Up until I chanced upon the lovely CC forums, I was never even aware of “self-studying” for AP classes - my teachers imparted the ridiculous notion that you had to BE in the AP class in order to qualify for the correlating AP exam. Now that I’ve cleared the fog, I’m very interesting in self-studying a couple of AP exams.</p>
Next year, I’m taking 5 APs, and as a senior, I’ll be taking 4 more. I figure I can self-study one more for my junior year, and two more for my senior year.</p>
That said, I’d like to begin with US Gov for this coming year. Can anyone who self-studied it tell me which textbooks they’d recommend, how much time they put into studying, and how well they did?</p>
Thanks!</p>
I’m a student from China. I self-studies AP US Gov this year and got a 5.</p>
The test is fairly easy. Don’t be worry about it.</p>
I used Government by the People as textbook and Princeton Review as prep book. Government by the People just cover all the points. Read it carefully. Barron’s is not good.</p>
I also suggest you to buy the Barron’s Flash Card. It do help me a lot.</p>
I also downloaded the past free response questions from Collegeboard. Just finish it before the test.</p>
Last advice, repeat! repeat! and repeat! use the glossaries in the end of each book.</p>
Use Crash Course. Know your definitions. There are released tests out there that you can search for. Do those.</p>
Thanks, edwardyfz. I ordered the flash cards.</p>
082349, I’ll order the Crash Course book, and I’ll take as many ‘practice’ exams as I can get my hands on.</p>
I took a regular U.S. Government as a summer school class and self-studied for the AP exam. My high school actually offers the AP course, but since I didn’t take it I just check out the AP textbook and used the Princeton Review as a study guide. I ended up getting a 4.</p>
I took AP US Gov as a class technically, but it really wasn’t a class. As I’ve mentioned to other people on CC’s AP tests pages, my teacher taught us nothing in this class. So, it essentially became a self-study course for me, imo anyways. </p>
I used our class textbook that we were provided with, but of course didn’t use in class or have to read from it, which was: </p>
Wilson, James Q., and John J. DiIulio. American Government: Institutions and Policies. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Print.</p>
Also, I used Barron’s prep book and flashcards- both are very good. I read the textbook throughout the year (wasn’t assigned of course, but I ‘self-assigned’ myself chapters as I wanted to), but didn’t review my notes from it for the exam. All I did around exam time was read the Barron’s book once and go through most, not all, of the flashcards once. So, not much studying, first AP exam as a sophomore, got a 4. It can definitely be self-studied! It’s a pretty easy exam.</p>