<p>Why do people self- study for AP exams instead of SAT 2's? AP exams don't help with admission, but SAT subject tests do. If someone doesn't have courses available to them and want to help admission chances, why don't they take the SAT 2's instead? Or at least take both??</p>
<p>AP’s get counted as credits towards your BA/BS degree (in most/some schools). Get a 5 on your AP exam, and it’s as good as an A for a semester’s worth course. Get a few of those, and you graduate sooner and with higher GPA.</p>
<p>SAT II’s, on the other hand, you only need two or three good ones. Extra exams do not help you gain admissions.</p>
<p>bumpppp…</p>
<p>What ConcernedDad said, and that you already learn things like Chemistry by taking AP Chem, Math II by taking Pre-Calculus, US History by taking AP US History, etc., so you don’t need to self-study. You’d review before taking it, but you’re already taking those courses…</p>
<p>APs are a chance to earn college credit before college, probably with less of a time investment.</p>
<p>I’m self-studying two AP exams so I can receive the credits (most likely elective credits) when I go to college. When you do well on them, you can still list your scores on the Common app. However, for SAT2’s, they don’t help that much with admissions either. 2 or 3 good scores on the SAT2’s are good enough (after that, it starts to look the same).</p>
<p>I would think that scoring well on multiple SATII’s would be beneficial. Not sure why you all believe taking more than 2-3 is worthless.</p>
<p>I thought the question would be, “Why do we destroy ourselves and let the best years of our lives go to waste just to be able to attend a college whose only tangible advantage over the college we would’ve ended up at otherwise is the fact that its name would be familiar to foreigners?” or something.</p>
<p>I don’t know either.</p>
<p>Also, some colleges give credit for SAT IIs as well.</p>
<p>As I understand it you can get the credits for graduation with AP’s however no grade toward GPA</p>
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<p>Every adcom officer gave me the exact answer: If you send us more than the required number of SATII scores (2 at most schools), we will only consider the two highest ones, and completely disregard the rest.</p>
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<p>I am sure it varies from school to school. HYPSM types want you to take AP’s but won’t give you any credit towards your degree at all, but UC’s, for example, definitely count them in your GPA if you request credit.</p>
<p>There is no calculus SAT II test, the SAT II physics test is easy compared to AP Physics B and much easier than the calculus-based Physics Cs.</p>
<p>My son self-studied for 4 APs sophomore year and took 8 tests all together. This apparently made a positive impression on the Brown admissions committee, who commented on both that and his community service work as being key factors in his acceptance.</p>
<p>^haha that helps 
most people say self- studying for APs is completely useless. which I think is really selfish of colleges to do that for the money. extracurriculars are also self- reported and they consider that. I figure if you self- study 5 or more, colleges will notice.</p>
<p>not every school offers many APs. and some do, but their are many scheduling complications at that school… like mine :/</p>
<p>also, random Q: Would it look like resume- whoring if you take both the AP test and subject test in the same subject. since you already know the material…??</p>
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<p>My son had multiple conflicts when he took 8 AP tests. There are 2-3 make-up days during a 3rd week of AP tests, where a student can take the conflicting test or any other test he might have missed due to illness. These dates don’t appear on a schedule because during the 3rd week ANY test can be taken during the given morning/afternoon time slots.</p>
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<p>No. It makes sense to take the SAT subject test you know best. My son took the AP Physics B exam, the two Physics C exams and, 5 months later, the SAT II physics exam (three 5’s and an 800). Be warned, however, that each test may cover slightly different material. Also, the AP exam is much harder (very calculation-intensive) but also allows many more wrong answers to still get the top score. The SAT II is more fact (and perhaps memorization) driven and has less tolerance for wrong answers. Make sure you prep separately for both – sample tests for both can be found online.</p>
<p>when I said scheduling conflicts, I was talking about the courses at school and my school schedule, not the testing schedules.</p>
<p>Subject tests are requirements. You need the two-three tests. APs show dedication and perseverance. Both are important in different ways.</p>