<p>(This thread is not about where to buy AP prep stuff, in case you thought it did)</p>
<p>I'm planning on self-studying AP European History, World History, Human Geography, and Psychology. Is this too much, too hard for a sophomore? </p>
<p>I've heard psych and geo are very straightforward and easy, and WH and EH are kind of the ones that require a lot of work (though there is lots of overlap with the Renaissance, etc.). </p>
<p>Any advice/words of wisdom? I plan on using OnLy Barron's AP study guides for all four tests. That should be sufficient right? </p>
<p>PS: Can I use my Barron's AP WH book for SAT IIs too?</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the prep books, but the classes look great. </p>
<p>Psych and Human Geo are notoriously easy. Psych is basically a vocab test, so focus on learning the terminology the most.</p>
<p>APWH and AP Euro are good, better than APUSH. They will intersect a lot, especially when u come into the modern era b/c the Europeans take over basically all of Africa and Asia. With APWH you want to focus on the trends and cycles throughout history (like how all empires rise and collapse in similar ways, how traditionally successful civilizations (i.e. China) tend to be conservative while their rivals are more innovative and eventually more successful (i.e. Japan), etc.). AP Euro, on the other hand, will be more detail oriented. I loved WH, and, unfortunately, will not be taking Euro.</p>
<p>Would stuff like random atlases and such help? I was planning on say, reading about the Indian caste system in Barron’s, and then reading an encyclopedia or wikipedia entry.</p>
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<p>NatGeo and Time Magazine subscriber since 2nd grade b***h!</p>
<p>You’d be stupid for taking both APWH and APEH in the same year. Why don’t you take some of those classes at your high school? Having a teacher’s guidance would be especially helpful when there are topics/ideas you don’t understand. If you school doesn’t offer any of those courses, why are you trying to take them all in the same year?</p>
<p>If this is one of those college app things, forget it. If you don’t like a class, or in your case subject, the probability of doing well in it decreases greatly. People can sit themselves down and force themselves to memorize information, but the facts simply wont resonate as well when you’re force-feeding yourself facts and self-studying 3 other APs at the same time. Also, when you hit self-studying three APs in a single year, adding one more isn’t going to sound more impressive. Hell, if I were and admissions officer, I would frown upon someone trying to beef up their app by self-studying 4 APs. You may not know this, but colleges do like to see students that have a social life. A good portion of one’s time at university won’t be studying, but socializing, and adding that special something to the school. Self-studying 4 APs would be overshadowed by someone that excels in a certain EC.</p>
<p>Back to taking both WH and EH. They both require an immense amount of memorization, and taking in a large breath of what’s happened in the world since Mesopotamia + going into the minuscule details of European history during the same year would be a tough task to handle. </p>
<p>Granted, HG and Psych are easier (but still not a straightforward 5) than WH and EH, 4 APs as well as your regular course load will NOT end well. By all means, self-study APs, but do NOT self-study 4 in the same year. You’re getting too far ahead of yourself.</p>
<p>Good job on those two. I also recommend The Economist.</p>
<p>I doubt that “random atlases” would be equivalent to a textbook. I’m thinking if I did that (further reading on Wikipedia), I would concentrate only on the parts that interested me, rather than what the AP test would consist of. A textbook would pretty much make you go over almost all parts of history.</p>
<p>Maybe he/she doesn’t have those class at his/her school? How exactly would an admission officer know whether or not an applicant has social time? Why shouldn’t he/she study all four in the same year? Perhaps he/she has an incredible memory, or truly has an interest in the material.</p>
<p>We aren’t offered them, and I’m still close with World History Honors class teacher. I already have some good background knowledge on EH and WH through that class and reading from the past.
Plus, it’s my last year before taking actual AP classes. We’re still on (easier) honor’s classes for this year, and I plan to make use of it. All the topics I mentioned are of interest to me, and taking the AP test is a pretty productive use of it all, if that’s not an issue with you.</p>
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<p>Some can actually manage studying for a few APs and having a social life, while, others, can’t. </p>
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<p>I’m sure even silverturtle will to an extent agree with me on this, that most high schoolers don’t have the extra super EC like opening and running their own animal shelter, 401(k), or w/e. EC’s last at most an hour after school ends.</p>
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<p>Good point, I’ll see if I can just arrange one from my school’s coffers of books.</p>
<p>I self-studied more than 4 APs in both my junior and senior year; it turned out fine. Sophomore year, however, might be tougher. I had my plate full with three APs, not self-studied (chem, bio, statistics). If you feel like you’re ready for it, though, go ahead, and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Human geography and psychology are excellent APs to self-study, especially if you’re just starting out. I recommend Princeton Review for both. (Keep in mind that you don’t actually need to know any geography (as in, locations of places on maps, capitals, etc.) for human geography–just patterns of human settlement.) I never took any history APs because I’m a wimp, but I recommend you start studying hard around spring break. Good luck!</p>
<p>My (very active) social life in high school revolved around Science Olympiad and studying together. (Though, of course, we would do other fun things too, like picnic or go camping or skiing on weekends.) Social life doesn’t have to be separate from academic life–they can mesh pretty nicely.</p>
<p>Also, sometimes it’s good to overwhelm yourself a bit, expand your limits. There are colleges that like to see you push yourself. Some people are truly interested in all the AP tests they study for, maybe aren’t willing to give up any one subject, and like a challenge.</p>
<p>I did not get 5s on all my APs–I got 5s on the ones I cared about (science, math) and 4s and 5s on the ones that were less important to me (humanities). (And 2s on the econs, but that was a bad experiment gone fail, literally.) And I have no clue what my raw scores were like, sorry. Sometimes what seems like a 5 comes out a 4 and what seems like a 2 comes out a 5.</p>
<p>I’m not Asian, and my parents are laid-back biologists. =p</p>
<p>I used to use Barron’s for everything, and I thought it was extremely helpful for some subjects (Physics C, Chem) but I had issues with 1. the huge number of typos, sometimes in a constant whose value would mysteriously change from page to page, and once, the “correct” answer to a practice problem was actually wrong; and 2. the inconsistency in quality: while some prep books from Barron’s are genuinely helpful, econ was more wrapped up in acronyms that weren’t actually on the test than the actual relevant material, and the AP English Language prep book was completely unhelpful–the author seemed pompous and did not actually, you know, explain anything, all while making typos and not writing well himself.</p>
<p>But just a heads up, since you’ve never taken an AP before, you wouldn’t know what to look out for on the AP exams, what to focus your studying time on/what not to focus your studying time on, etc. Talk to the teacher that teaches that class in your school, and sit down with them one day after school and get some advice from him/her.</p>
<p>I would actually recommend PR for Psych. Barron’s is all wack and explains no further you should know. For Human geography Kaplan is the best. It was very helpful. I don’t know about World History because Im taking it now but I think Kaplan or Barron’s will do. But it should be what your best with and your style of studying. I don’t know much about Self-Studying but are you taking any AP classes in school or your school dosen’t offer?</p>