<p>i think studying on your own is doable, i took three ap tests and only one of them the class really prepared me for at all, so i got a five! and the other two i used da ap crash course books which i think are the best, cuz they are the shortest but literally like all you need to know, and depending on the difficulty of the test you should be able to get i’d say a four on average. if ya work hard! although i can tell you i used the apush for only like the week prior to the test and got a four. but alllllso, i used the chem one for a little over a month in advance and studied much harder and only got a three. just depends. and i think it’s worth trying to do if you are particularly interested in a subject that your school doesn’t offer, or maybe if you already know what you want to go into in college and want to use a high ap score to prove yo skiiiillllzz</p>
<p>Spiffy1994 – I would like to point out that I have my own personal reasons for volunteering, especially with a focus in the medical field. There are health complications in my family’s pedigree and that is why I decided to go into medicine, therefore giving up my dream to be an English professor. I hope I did not imply that I’m volunteering simply for selfish reasons, and I also hope I don’t come off to you as another awkward Asian math nerd. Lastly, may I ask what colleges would consider even more important than being strong academically? Isn’t college for the pursuit of higher level education and learning more? Just curious on your opinion.
However, thank you for your continuing replies.</p>
<p>Lookingforward – Thanks for your positive input, it made me smile! Is there anything specific I could do to round everything out? I consider myself a well-rounded student, and I do involve myself in the arts. I recognize that I need volunteer hours, but is there anything else that I could do to make me stand out? Again, thank you so much for your help!</p>
<p>Roboben12 – Awesome, thanks for the note. My school isn’t IB, but we do have AP and honors and I am taking as many as I can that I enjoy (English, history), are relevant to my major (Science), and because I probably need to (Math, through Multivariable Calc.)</p>
<p>Spazzymcgee918 – Thanks for the personal insight. (I won’t be self-studying for AP Chem, heard that is a difficult course so I’m taking it in-school.) And that sounds reasonable. Perhaps environmental science could help me in biology/biochemistry? Also, I am very (liberal?) arts-inclined, which is why I wouldn’t mind reading about history at all. Thanks again for the input.</p>
<p>you should not take an ap class just to take it. take an ap that is either relevant to your field of study in the future, or take a less challenging ap course to self study so that you don’t have to bother with it in college</p>
<p>I self-studied for AP World History. Read the book (wish I could find it to link you, I remember it not being a major brand, but just one with a white cover with black text on the front-- I’m sure all the other guides are similar, though this one focused more on the actual history you need to know and less on test taking strategies) and gave myself 1-2 weeks before the test to read it and got a 4. If you have strong reading comprehension and recall, then I think World History is one of the easiest to self-study.</p>
<p>Rocksupper – Thanks for your input. That sounds like a good idea. I don’t plan on studying much history in college anyway, even though I enjoy the topic, so I would like to immerse myself in that subject while I still have time before I’m too busy in the future! Thanks again!</p>
<p>Eternal Icicle – fyi, cool name! That’s fine about the book, I’ll look around for that crash course novella or something on AP World. I’d love to get that 4 too! 
Thanks for the advice. I believe that history should be mainly memorization and recall, like you said, and without sounding too pompous I’d like to think I’m fairly decent at both things! Thanks again for telling me your thoughts.</p>
<p>Keep the opinions rolling in. I’m really interested in hearing more personal experiences if anyone feels comfortable sharing. (If somebody would like to go off on a slight tangent, that’s fine too!)</p>
<p>I don’t think we know what colleges interest you, what sorts. If you do find MITChris’s posts (an adcom,) you’ll see how he/she talks about needing kids who offer more than just the highest academic achievements and some impressive STEM research. And that’s for MIT, certainly a school with high standards. The college experience is actually more than “the pursuit of higher level education.” You could commute, go from class to lab to library, then home, if that’s all it were. </p>
<p>Do you want to share what else you have done in ECs? I have a feeling it may be more than you hinted. Also, in additon, the Yale admisisons site has great advice about applications, ECs and interviews. Find the page with the video with adcoms- not the parody.</p>
<p>At first, I face-palmed because you came off really fake (being honest here), which might explain some of the resulting posts. But then you seemed more eager, so I’ll help.</p>
<p>To answer your first question,
AP Human Geo:
If memorizing is as easy as you feel, this one should not be too bad. Get a good college textbook, an AP study book and read both thoroughly. (I don’t recommend the Crash Course-- it is essentially a watered-down version of an AP study book with no practice tests and it does not have the same organization as its USH counterpart. It’s really thick, too, so the “Crash Course” part, IMHO, is false advertising.)
I felt that my class was relatively low-key and the most helpful part was that the teacher provided some extra, more “current events” type of insight, which is important for the essay portion. So, somehow find your own current events. I’d recommend some periodicals and the book I’ve used had really good examples, as well.</p>
<p>This test is also considered one of the easier ones (memorization heavy) in terms of MC and essay.
G’luck.</p>
<p>Lookingforward – I’m interested in the scholarships that Duke offers (AB Duke, for example). Duke offered my high school’s val last year the Trinity scholarship, which I’d also love to get, but she turned Duke down for Harvard. Tbh, I think I’m qualified enough to get some decent financial acid from decent colleges. My mom told me she’s not willing to fork over $60,000 to any college other than Harvard, Princeton, or Yale, so I am working hard to be the best and stand out on those scholarship apps.</p>
<p>As for ECs, sure, I don’t mind sharing. This is what I have planned out throughout high school; right now I’m only a sophomore. I hope I can get some leadership spots in those clubs, but I’m not sure yet. Hopefully the following is enough. BTW: Last (freshman) year, I didn’t get too involved in many clubs because I was devoting my time to becoming a co-captain for HOPE Club sophomore year, and that took a lot of my time. However, in the end I was successful in becoming a co-captain!</p>
<p>H.O.P.E. (Helpers of People Everywhere) Club: Member 4 years, Co-Captain 3 years
Science Olympiad: Member 4 years, Event leader 3 years
TUSK (It’s a science tutoring thing): 4 years
Symphony Youth Orchestra: 4 years
Key Club: Member 3 years
Cancer Awareness Club (My friend just created this club, so I figured I’d help him out): Member 3 years
BUILD On: Member 3 years
National History Day: 3 years
Mu Alpha Theta: 3 years
Hospital volunteering: 3 years
National Honor Society: Hopefully I can get in this come junior year.
Junior/senior ballet company: (hopefully) 3 years</p>
<p>Mitzii – All right, thanks. I’ll find those books and read those instead of the Crash Course one! Thanks for the opinion and the heads up.</p>
<p>I need to pm you- later today or tomorrow. If you get critiqued for this list, don’t worry, for now. Once you enter this plan, you’ll have to prioritize. Partly, to keep your sanity. Partly, because some require large time commitments. And, because the ability to kick back and have fun is also a good attribute.</p>
<p>All right. Thank you SO much again. You don’t know how important your advice is to me (Juxtaposed against my parents: “Do everything you possibly have time for!”) So I give you a virtual hug and a respectful curtsy. Thank you, thank you, thank you!</p>
<p>If anyone else has something to say, I’m up for it. Some more insight into my original question would be nice.</p>
<p>On the AP Language & Comp practice test, I got a 3. On the real thing, I got a 5. I didn’t study lol. I guess my teacher just hated me…</p>
<p>OP take a look at this book, it may help you out.
[Amazon.com:</a> How to Be a High School Superstar: A Revolutionary Plan to Get into College by Standing Out (Without Burning Out) (9780767932585): Cal Newport: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/How-High-School-Superstar-Revolutionary/dp/0767932587/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344564173&sr=8-1&keywords=High+school+super+star+cal+newport]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/How-High-School-Superstar-Revolutionary/dp/0767932587/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344564173&sr=8-1&keywords=High+school+super+star+cal+newport)</p>
<p>I self-studied Marcoeconomics for 3 hours before the exam (like I woke up at 3:30AM and skimmed over the book) and I got a 4. Self-studying isn’t too hard.</p>
<p>Chachaseeds: Haha okay…I suppose I won’t base what I’ll get off practice tests!</p>
<p>Ugofatcat: Thank you for that, I think I’ll check that out.</p>
<p>WednesdayTomato: Thanks for the input. I thought Macro would be hard to study, but if that isn’t the case, perhaps I’ll add it to my self-studying list.</p>
<p>Does anybody have experience with AP Human or AP Environmental? Just wondering.</p>
<p>I loved the Barron’s books and the Cliffsnotes. I self-studied for AP Spanish, one of the harder AP tests, and I got a 4. It’s definitely possible to do. However, I wouldn’t self-study APUSH because it’s such a dense workload, and a lot of my friends took the class and didn’t get 5’s. APES should be an easier self-study, although that might be because I love ES XD
I’m not sure about HG. My friend took it last year and said it was really easy, but everyone learns at a different pace.
For AP Bio last year, I honestly didn’t even crack open my Cliffsnotes book until a month before the test. Our in-class tests were structured very differently from the AP test, so the class was kind of arbitrary. I used about half an hour each day just reading and memorizing and quizzing myself, and I got a 5 on the test and I think I overstudied. Half the details I freaked out over weren’t on the test, anyway.</p>
<p>So, it’s basically up to you. You could always start self-studying just a bit every day (15-20 minutes for each subject) and if it’s too much, take off APUSH. It’s the hardest of the three to do on your own.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice APES does sound interesting, so I hope I’ll do okay with that. As for APUSH, do you mean AP World? Are they similar (if you know)?</p>
<p>And one last additional question that’s open to everyone that stumbles upon this thread. I’m curious about AP Macro & Micro now, can somebody elaborate more on the depth and difficulty of that course in general?</p>
<p>I self-studied for 2 AP tests my Senior year in addition to the other ones that I was taking. As long as you don’t procrastinate, and have a good schedule, as well as do a lot of practice tests and whatnot, you should do fine.</p>
<p>I did not do that, however.</p>
<p>I waited until April to begin learning the material for Physics C [both tests], and I ended up having to LEARN the material [not cram] in the last 2 weeks. Don’t do that. Start a few months early :P</p>
<p>I’ve moved schools a few times and because of that, I haven’t been able to take certain APs simply because they weren’t offered. My current school is not allowing me to double on science this year, so I am not taking an AP science in my junior year. I am freaking out, is that okay if I want to be an engineer? I mean, I took honorary chem freshmen year (no APs were allowed) and I didn’t like it, so there was no point in taking the AP. Then I took bio and loved it but the AP doesn’t fit into my schedule this year. I had to choose between AP bio and honours physics, so I chose honord physics and decided to double AP science senior year. Should I change that to taking AP bio and self studying physics? I don’t want to ruin my chances at an Ivy simply because i didn’t take anAP science junior year</p>
<p>Honors physics in junior year can be fine, if you will have AP calc and Ivy level grades and experiences all around- and these limitations are because of school policy. Ideally, you would have AP physics now, but 12th is fine, when there are limitations. If you’re interested in engineering, it’s generally better to have physics in 11th and 12th, than delay it until senior year or skip AP entirely. You have to consider that the competition will come in at a high level. Many will have resolved hs sched conflicts or other issues by taking cc classes.</p>
<p>Your particular situation is difficult, but you have to somehow show you made the best decisions you could and achieved. Read the Ivy websites to see their requirements and how they describe them, plus the sorts of kids they seek. Harvard, eg, clearly states that the other sciences do not replace bio-chem-physics. Be sure you have relevant sci ECs and enough else to show you are a great kid with a variety of interests and qualities.</p>
<p>Wow. The local high school here doesn’t off ANY honors classes and only one AP class. There’s no way one of us can even come close to matching someone like you.</p>