<p>I'm a junior this year and I have only taken 2 AP tests (Stats and Biology). I would have taken more but since I have taken 5 community college classes (human genetics, US History, Psychology, Health, and micro econ), I decided to just take it easy in terms of AP's. Now I'm wondering if I should take 6 AP tests next year: Micro/Marco Econ, Gov, Environmental science, Human Geo, Calc AB to get the National AP scholar, or if I should just take the 4 tests that I originally planned on taking?</p>
<p>Go for it man! Calc AB and Env Sci are both pretty easy if you’re good at math and science. </p>
<p>Human Geo is really easy.</p>
<p>How much of a life do you want? You’ll need to devote completely to studying.</p>
<p>In regards to the above post, in my general experience:</p>
<p>Micro Econ- some studying.
Macro Econ- very little studying.
Gov- some studying.
Environmental science- little studying.
Human Geo- little studying.
Calc AB- some studying, depending on how easy it comes to you.</p>
<p>Obviously it will vary with your teacher though. </p>
<p>These 6 are very managable. Without any heavier hitters like World, USH, Physics C, Chem, Bio, BC Calc, or languages, you should be fine with this courseload.</p>
<p>Now, on the other side, I personally wouldn’t do it just for the National AP award. If you really want credit for these courses, or just want to challenge yourself, go for it. Or if you just want the award for your own sense of accomplishment, that’s cool too. Taking more APs always looks good on applications as well. However, the award in and of itself is not really worth putting in more effort than you’d ideally like to. You’ll already be on your way to college by the time you get the award, so it won’t help with admission or anything. Not to mention, you would have to score 4+ on all exams (not terribly difficult, but i mean, one bad test and it’s blown).</p>
<p>There are only about 15,000 each year, so that’s kinda cool.</p>
<p>You should definitely go for it, seeing as the worst that can happen is that you lose a couple of bucks if an exam doesn’t turn out as you expected. I took 8 APs this year and hopefully did well in all of them, not only to get Natl AP Scholar but also because I was genuinely interested in them. I’ll make a thread (hopefully inspirational) when scores come out, fingers crossed. I believe in you!</p>
<p>Well, I already have credits in micro and I’m going to have college credits in macro after summer school so if i take those 2 tests, it would really just be for me trying to get the ap scholar status. I was also thinking if there was any point in even taking the environmental science or human geography test if they really are as easy as everybody says.</p>
<p>You can pretty easily self study those exams and get good scores without the class, if that’s what you’re asking. The test being easy isn’t a reason to NOT take it; in fact, easy tests are a better reason to take them.</p>
<p>If you’re just doing this for the award, there’s no reason to push yourself so hard… At the end of the day, it’s just a little certificate that no one except you and your parents will even know about.</p>
<p>If you’re a senior, whats the point of trying for it? Colleges won’t see it, and its not like there’s a prize, so the awards is pretty much useless</p>
<p>@ sinohellenic</p>
<p>Don’t colleges still see that you took AP classes?</p>
<p>Ya, but thats different from the actual “national scholar” distinction</p>
<p>There is no reason to take the AP Micro and Macro exams if you have already taken them at a college and you’re a senior. I don’t think colleges have any way of seeing if you self study APs in senior year.</p>
<p>If they are classes- (0-4 scale of difficulty)
Micro Econ- 0
Macro Econ- 1.5
Gov- 3
Environmental science- 0
Human Geo- 0
Calc AB- 0</p>
<p>if you’re taking the tests a long time after you’ve taken the class, you’re going to find yourself doing a LOT of review and studying. Catching up on 6 exams’ worth of material could be quite overwhelming</p>
<p>GO FOR IT! This year I, a junior, was taking 6 AP’s and I had one last year, so I decided to SS Psych… lol and guess what? I waited until last night to start ahahahahah. It’s actually a pretty interesting subject, so I just pulled an all-nighter and took the late exam today, I’m prettty confident I got at least a 4 on it. So yea go for it !</p>
<p>thanks everybody. I’ve decided to not take the micro/macro exam, but I’m still going to take the calc AB, Ap Gov test and Human geo or environmental science (or both). If you guys had to choose between human Geo or environmental science, which one would you recommend?</p>
<p>I would go for what subject you like most, history or science</p>
<p>But if you’re just doing it for easiness, i think Human Geo is easier</p>
<p>I thought both were pretty easy. If you’re a science-y person, Environmental is easier, and if you’re a history-ish person, Human Geography. Both are really easy though, so pick the one you prefer.</p>
<p>HUG is without a doubt the easiest exam. If you’ve taken bio before (honors, not even AP), you can take environmental right now and get at worst a 4</p>
<p>Having taken both, I can say that they were probably similar difficulty, but ES was easier since I’m a science person. I studied a bit more for ES but thought it would have been easier even if I studied the same amount for each exam.</p>
<p>It really depends on the type of person you are :P</p>
<p>I think I’m going to go with environmental science becuase I like science more, but if I have time, I’ll probably borrow a human geography book from a friend and go through it. For you guys that have taken the APES test, would buying one review book and going through it be enough or do I need more materials to study?</p>