<p>yes- it is very good, as long as the rest of ur class isnt taking like 20 AP classes or something</p>
<p>In my sophmore year I was one of 20 ppl who took an AP class, and one of 5 out of 450 who got an A in it o_O</p>
<p>Oasis -- i don't know if you're still taking questions, but, jw, when did you self study your first AP? 9th or 10th?</p>
<p>also this thread needs periodic bumping....</p>
<p>Sorry, I haven't been on CC for awhile. I came to college and things started to get a lot stickier. But I'm back! I just won't be stalking the forums all the time (which is healthier for me, I guess).</p>
<p>I self-studied my first AP in 10th grade - World History. I started doing progressively more in junior year and senior year - 4 and 4.</p>
<p>How's MIT oasis? =D</p>
<p>Glad to see you're back. You were one of my favorite posters.</p>
<p>I wish my GC would have told me how important it was to use junior slots wisely, so I wouldn't have only taken 2 AP courses (Calc AB and AP Lang and Comp) ... my school offers 10, and this year I can only fit four more. The others that I can't fit in as courses are AP Stats, AP Chem, AP Art and AP Music Theory.</p>
<p>I am however, taking advanced French and Calc B at my local college. I am further following up with Calc C and a further semester of French. Does this count as four courses that are equivalent of AP?</p>
<p>I also plan to self-study AP French (both language and literature) since I don't envision problems with it. AP Economics and AP Statistics seem to be virtually begging to use calculus, so will those courses be easier if you already know calculus? A glance at AP Chem seems to be begging to use calc also. </p>
<p>It's really really too bad they don't have an AP Linguistics. :-( </p>
<p>Was never contemplating Environmental Science but will definitely take a look into it now that I've seen your recommendation. :p </p>
<p>My school doesn't offer 10 either, and the thing is that these exams won't show until May ... but is there anyway for me to mention my plans? How does taking college courses affect one's chances? Do they count as AP courses?</p>
<p>@ oasis, </p>
<p>I'm in my sophomore level in high school and I'm taking 3 honors courses and 3 regular courses (mostly req's). I have a uttermost interest in history and I'm wondering if it's possible for me to self - study AP World History. If it is, can you please tell me how you prepared for it or etc. PM me.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>So, I just switched to a new school and now I'm signed up for 4 less APs than I originally was, so I'm thinking about making them up through self-study.</p>
<p>Do you think these will be enough practice for a 5 on the AP exam?
AP Econ (macro & micro) - lecture notes (my old econ teacher puts his notes up online)
AP Stats - review book
AP Lang & Comp - lots of reading, writing practice (by myself, I guess. I don't really have a teacher and my English class is kinda screw-y at the moment.)</p>
<p>Should I tag a review book onto AP Econ? I need all the advice I can get.</p>
<p>Also, since you've taken both AP and SAT II Chinese, which is easier? I'm ethnically Chinese (just spent the past summer in China, and probably next summer too), but I'm almost completely illiterate. My parents brought some grade school textbooks for me to study from, though. How far do I need to go? Reading sections are ~30% of the tests right? Could I wing it and still get a 5/upper-700.</p>
<p>And a more general question: how much of a boost do you get with self-study? I'm in a pretty bad situation with switching schools right at the beginning of junior year and everything. My ECs are a mess and my schedule's awful. Is self-study as well regarded as taking the class? I mean, you'd need ~90 and up for an A in a class, but only a few standard deviations above the norm for an AP test.</p>
<p>@ llpitch - MIT is awesome! I'm really having a blast here with so many talented people that love science. College is also just really different from high school - no more busywork and just a lot of taking the classes that you like, rather than the classes that you are forced to take. My mornings have also shifted from 7 AM to 10-noon now. =p But, since this is MIT, I'm also having my share of sleepless nights doing psets...well, that isn't so fun. =p</p>
<p>@galoisien - AP economics, chemistry, and statistics all do not employ calculus. Chemistry doesn't use calculus at all - the most you would have to know is probably just Algebra 2, actually. You have to learn a few more formulas and things for Stats though. As for economics, the math is even more limited. AP Economics is very theory-based, rather than calculation-based.</p>
<p>If you self-study or take college courses during your senior year, you can just make a note of that when colleges ask you for your senior courseload or mention it in the additional information box on college applications. And yes, taking college courses is generally the equivalent of AP courses - and in many cases, actually better than AP courses because some college courses (depends on where you take it) go into much greater detail.</p>
<p>@p-izzle: World History is most definitely self-study-able. The course is very factually based, so just make sure that you get a very good review book (like Barrons) and maybe some more supplementary material (you can consider getting a copy of Zeigler's (sp?) textbook - Traditions and Encounters. That book reads like a storybook and makes history very effortless - though you probably won't get through all of it unless you are very motivated - it's about 1200 pages long). I actually just used Barron's APWH and Kaplan's SAT 2 WH and managed 5 and 800, respectively. I used Zeigler's book for some casual reading =p</p>
<p>@teaspoon - AP Econ, like I said, is very conceptual. If you decide to use existing coursenotes, make sure they cover the AP content in enough depth (but then again, AP Econ material isn't that "deep" either). You can still consider getting a PR book and doing the practice tests in the back - I think it's pretty accurate. Do not just rely on PR for the review/notes though, I heard that it was adequate but I found PR is actually quite lacking in some areas...</p>
<p>AP Stats is doable if you know everything in Barron's AP Stat book. Pay attention to the concept of "null hypothesis" - it tripped me up on the exam.</p>
<p>AP Lang is the hardest AP exam to get a 5 in (something like 7% of students who take it gets 5s, compared to 30% in exams like Physics C), so I guess a lot of it just depends on your English ability. Get some old exams and do a lot of practice - I don't think this is a course that you can necessarily go out and buy a book and say you're done with the study. Get peer review for your essays too, if you wnat to do this yourself.</p>
<p>SAT 2 Chinese is definitely easier. AP Chinese would actually be a bit challenging for someone without a solid background in the language. You can get by around 60% of SAT 2 Chinese just knowing pinyin and listening, but you have to read characters for the remaining part of the exam - which is actually fine, because the SAT 2 Chinese characters are quite easy. I don't exactly know how "illiterate" you are, but if you don't know at least 200-300 characters, I'd say you'll be very hard pressed to get a high 700 on the Chinese exam - remember the Chinese exam has a really bad curve because of the number of native speakers taking it (unless you are quite good at educated guessing, which worked for some of my friends that didn't know how to read that many characters).</p>
<p>As for AP, you really need fluency in quite a bit of basic and intermediate characters and the ability to compose short essays/stories in characters (they don't accept pinyin). The characters on AP are way more extensive than it is in SAT 2. I thought the SAT 2 was really really easy (I finished the reading portion in around 3-5 minutes - but I'm a native speaker), but I thought the AP actually required some thought in the composition part (on the other hand, finished the reading section on AP in 12 minutes (we were given an hour)). BUT then again, the curve was ridiculous this year (80% of test-takers got 5s), so I don't exactly know what's up with SAT 2 and AP Chinese for non-native speakers. </p>
<p>Self-study is regarded definitely as a personal initiative in your academics especially if you come from a school that does not offer that many AP courses. If you can commit through a personal program of self-studying (and end up with good scores too - 4s and 5s), then it would make a mark to college admission officers reading your application. Exactly how much of an impact you'll make I do not know, but I know that they are always looking for personal initiative and the people who are willing to go "the extra mile." Self-studying definitely does not hold as much weight as taking the class in the cases when the course is also offered at the school the student is at. Unless the student has a lot of scheduling conflicts or the school is imposing an AP limit on the student, self-studying to get the 5, rather than the A in the class, might actually be regarded as laziness. I think self-studying benefited me just because my school offered a meager 5 AP courses, while I was still able to graduate with 14 exams - I think that demonstrates an initiative on my part to do the things that my school wasn't able to provide.</p>
<p>If your school already offers a lot of AP classes, don't take the easy way out and decide to self-study just because a 5 will look better than your grade in the class. Like I said, college admission officers have data into the type of school that you come from, and the fact that you are self studying 5 AP exams that have parallel courses in the school might come off as a little bit sketchy. You'll be better off just taking as many AP classes as you can at school (and supplementing with self-study if you still have time after your AP classes).</p>
<p>Man I can't wait to go to college =[ I hate my high school right now.</p>
<p>AP Stats doesn't use basic calc? It just seems to be begging for it to me, seeing my classmates try to find the area under the curve for the probability density function between certain bounds, but with all these creative ways to avoid taking the integral. </p>
<p>Also, I'm a senior -- is it too late to self-study to make an impression on colleges? I suppose it would matter if you got onto a waiting list?</p>
<p>Well finding the area under a density curve is really easy anyway. Table A + z scores = win =D</p>
<p>What's the best book to study independently for the following subjects?</p>
<p>AP Bio</p>
<p>AP chemistry</p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>AP Bio - CliffsAP. </p>
<p>AP Chem - Barrons.</p>
<p>thanks for the reply </p>
<p>What is the difference between the princeton book and cliffs AP?</p>
<p>AP chem: is it barrons books contain unecessary info in their books?</p>
<p>This thread was a lifesaver. I was considering self-studying for the 'smaller' AP exams like World History and Biology since my school did not provide those AP classes. Still, after reading this, it really motivated me to take do independent study. It's not like I don't have the free time since my two AP classes right now are a joke. I think I might pop by BAM and buy me a copy tomorrow.</p>
<p>kha7577: From my initial read of Barron's, it covers roughly the exact same concept as a textbook. For the actual exam, this is really overkill. If you want to be overly prepared, stick with Barron's.</p>
<p>When you self studied did you just bought a prep book and went over it?</p>
<p>Johnwill: Each person has a different method. I have studied for APs independently. Personally, I studied through a combination of prep books and actual textbooks.</p>
<p>I've considered self study too, though i'm not so sure how i would be able to handle the huge amount of AP tests in those few days in may. I'm already taking 6 teacher taught APs, and any more would make those two weeks really no fun, but I really need to. My ECs and leadership kinda suck so I'm really running on an image of someone who's really prepped for college level work.</p>
<p>Some questions </p>
<ol>
<li>How different are micro and macro? Would it be easy taking them both, or would the both of them look redundant on a college app?</li>
<li>Is 6 APs and then Micro, macro, human geography, and enviro* feasible? </li>
<li>Is there any GPA boost at all to taking these? If not, (and i need a GPA boost) would it be better to take one as an online course in january?</li>
</ol>
<p>*i think these are the easiest? the 2 i didn't include were bio and euro. are they easier perhaps?</p>