<p>The problem I have with self-studying: to borrow a trendy phrase in education, you end up “teaching to the test”.</p>
<p>A lot of people here talk about how AP Psych is so easy to self-study. Oh, I barely had to work at all, I spent only 30 minutes a day reading, most of the work was reading the prep book, blah blah blah. Of course, if they were actually LEARNING psychology, it would not be so easy. But what you learn in a self-study is not the actual subject; unless you are very careful to avoid this, what you learn in a self-study is only the narrow subset of the subject that is likely to be on the AP test.</p>
<p>And for a example of why this sucks, consider the AP compsci test. It is quite possible to self-study for a 5 without being able to write an actual program, because the test does not cover input or output at all. Someone who assumes they know basic programming just because they got a 5 is sorely mistaken.</p>