Self-studying

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Here are the AP's they offer at my school:</p>

<p>Math:
AP Calc AB
AP Calc BC
AP Stats</p>

<p>Science:
AP Bio
AP Chem
AP Physics C Mechanics
AP Physics C Electricity and Magnetism
APES</p>

<p>Social Studies:
AP European History
AP US History
AP Art History
AP US Government</p>

<p>English:
AP English Language
AP English Literature</p>

<p>Foreign Language:
AP Spanish</p>

<p>Other:
Studio Art
Music Theory</p>

<p>I plan on taking all of them besides Studio Art and Music Theory (I don't do any instruments and I SUCK terribly at art)</p>

<p>The AP's that are not offered at my school are (excluding Computer Science A, which is being cancelled, and all languages besides Spanish (I'm taking Spanish but I'm not a native speaker in any AP Languages):</p>

<p>Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
Comp Government & Politics
Human Geography
Physics B
Psychology
Spanish Literature
World History</p>

<p>I was thinking I could self-study the following:
World History
Psychology
Physics B (after Physics C Electricity and Magnetism; is it much different? Has anyone else done this?)
Comparative Government and Politics
Human Geography</p>

<p>Microeconomics and Macroeconomics - I hear the tests are crazy and economics doesn't interest me; how hard is the test really, how hard is it to self-study?</p>

<p>Spanish Literature - How hard is SL to do by myself, without a teacher? Depending on how proficient I will be in Spanish (I'm not a native speaker but I excel in Spanish), will I be able to read all the essays and do well on the test (well being a 4 or 5, preferably a 5)?</p>

<p>So basically how hard is
AP World, AP Psych, AP Physics B, AP Comp Gov, AP Human Geo, AP Mac&Micro Econ, and AP Span Lit to self-study?</p>

<p>Thanks so much for all your help!</p>

<p>P.S. don't comment on how I'm overachieving - I know we are on CC, but still...</p>

2

<p>I’ve taken both AP World and AP Human Geo. You should have no problems self-studying either. Human Geo in particular should give you no problems. I can’t comment on the other courses.</p>

3

<p>Thank you!
How hard are the essays for either? Should I wait until after I’ve taken AP English Language (the one I take in 11th grade) to take the AP exam for those, or take them in Sophomore year when most students usually take those classes?</p>

4

<p>(Background: I self-studied AP Physics B last school year and got a 5.)</p>

<p>Why would you self-study Physics B after Physics C…? It would probably be to your benefit to self-study B before taking the C class, since they share many topics. Anyway, it shouldn’t be too hard to self-study Physics B, either before or after Physics C. Be warned that Physics B does cover a lot of topics that aren’t in Physics C: fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, wave mechanics, optics, and atomic/nuclear physics.</p>

<p>According to a friend (and multiple CC people), self-studying Psych is not hard at all. (I will probably do it this year.)</p>

<p>Also, be sure you’re interested in EVERYTHING you want to take, or least everything that’s not required. I’m taking a bunch of courses that I’m not interested in this year. The workload is quite annoying, especially for AP US History, and as a junior that will need teacher recs for college next year, the experience is pretty torturous. You don’t want that. Instead of focusing on self-studying for a ****load of AP exams that you might not be interested in, it would be better to build up an extracurricular with depth. Just some advice.</p>

5

<p>OP needs to go outside.</p>

<p>WHOA, deja vu…</p>

6

<p>First of all, as others have questioned, is the OP really interested in all the APs he is self studying or is he doing it to make his courseload more “rigorous” or his application more appealing. Don’t overdo it. Colleges can tell when you’re taking classes you’re not interested in. Self studying 1 or 2 APs on top of a rigorous school courseload is challenging enough and if self studying 8 that you’re not interested in will make your life hell.</p>

7

<p>well,
AP world - i actually love history
AP psych - seems interesting
AP span lit - i like spanish a lot</p>

8

<p>World, psych, gov and human geo should be easy. Relatively speaking. If you have the time, you know. World is gonna be mostly memorization, but a lot of it. If you love history shouldn’t be a problem. Being good at BSing essays helps too. Human Geo was ridic easy. I self-studied and got a 5. By reading the PR prep book in the week before the test. Once. Psych would similarly be pretty easy, though there’s more material than in human geo. Gov should be comparably to psych in easiness.</p>

<p>If you were able to take APUSH/Euro and AP Gov in school before, or at least at the same time, as you were studying World and comp gov, I think it would help you significantly.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t advise self-studying physics; I really needed a teacher (and “physics club” aka help on hw problems) to get through it. Also it makes no sense to study Physics B after taking C, as C is the more advanced (calculus-based) version of B.</p>

<p>You really don’t need to take Calc AB and BC. AB basically covers the first half of BC. Just take pre-calc and move right on to BC.</p>

9

<p>im in algebra 3-4, and i’m going to go
9th grade algebra 3-4 (some schools call it algebra 2)
10th grade AP calc ab
11th grade AP calc bc
12th grade calc 3 at a local college
and thanks for the input!</p>

10

<p>AP World- Hard, will take lots of reading.
AP Psych- Simple, just read Barron’s a couple times.
AP Physics B- incredibly difficult. I would not recommend self-studying Physics B.
AP Comp Gov- Fairly easy. Buy Ethel Wood’s review book and read it a couple times.
AP Human Geo- Very simple. Barrons + Princeton Review = 5
AP Mac&Micro Econ- Easy. I don’t know what review books to use, so ask around.
AP Span Lit- Very hard if you’re a nonnative speaker. Obviously, you have to be able to read and write very proficiently in Spanish to even get a 3.</p>

11

<p>AP World? without a teacher? You’ll be screwed bro</p>

12

<p>I notice there are conflicting views about Physics B…
This actually depends on you. For me, it was pathetically easy; I never paid attention in class, didn’t do the homework, aced the tests, and got a 5. I’m fairly certain I could’ve self-studied this. But then again, I’m extremely strong in math/sciences, and most of the material in Physics B came very intuitively for me once I knew the basics. HOWEVER, for non science/math people, unless you’ve done Physics C first, this will be death to self-study (and many struggle even with the class) because it’s unlike any other science you’ve taken. So, judge for yourself.
The hardest part about physics is how you approach the problem. So, if you do it before Physics C, it’ll be difficult to learn this. If you do it after Physics C, the approach to every problem will be incredibly easy, and all you have to do is memorize a couple more concepts and formulas (Physics B has more topics that aren’t covered in Physics C). Though, it might look wierd to colleges if you take B after C.</p>

<p>And I haven’t taken any of the other self-study APs you mentioned.</p>

13

<p>thanks</p>

<p>and most of it im not doing to purse my interests (besides AP World, AP CompGov, and AP Psych)</p>

<p>its to get college credit. saving money in college so i dont have to waste a quarter/semester on something stupid like econ or geography</p>