then you will probably have to take your exams there (you need an AP coordinator to order the exams for you). </p>
<p>If not, I’m not entirely sure. I bet someone here will be able to answer your question more thoroughly. You could always perform a thread search, a lot of people have had this problem. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Many campuses are refusing to allow students to apply AP credit towards science majors. It appears that many students that complete APs are underprepared. College board is very concerned and has already drafted a revised curriculum for AP Biology (<a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board).
On some campuses students without APs are doing as well if not better than students with AP credit. Some see this are an over reliance on APs in the admission process.<br>
FYI!</p>
<p>Random question, and I didn’t want to create a new thread for it, so here it goes :)</p>
<p>Do you have to memorize really minor dates to get a five on the AP Euro exam? For example, one would assume you need to memorize periods such as the War of the Roses and the reign of Isabella and Ferdinand, but is it necessary to spend time on dates like when Pope Boniface VIII issued the Unam Sanctam? It seems kind of minor, but perhaps not for the APEH tests (I’ve only taken easy AP’s).</p>
<p>^ I didn’t, but then, I took AP Euro WAYYY back in 2006 : P</p>
<p>AP Euro was a bit more detail-oriented than APUSH, but not as detail-oriented as AP World. Knowing the big trends will be sufficient for the test.</p>
<hr>
<p>I’ve been thinking about the value of AP exams, and I actually realize now why colleges look favorably upon doing AP exams, especially when they’re self-studied, regardless of whether they give you credit or not. (MIT doesn’t give credit for any science AP except Calculus)</p>
<p>College is A LOT of self-studying. I would say normally, college professors cover only around 20% of what you’re supposed to know for the exams, and you’re expected to go home and assimilate the other 80% through looking at the textbook, course notes, asking your friends, looking at past years’ exams…etc. I would say that this doesn’t necessarily apply to ALL schools, but I would say certainly for all of the selective colleges. </p>
<p>Because there’s so much self-studying in college, I think the ability to self-study is looked favorably upon by adcoms if you can already demonstrate a rigorous courseload through self-study in high school. IMO, I think your AP self-study scores has the potential to carry more weight than your SAT and GPA if the aforementioned scores are already “in the zone” to be considered by the adcoms.</p>
<p>Self studying AP Calc AB: can I do this?</p>
<p>I started taking AP Calc AB with a teacher for 2 months. Then, I stopped going to school mid-way senior year. It’s january, and I remember the concepts i learned in class sept-oct (i ended around derivatives and finding rate of change). the OP says its not a good idea to self study calc, but i feel that i can. i still have my school’s textbook and i have cliffsnotes to supplement the textbook. does anyone else support this? i figure if i do 2 chapters of my textbook a month until april, and review until the exam, i’ll get a 5, if not a 4 on AP calc AB exam. i have the discipline to prepare well even if it means going against OP’s opinion…^^;</p>
<p>i’m also self-studying AP biology.</p>
<p>Nice to see you back on the board, Oasis 
And I agree very much with you, the impact from self-studying successfully shows a lot, much more so (IMO) than high SAT scores. I know like 90% of the people on these threads will disagree, but if I was in admissions I would much rather accept an applicant that showed his/her initiative to go beyond what was simply handed to them (the SAT requirement) and self-study. Admissions officers aren’t just looking for kids who snatch opportunities as they come, but students who make opportunities for themselves.</p>
<p>I agree that there <em>should</em> be a lot of emphasis on AP scores. Unfortunately, I don’t think most colleges are placing much emphasis on self-studied AP scores, especially since they are self reported. Anything which isn’t reported from the College Board isn’t going to be given emphasis, especially since there’s no demonstration of coursework to back it up. Hopefully colleges will start caring more about them (or all my studying will have been in vain).</p>
<p>Of course, if you can get your school to make your “self-studied” APs an independent study. I’m doing that and can even get them added into my GPA.</p>
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<p>I disagree with this. I think they made a world of a difference when I applied to colleges. I came from an academically underserved high school, and I think my initiative to self-study 9 more APs and get 5s on most of them (when my school offered 5) made a big difference to my academics, which were generally just bleh. Otherwise, I really didn’t think I would have gotten into so many top 15 schools given my high school’s history of sending people to HYPMSC-tier colleges.</p>
<p>I do agree though that if you only self-studied 1 or 2 (or just self-studied one year during junior year), it isn’t really going to make that big of a difference, especially if they are the “weak APs” stated before. To have the maximal impact, I think one should 1) start early (soph year, maybe as early as frosh year if possible), and 2) spread the exams out (don’t overload a ton of APs one particular year).</p>
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<p>I actually don’t think the absence of the AP score report matters that much. If you are able to show academic initiative through self-studying, I think your drive and motivation will also be evident through other lens. For example, if you self-studied 6 APs and got 5s, I doubt your SAT 2 scores will be, say, 600. Also, I think you’re also going to be involved in your ECs and have a pretty solid GPA at school. Of course, I’m only speaking in generalizations, but I think colleges will be inclined to believe you just by looking at the rest of your package. (there are very few people that would outright lie).</p>
<p>However, like I’ve pointed out before, if you wait till your senior year to want to self-study, then of course it’s not going to be very credible if you put down on your curriculum list that you’re going to self-study 5 APs your senior year when you have never done so before. If you begin during your sophomore year and continue through your junior year including the AP scores that you have received, I don’t think colleges will think you’re lying and will believe that you’ve put in the effort and time to learn the material and do well on the exams. </p>
<p>The same logic can be applied to other things on your application as well. Without photocopies of your awards, how can colleges believe that you’ve actually won those awards? How do you “prove” volunteerism? So in effect, I actually think it’s the other way around - colleges incline to believe you until they have a reason to suspect your record, just like you’re innocent before proven guilty. ; )</p>
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Does this imply that the College Board doesn’t give score reports to self-study or homeschooled children? I’m not understanding why an AP test score wouldn’t be reported by the College Board.</p>
<p>Anyways, I’m a senior and I looked into self-studying Comparative Gov’t. Is it worth it? It wouldn’t go on any college applications, since I’m finished with that whole process. However, I do plan on studying international relations in college.</p>
<p>Also, I’m currently taking AP Calculus AB and will be taking AP English Literature next semester. Would self-studying AP Gov’t & Politics, Comp. be an unwise idea?</p>