I am currently a sophomore in high school. My school doesn’t offer AP US Gov or AP Micro at all, but I want to take at least one of them. I am considering enrolling in a one semester online course in the spring to prepare for the AP exam in one of these courses. I am usually more of a math/science person and am interested in business, but I also have always had a genuine interest in history. At my school, sophomores take modern world history in the first semester, and us gov in the second semester. This means that if I were to take AP US Gov online, I would also be learning the honors version of the class at my school. If anyone has any insight or knows any good online AP provides, some guidance would be much appreciated !!!
Since you say you have a genuine interest in history, I would think APUSH would be the best choice. Learning in parallel with a class in school might also make it easier.
If I understand the question correctly (& I’m not sure I do): you want to take an online AP class sot that you are prepared to take the exam in either:
US Gov, for which you are taking the class
OR
Micro, for which you have an interest but no background.
Why do you want to take the AP exam? The usual reasons are to get pre-reqs out of the way, get college credits to reduce the number needed for your college degree, or b/c you are applying to international schools that require them. If you are doing it to apply to colleges, know that self-studied APs don’t really impress adcomms. If you are afraid that other applicants will have lots of APs and your school doesn’t do that, know that your school sends a profile to colleges that make it clear what is offered (and to whom), and what is typical at your school. You will be judged in the context of your school.
For US gov, if you are taking the class, you really don’t need to pay for an online course. It is pretty straightforward, and you can use the usual study guides to review.
Unless you have a particular reason that you haven’t mentioned, I don’t see the point of doing an online course in Micro (or Macro, for that matter)- certainly not from an admissions pov. If you have extra time it would be better spent on getting you GPA & test scores strong and/or deepening your ECs.
Thank you for your insight. Pertaining to your question about why I want to self-study for an AP, it’s less about admission and honestly more about me being bored in school and wanting to learn more about things that aren’t offered by my school. Part of the reason that I was considering AP Micro is due to the fact that I intend to apply to either a business school or engineering school for college, and thought it may be helpful to have already taken some type of introductory level business course (my school doesn’t offer any business courses at all).
Lots of people go to schools that don’t offer any business courses at all- and it’s not a subject that you need to prep for!
Deciding between business and engineering is an big deal, as most engineering programs are direct entry, and it is generally reckoned to be a more challenging path than business (indeed, they are nearly stereotyped as the hardest and the easiest majors).
If you are bored at school and can’t up the rigor of your classes (and are getting top marks), amping up your ECs - and looking for summer jobs/internships that will expose you to the worlds of business or engineering- will do you more good than self-studying a random AP.