<p>During my junior year, I self studied 5 AP's and passed all of them, in total from freshman to junior year I finished 9 AP's and got National AP Scholar before senior year. I really worked hard for this but some people say it doesn't really help me in the long run for admissions lol (or maybe it does ;p) so what's the use?</p>
<p>National AP Scholar is really good to have when you actually apply to college.</p>
<p>In addition, getting 5’s/4’s can help you get out of annoying and often costly introduction classes in college. Lots of people also say that self-studying also shows colleges you have an initiative to learn on your own, which is a good thing.</p>
<p>Though one of the most basic things to have for any top college admission are AP classes, which aren’t offered by many schools are the country/world. Self-studying allows you to reach ‘that level’, so a genius in rural Kansas going to a school of 50 has the same opportunity as a genius in Stuyvesant High taking a full AP load.</p>
<p>^ So it does make you good during the admissions process? In my class, only two students got National AP Scholar (Me and the Valedictorian), so its kinda like a distinction then?</p>
<p>And will Colleges actually know/see that you self-studied? I think the only way they’ll know is through the AP awards e.g. scholar w/ distinction etc.</p>
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<p>Not really, I don’t think they would check to see how many other students in your school received NAPS. Nevertheless, most high schools offer the full range of AP’s junior and senior year, so if you did self-study and qualify for it, they’ll look fondly upon it. Though it’s not a super prestigious award or anything (I wouldn’t rely on it to say, make up for a 3.0 GPA). </p>
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<p>Last time someone showed me their CommonApp thing, the app has a space to put down awards/classes. I’m pretty sure there’s some way to indicate you self-studied (i.e. using that additional info thing where you can write anything you want). If you self-studied something pretty hard like World History or something, you’re going to want to put it down on the additional info.</p>
<p>wow
I guess I am one of the only few kids left who self-studys APs for personal interest and/or the college credits.</p>
<p>^ I guess I am as well.</p>
<p>Me too.^^ WH and EH are probably 2 of the most interest APs for me to study.</p>
<p>But we’re all after going to the best we can get into. There aren’t many teens at all who self-study out of interest, because reading a long book or two and then taking a long test isn’t exactly fun. It’s 2010, and college admissions’ competitiveness means people do things for college, and everyone knows that.</p>
<p>I’m looking to self study as well. Which subjects did you guys self study and what books did you buy? Also, if you could list any techniques you used to study that would be great:)</p>
<p>Self-study AP Psych. Waste of a class, and an easy 5. It is interesting, though</p>
<p>Cool. What kind of books would I need to do that?</p>
<p>^^^
Self studied AP Calc BC and AP Stats last year and got 5’s. Self studying AP Macro, AP Micro, and AP Physics this year. Would not recommend self studying BC or Physics though, unless they’re your strong points. I took AP Calc AB the year before, so that definitely helped me with BC. Physics is pretty much kicking my butt. There are a few tricky concepts in Stats, especially when you’re trying to teach yourself, but that’s about it and it’s pretty straightforward otherwise.</p>
<p>I’d also recommend AP Psych (could have easily self studied) and maybe AP Gov.</p>
<p>Really, what you should self study depends on you personally.</p>
<p>I usually went with Barron’s because they generally are more difficult than the actual tests. Princeton Review is a bit easier, in my opinion, though it might explain things in ways that are easier to understand. But yeah, I have piles of Barron’s books at home, haha.</p>
<p>Econ is very interesting! I took Euro as a class and got a 5, World History self-study was enjoyable because the history just fit in with what I learned in Euro.</p>
<p>I talked an UC admissions officer. The UC’s, at least, do take AP scores into significant consideration for admissions. I’m sure there are other colleges that do this, but some, such as Carnegie Mellon, does not take into consideration AP scores at all.</p>
<p>It depends on each school.</p>