Chances are, in your typical school (this sounds so American-centric lol) it will offer you with a lot of AP courses for you to choose from. However, depending on the ability of the school and the number of students enrolling in these courses, the number of subjects offered by the school will be limited. For example, currently in 10th grade, only 3 AP courses are being offered - which are mandatory for students: AP Human Geography, AP Physics, and AP Statistics (not taking into consideration pre-AP courses here). However, I know that since there are such diverse ranges of subjects and things that different AP subjects major, we may want to explore these courses. And that’s where self-learning AP classes come into play! I know, I know, many people when searching for this online may get greeted with discouraging statements such as “AP courses are so hard, and that is not talking yet about self-learning” or “you can’t just learn AP courses by yourself!”. But trust me, if you are interested in any subjects and that you can manage your time well, nothing is impossible. In fact, from 9th grade to 10th grade alone, I have self-learned a total of 3 AP courses (you can count as 4 but I’m not 100% confident with Calculus BC), which for me weren’t very difficult to comprehend - AP Calculus AB, AP Microeconomics, and AP Macroeconomics (I have learned AP Calculus BC too but I am not intending to take the exam this year because it is just so damn hard!). Before sharing to you all the tips in order to learn and survive learning different AP classes by yourself, let’s talk a bit about my experience of self-learning 3 (or 4) AP classes - which, I know, may sound insane (it actually is).
My school originally was intending to go with the IB pathway (if you don’t know, the IB diploma is another type of course along with AP and A-Level), but then due to some certain issues, the school officials have decided to opt for AP subjects. The plan was that we would graduate with around 7 AP classes along with the AP Capstone diploma - meaning that we would have to learn AP seminar in junior year and AP research in senior year. But whereas the school is going to offer them in 10th grade, by the summer going to sophomore year, I have decided to test myself out with different AP courses. Initially, I would come to Khan Academy and look for courses they offered - I had a lot of free time, hence I decided to choose 3 different AP courses. For each subject, everyday I will study for around 1 hour, so the three subjects will take me the morning to finish them. I also came online to look for other resources when learning these courses, so that was pretty beneficial for me.
Many people may question me the fact that “Bach, the test won’t be until May next year, why are you learning AP classes in summer already? Aren’t you afraid that you will forget everything by then?” Well, whereas that is very true, I have been prepared for this scenario. For each of the three subjects (later on was four), I would take the notes in a notebook, and then every now and then I would look over them again. Additionally, every month or so, I would look for full-length exams of these subjects online - and see if I am still remembering the contents: the last that I tested myself AP Calculus AB, I got a 5.
From my experience with these specific subjects, I can tell you that these are not very hard to comprehend, especially if you have already had a “base” with these things. Personally, I am pretty good at math, plus I take interest in all these three subjects, so I don’t find that much trouble with learning it. And for you all, if you are intending to take AP classes online or with a textbook, feel free to look at all the courses online to see which ones interest you. If the only reason that you self-study these exams is to impress colleges, chances are you won’t get a high school - a high score for me comes for determination as well as interest towards the subjects you care about studying.
For people who are interested in taking these AP courses by themselves, there are four things that I need you to be aware of. First of all, try to find quality websites for learning these subjects. Khan Academy is a very good source, so does edX - be picky when it comes to choosing these courses, even if you have to pay money for them, because at the end of the day the quality of these online courses will directly affect you ability to take grasp of and get a high score in the actual AP exam. The next thing is to allocate time wisely and effectively. Whereas these AP exams aren’t the hardest that exist, they can consume you a lot of time - that’s why I self-learned them in the summer! That’s why while you should try to do your best with these AP courses, remind yourself that you still have other things to do as well, whereas these are sports, other subjects, or extracurricular activities. To be able to balance your time will make you do better in these exams as well as preventing the problem of burnouts. Next, something that I encourage you to do is to practice for these exams when you have finished self-studying for these exams, especially if you are self-learning several AP subjects like me. These contents can easily become forgotten since there are things that you are learning at school as well, hence I would encourage you all to spare some time now and then and go over the notes as well as practicing some tests. And finally, be wary of the way to sign up for AP exams as well as their fees - they aren’t very cheap. But hey, by passing these classes you can save yourself a lot of time and money in college, hence I believe it is an investment worth pursuing.
Hope for the best! Have a good day you all!
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