<p>I'm planning to self study the following AP's during my junior year (mostly January onward though):
AP French Language
AP US Government and Politics
AP Comparative Government and Politics
AP Environmental Science</p>
<p>I have some questions:
1) How long would it take to study the aforementioned AP's, given that I am a native french speaker, I've taken honors but not AP bio, and I will be taking APUSH next year?
2) Which books should I use for each AP? (I already bought Barrons for AP French)
3) Given that my school offers AP French and APES, but not the other two, who should I ask for permission to take the AP tests? How should I explain that I want to take the test but not the class? Do schools offer all tests, even those for which no class is offered?
4) How much will self studying help me in terms of college applications? (I'm already taking AP BC Calc, AP Chem, AP Stats, and APUSH junior year, and AP Physics, AP Econ, AP English Lit, and AP Spanish Language senior year; the top students at my competitive public school usually do not take more than 7-8 AP's throughout high school).</p>
<p>I’ve only taken French, so my responses will be geared mostly towards French:</p>
<p>1) For French, I would doubt it would take very long to self-study. Just get a few practice exams (maybe you can get released exams from the AP French teacher at your school) and see how you do. I would recommend you communicate with the French teacher at your school; talking with an experienced teacher about the AP exam will only help, even if you are already proficient at French. </p>
<p>2) I thought Barron’s for French wasn’t very realistic compared to the real AP exam, but you really don’t have many other choices.</p>
<p>3) You will definitely be able to take APES and French at your school; just pay the money. As for the others, you probably want to talk to your AP coordinator and ask. At our school, anybody can pay to take any test and he/she/they will be accommodated, but some schools aren’t as flexible. In short, talk to your school’s AP coordinator.</p>
<p>4) AP exams in general aren’t a major player in acceptance and rejection. If you’re self-studying solely for the sake of college apps, I would recommend you use the time to do some volunteer work or to enter some writing contest. Self-study only if you’re interested in the subject or if you don’t need too much work to do well (like French for you).</p>
<p>Government and APES are doable in the time-span you’ve provided. You seem like a motivated student, so I’m sure you’ll be fine. As a native speaker, just learn the format of the exam.</p>
<p>Self-studying is never a negative thing. As for taking the tests, I’m sure you could go to a neighbouring school if Government isn’t offered.</p>
<p>I took a government class sophomore year; although it wasn’t very rigorous, it covered almost everything in the barron’s table of contents for US government and politics.</p>
<p>I’m extremely interested in government and politics (I do policy debate and would love to major in public policy), so I thought I could demonstrate my interest in the subject and acumen by taking the US government and comparative government tests.</p>
<p>How much time would it take to learn comparative government and APES (these are the ones I have limited to no experience in)?</p>
<p>Would it be possible to only use prep books like barron’s to study for the tests?</p>
<p>Hmm, so I’ve decided to drop studying AP Comparative Govt and APES. I realized that it would negatively impact my ECs and that I was only doing it to become a National AP Scholar.</p>