<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I am currently a junior in high school. I am taking AP Biology and AP US History 2. However, I want to try to qualify for the AP Scholars award and as many of you may know, this entails me scoring at least a 3 or higher on 3 AP tests. While I am taking 2 AP's already, I want to self study for a 3rd one and from the information I have gathered, AP Psych seems like to be the most popular one to self study for because it is more technical and memorization orientated (easiest?). I have never done this before so I was just wondering:</p>
<p>1) How long in advance should I begin my self studying? </p>
<p>2) Which materials are the best in getting me the highest score possible? I hear the Barrons book is good but what about McGraw Hill's 5 steps to a 5?</p>
<p>3) Is the AP Scholar award even worth it to self study for an AP test? Does it give me leverage for scholarships when I apply to schools?</p>
<p>4) Share your personal accounts of self studying for AP Psych please (:</p>
<p>you dont need to answer all of my questions, if you have any info/advice that would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>hey! i self studied for psych last year and got a 4. i was very pleased with this, bc i did not feel like i was going to score high enough for credit and when i did, i was pleasantly surprised. i’ll try to answer your ques and help however i can.
- How long in advance should I begin my self studying?
i began studying around january. yeah, that sounds good, right? well, i did about one chapter in january. then i slacked off for a few weeks. then i did a few chapters here and there. two weeks before the exam, i had half of the chapters done. i did the other half in those 2 weeks. i had absolutely no knowledge about psych before i started self studying. i just found psych pretty easy.</p>
<p>2) Which materials are the best in getting me the highest score possible? I hear the Barrons book is good but what about McGraw Hill’s 5 steps to a 5?
i used the barrons and i thought it was perfect. however, the best resource i used was taking old released exams. many, many, MANY of the questions are exact or similar to that on the exam.</p>
<p>3) Is the AP Scholar award even worth it to self study for an AP test? Does it give me leverage for scholarships when I apply to schools?
i don’t really know if the ap scholar award has any importance when you’re applying to schools. i mean, what looks good is that you got the good scores, i don’t know if the idea of the award is that important. i’m sure you’ll have leverage if you have great scores on multiple ap exams, but, idk, i never heard of someone taking an exam to have an ap scholar award
4) Share your personal accounts of self studying for AP Psych please (:
oops, i kind of answered this question in the beginning, but basically it’s better if you study ahead of time, and really really think it through and memorize it thru whatever system works for you, and take released exams as practice. eat a good breakfast that day, keep yourself relaxed (it’s a 12 o clock exam so you’ll have to keep yourself alive somehow til then, i was so worried and anxious), and you’ll be fine. i’m very glad i studied for the ap exam. i’m at rutgers (hence why i’m answering this post in this tab) and i’m so glad i was able to skip gen psych. pretty much everyone i know is in gen psych, and its nice getting to have that leverage that i already passed that course and get to move on to different psych courses. i want to be a psych minor bc i want to be a teacher, so it works out. it does make it harder bc everyone in my class is a sophomore or junior, but i’m not falling behind. i’m glad i self-studied for ap psych. its very doable. i remember i checked once and 50% of the people who take it get 4’s or 5’s, so it is one of the easier exams, and that’s why i chose to self study for it. hope i helped, and good luck if you decide to take it!</p>
<p>thank you so much! I appreciate the encouragement (:</p>
<p>I was just wondering where I can find these old released exams? And did you use the AP Psych community website at all? I’ve been told it’s pretty helpful</p>