Should I self-study AP Macro and/or Micro Economics?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>I'm currently a junior in high school, and I'm interested in possibly self-studying AP Micro and Macro Economics (or just one or the other, I'm not sure how manageable both is). I already took the required, semester long course over the summer to get credit for graduation. However, my intent at this point would be to self study AP Econ so I can take the AP test, hopefully score well enough to get credit at the college I choose to go to, and get out of general education requirements there with the credit. I plan to study either Music Therapy or Physics in college, so economics isn't going to be a necessary class for me to take for my major. My goal is to try and help my family save money with college by eliminating general education requirements (and maybe that is enough to eliminate a semester in college)? I know it is getting late to start studying for this year, but it might be possible to study enough to take the exam this May. However, since I'm a junior, I can always wait until senior year to take it as well. Has anyone done this before, and could you give me more information? </p>

<p>Just from doing some research online, here are the resources I would use to help me prepare for the exam:</p>

<p>A used copy of "Principles of Economics - AP Edition" by Gregory Mankiw</p>

<p>Either Princeton Review or " 5 Steps to a 5 AP Microeconomics/Macroeconomics" study book (or any other test prep books anyone knows about)</p>

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<p>–Good choice for a self-study.</p>

<p>I didn’t self-study them, rather took it senior year and got consistent 4’s (using the same Principles of Economics book) on mock AP exams for both micro/macro that we had in class–didn’t take the actual AP because my teacher had college connections so I was already getting the credit.</p>

<p>If you’re good at understanding the concepts in Precalc/Calc, the easier of the two is microeconomics which in short is mostly about how a firm runs to make profit. It can be learned to the ability to get a 4 in a matter of a few nights of several chapter (semi-skims!) each.</p>

<p>Macro has a lot more terms and memorization, but still has some graphs and concepts behind it–I feel it will take longer than micro to cram up.</p>

<p>–There is an overlap of questions between both AP exams such as international trade and the first unit of the Principles of Economics book.</p>

<p>Getting college credit in advance really helps and can be the difference between 5 and 3 years at an impacted college where you can’t even get your classes without AP boost priority haha!</p>

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<p>Math is definitely my strong point (I’m in Calculus this year). Thank you for the suggestion, very helpful!</p>