Why self-study an AP?
- To report AP scores on college applications. High AP exam scores demonstrate academic rigor and competent time-management skills. They also demonstrate that you challenged yourself to learn content beyond the high-school curriculum.
- Caveat: It is not advised to stack “easy” APs just to add 5s to your transcript. Colleges are aware which exams have more straightforward content. Similarly, it would not be as impressive for a native Chinese speaker to obtain a 5 on AP Chinese. Thus, it is recommended that you choose APs that align with your interests or intended field of study.
- Caveat: If your school offers the course, it is often better to take the class. However, nuances to this are discussed in the next section.
- To obtain college credit and skip introductory courses. This benefit is specific to each college. Some colleges allow this only for certain courses; some only take 5s for credit. Some may refuse to exchange exam scores for credit at all. Regardless, investigating each institution’s policies can save time and course tuition in college.
- For fun. Some self-study simply because they are interested in the material and wish to follow a laid-out curriculum.
In my experience, most people self-study with a combination of these three incentives.
Having the course on your transcript in addition to your score is generally preferred by colleges over self-studying, if your school offers the class. However, certain circumstances may still make self-studying a better option for you.
Perhaps your school offers the course, but …
- it would be inconvenient to incorporate it into your schedule. If you have to drop higher priority classes to take an AP you wish to do, it may be better to self-study.
- with redundancy. Perhaps your school mandates honors biology for freshmen and honors chemistry for sophomores, with the AP counterparts available only for juniors and seniors. Instead of taking biology twice, it may be better to self-study the AP as a freshman while taking the honors course.
- you are already familiar with the course content. If you have mastered most of Java, it may be better to take the AP Computer Science Applications exam yourself than enroll in the class. Nonetheless, taking the class can still be meaningful if you want to experience the course alongside like-minded peers or you believe it can help you gain a deeper knowledge of the material.
Many advise against self-studying harder APs like Calculus BC or Chemistry since they may require more teacher guidance, but in my opinion a 5 on any AP is feasible if you use the appropriate resources. The only APs you generally cannot self-study are Seminar, Research, and the Art portfolios, since they require students to be in a classroom setting under a certified AP teacher.
How to self-study
The self-studying process is easy to overcomplicate; for efficient and comprehensive studying, you only need 4 resources. Some websites / materials might function as multiple resources; for example, Khan Academy could be both your learning and drilling resource. AP classroom practice questions could be both your drilling resource and review resource.
1. The official course and exam description from CollegeBoard
As you learn each unit, reference the exam description to ensure you are covering all the tested topics. Additionally, if your other resources cover the course content but in a different order, you may use the exam description to align your studying. The pdf also clarifies exam scope on certain topics, which is helpful for understanding the depth of content tested.
2. Learning resource
You will need a resource to serve as your primary exposure to the content, from which you will learn the material. Commonly, this is either a textbook or website.
Popular examples of learning resources include:
- Campbell Biology for AP Biology (textbook)
- Myers’ Psychology for AP Psychology (textbook)
- Textbooks such as this one, that are tailored to AP exams, often update as the exam changes. Make sure to use the latest edition if possible.
- Khan Academy for APs that are offered on the site (website)
- CSAwesome for AP Computer Science Applications (website)
AP Classroom videos exactly follow the AP curriculum, but many find them lacking in depth or engagement. Try to find an alternative resource if possible. Additionally, typically one resource is enough, but if you are unable to find comprehensive materials for your AP course, you may find it helpful to have multiple.
A common practice is to take notes while watching videos or reading textbooks, though it would generally be more efficient to pay full attention to the resource while learning. In many cases, notes are not frequently looked back on. Instead, it may be more productive to make a reference sheet for yourself with formulas (if they aren’t provided on the exam reference sheet), important phrases, or your common mistakes while practicing with questions from your drilling resource (more on this later).
If you are self-studying because you are already familiar with the content, you may not necessarily need a learning resource. Additionally, remember to reference the exam description while learning.
3. Drilling resource
Some drill right after learning each concept, while others drill after learning a unit. This depends on your study schedule and how much information you think you can retain at a time without practicing it. After learning that unit / section, use a drilling resource to practice with problems and employ active recall to solidify the material. As you identify gaps in your knowledge, you could return to your learning resource to understand a concept better or watch YouTube videos from acclaimed channels. Additionally, as you acknowledge mistakes or crucial concepts that you might need to review in the future, you could add it to your reference sheet.
I made reference sheets for all APs that I took, regardless of whether I self-studied for them or not. They contained information like “arrays use .length and ArrayLists use .size()” for CSA, and “MVT requires function to be continuous on closed interval and differentiable on open interval” for Calc BC. I added to these notes while drilling, and they required little effort to make. I would review them while self-studying / enrolled in the class, as well as before the final AP exam.
Popular examples of drilling resources include:
- Khan Academy exercises
- AP classroom practice questions for each unit / concept
- Free and paid websites such as albert.io, fiveable.me, and study.com
Make sure that as you drill, you practice answering FRQs as well.
4. Review resource
This resource only needs to be used at major checkpoints in your studying. Some may use this after finishing several units, while others might just use it after finishing the entire exam content; it depends on your study schedule and how often you think you need to review.
The purpose of a review resource is not so much to practice content, but to get used to doing problems from various units in a single test and improve pacing. Ideally, this comes from official AP exam resources.
Popular examples of review resources include:
- Past FRQs from CollegeBoard
- Sample MCQs from CollegeBoard
- Full-length practice tests on AP Classroom
- Full-length practice tests from review books such as Barron’s or the The Princeton Review
- Note that practice tests from these review books are generally perceived as harder than actual exams, so your scores from them may be slightly deflated.
Study schedule
Overview:
It is important that you know ahead of time which APs you will self-study, since many high schools have fees due near the beginning of the year.
Regarding timeline, it is not necessary to begin self-studying at the start of the school year. If you have notable commitments in the fall or believe you don’t need to allocate significant time to studying in order to obtain goal scores, it is quite feasible to start in the middle of the year. If you are already familiar with exam content and only need to drill and review, you could begin several months before May.
After determining your study timeline, first familiarize yourself with the exam. Search up the exam structure and acknowledge how much time you are given for each section, and browse an overview of the material. Additionally, it may be helpful to reference past years’ score distributions to gauge your exam’s relative difficulty compared to other exams. However, note that the statistics for certain tests may be influenced by factors other than test difficulty; for example, the 5 rate for AP Calculus BC is higher than that for AP Calculus AB despite being harder because students with stronger math backgrounds tend to take the former.
Specifics:
Your studying will consist of learn-drill blocks as you absorb the exam content, as well as a review period a week or so before the actual exam to do mock tests and final test preparations. If you have an April Break, that would be a fitting time do more studying; some people begin their review period during this time, while others cram content (depends on your schedule).
After accounting for time spent on review before the exam, your self-studying time would be mostly learning and drilling.
Decide on how long each of your learn-drill blocks will be. Some prefer absorbing concepts at a time from their learning resource, then reinforcing it will their drilling resource right after. Others might learn an entire unit before drilling the unit. Occasionally, in between learn-drill blocks, you may want to insert progress checks with your review resource (this part is optional, as many students do not review until finishing all the exam content).
In your timeline, allocate approximately an equal time for each unit. However, if certain units contain much more material than other units for your exam, you might want to proportionally adjust. Mark checkpoints in your calendar / doc to indicate when you should be done learning and drilling each unit. Afterward, considering how much time you have per unit, calculate how much time you should allocate to studying every week. Acknowledge time spent on extracurriculars and other activities. Then, simply try to adhere to your schedule throughout the year. If this is your first time self-studying, you might also adjust your routine as you go through the first few units.