<p>This was a post I made a few weeks ago with regard to which books should be used to self study APs. Regarding actual numbers, IMO there’s no such thing as “too many” self study APs - one can always do more.</p>
<p>The books I used were as follows. Note that they work for me, but your mileage will vary - some things that don’t bother me in textbooks (namely long, academic prose) bother other people.</p>
<p>AP US History (Class) - American History: A Survey, by Alan Brinkley. I liked this book because it was written like a story, with mildly humorous prose throughout to keep me entertained. I have also read good things about The American Pageant for AP USH, though I cannot say that I have read it before.</p>
<p>AP Microeconomics (self) - I am friends with an economics professor at the University of Chicago by the name of John List currently writing a principles of econ textbook, and I used a manuscript of his book to teach myself economics. It should be released pretty soon.</p>
<p>AP Macroeconomics (self) - Same as for Microecon.</p>
<p>AP US Government (self) - Wikipedia I suppose? Honestly I never consciously did anything for gov, just signed up for the test.</p>
<p>AP Euro History (self) - A History of the Modern World , By Palmer, Colton, and Kramer. A excellent textbook that I particularly enjoyed because it was written like a story - it was very entertaining to read about the bad behavior of various European royals, how they regularly backstabbed each other and otherwise acted badly. Note that this book may not be suitable for everyone; it is rather dense and most of my friends (who would pick it up off my desk and read it for awhile or similar) thought it was very difficult to read. Still, I tried multiple Euro textbooks and this was the only one I liked.</p>
<p>AP Comp Government (self) - the only only time I used a study guide, though the Ethel Woods AP Comparative Government study guide might better be reclassified as a textbook. Very easy to read and informative - I have not heard of any alternatives.</p>
<p>AP Calculus BC (self) - Larson’s Calculus. Self studying calculus was the first time I ever truly came to enjoy math, and I attribute that entirely to this book. It is well organized and well written. Note that if you self study, buy the 8th edition - it’s nearly identical to the current 9th edition and roughly $100 cheaper.</p>
<p>AP Biology (class) - Biology by Campbell all the way. This is really the only choice for AP Biology as it’s the only book out there that fully covers the AP curriculum, to my knowledge (my teacher had several other AP Bio books that I read over. All were missing things) and it is well written overall. The only problem with this book is that multiple authors worked on it, and some were much better writers then others. A few chapters were terrible reads, but on balance it was decent.</p>
<p>AP Psychology (class) - Psychology in Modules by Meyers. Another unusually well written book, notable for it’s unusual chapter structure. Rather then having ~20 or so chapters that a normal 650 page textbook would be expected to contain, Meyers’ book is split up into 56 modules, which are essentially miniature chapters that are well-focused on a particular topic. This makes the book a quick and pleasant read. While I would hunker down for hours at a time and dig in to A History of the Modern World (the AP Euro book) I could read a psych module in ~15 minutes, which was nice for bus reading on the way home from school. The simple prose made following ideas easy in the face of distractions as well.</p>
<p>AP English Lang (class) - I did essentially nothing for this one. We wrote some essays in-class, but otherwise no real prep for this one. Note that this test is ~50% about reading comprehension however and I pulled 800’s on the CR section of the SAT both times I took it (without studying) though, so depending on your individual reading skills you may want to read books to practice.</p>
<p>AP World History (self) - World History, by Duiker and Spielvogel. Probably my least favorite of the three AP History textbooks, but pretty good nonetheless. It was clear and to the point, albiet somewhat boring.</p>
<p>AP Physics C - Mech (self) - Physics for Scientists and Engineers, by Fishbane, Gasiorowicz, and Thornton. I tried 4 AP physics textbooks, and this was the only one that was clear and readable as a standalone text -that is, usable without a class.</p>
<p>AP Physics C - E&M (self) - same as for Mechanics.</p>