Self-Studying APs

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
1

Hey everyone!
I’ve heard mixed things about the role of self-studying when it comes to college apps. I’ve heard some say that it’s great because it can help you get an AP scholarship and it looks impressive that you’ve gone above and beyond to excel academically outside the classroom. I’ve also heard some say it’s actually bad because it looks like you’re just padding your resume and colleges aren’t impressed by that (and that some colleges don’t even see your AP scores until after you’re accepted). I’m currently self-studying two APs and may add on two more if I have enough time left and I finish solidifying my other ones. I have two questions:

  1. These APs I’m self-studying are not necessarily easy ones (two of them are easy, two of them are not), and they’re ones that I genuinely have a passion for (history, politics, etc). Assuming I do well on them, would colleges understand that I’m not just trying to pad my resume? What would they think of me for self-studying?
  2. I have heard that some colleges don’t see your AP scores until after they accept you. How would I report my AP scores and/or the fact I self-studied on my application? And which colleges don’t see your AP scores during the admissions process?
    That was a lot to digest, but if anyone has any answers, please let me know.

Thanks!

2

No college sees your AP scores until they accept you because you don’t send the official score report until you get accepted.

You self report your scores on the application

You don’t. They can see the absence of the class on your transcript. But they don’t care that you self studied.

As mentioned above, all of them won’t see your scores. Even if you decide to waste your/your parents money to send a score report, for the most part, the scores go straight to the registrar’s office for credit processing, and admissions never sees it.

Probably nothing.

So bottom line, if you want to self study because you want to rack up college credits and/or you really enjoy the subject and your school does not offer the class, go for it, assuming it does not interfere with test prep/EC’s, etc. If you want to self study to enhance your college application, you’re wasting your time. Colleges are not impressed with this.

When I was going through the admissions process, I went to an Exploring College Options event, which had reps from Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Duke, and Georgetown, among others. During the Q&A, someone asked, “What do you think of applicants who self-study for additional AP’s over and above the AP classes they take?” One rep responded, “Please don’t do that. We’re not impressed by that.” The other reps all nodded.

3

First, I would highly recommend not self studying 4 AP tests. If you have enough time on your hands to be self-studying 4 APs (two of which you self described as being not easy), you can be using that time to do other things. If you are interested in history and politics, you will be better off spending the time doing extracurriculars related to history and politics, perhaps working at your local historical society or volunteering with a political campaign.

That being said, I don’t think it hurts to be self-studying an AP. It is a great way to learn something new and to have an end goal in mind. I self-studied this past year (read: taking a practice exam the night before the actual test and looking over the basic concepts two days before the test) for a topic I am interested in because I wanted to see how much I knew. Other than that, I’m not going to get much out of having self-studied. It did make me elgible for AP scholar with distinction, but, to be honest, I don’t know if that even matters much to colleges. My guess is that even that doesn’t really matter.

Self-studying might play a different role, however, depending on which APs your school offers. If you are planning on self studying AP euro and your school has AP euro, you need to be taking that class and doing well in that class. Colleges are looking for students who do well in the classroom, not always the ones that can do well on a standardized test. The other side of that coin also is that if you school does not offer AP euro, but a regular or honors euro history class and you do well in that class, taking the AP test would be a great way of showing that not only did you could do well in the classroom, but you can master it to a college level.

Also of consideration is what score you might get on the test. If you are a student looking at a top college, getting a 3 on a self-studied exam is not going to help at all. You want to be getting a 5 (even a 4 might be pushing it…). Overloading on 4 self-studied AP exams definitely puts you at risk of not top scores. But if you are looking at insitutions that will accept credit for getting a 3 or a 4, then taking those 4 self-studied APs likely will benefit you (and could save you a lot of classes!)

And final bit for you to consider is your past experience with standardized testing and APs. Some people simply aren’t the best test takers-- if that’s you, don’t push the self-studied APs. If you have taken APs before and have done well, you are in a better position for self-studying for those tests. That is especially true if you have taken APs before in the same realm as the ones you are self-studying-- if you’ve only ever taken science APs, taking a self-studied history AP is going to feel a lot different. And to that all, the flip side is true. If you haven’t taken APs before or haven’t done well, I would be extremely hesitant about self-studying one AP, let alone four.

There are my thoughts on it. Without knowing more about you or your situation, I would say just self-study one.

4

Okay final thing I forgot to add:
One other possible reason that would warrant self-studying AP is if the schools you are considering would require that. Many schools in Europe will require, for American students, having x amount of APs or SAT II with x score. For example, Oxford requires having a certain ACT/SAT score and then having three APs with 5s (or SAT subject tests with scores above 700) related to the major you are applying for. If going to a school in another country is something you are considering, look into each school’s admission policy since it is so different than US university admissions.
That would be the last reason I can think of that would determine self-studying APs. If going to a foreign university if something you are contemplating, it doesn’t hurt to set yourself up for applying there. You can always choose later on to not apply there, but it will be much tougher when admissions time comes if you decide you want to apply but don’t have the required elements.