Self Studying APsAnswered
Hi everyone,
I am a freshman who is very anxious about my highschool “career” so I’ve set up a whole 4 year plan for myself LOL. So, here's the dilemma. I know self-studying APs that are already offered as courses at your school is probably not the best idea especially on college apps. However, at my school you can’t take AP Psych until at least junior year, the class/teacher seems a little iffy, and adding AP Psych to junior/senior year makes my intense workload even worse. I’m actually very interested in Psychology and would really like to take the class so the best option I’ve come to is to self study it during Sophomore year. What do you all think? Is this a good idea, and how do T25 schools view this? Thank you!
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4 answers
Hey!
I think taking AP Psych is a good idea. It's mostly memorization and freshman year has the easiest workload, but if you feel that it's too much you can probably just drop out anytime.
If you want to check out this link: https://examstudyexpert.com/easiest-ap-classes/ it shows you the different AP courses ranked by difficulty and also how easy it is to self-study according to alumni.
Personally, I would say AP Psych is the easiest AP to self-study (or AP Macro/Micro). You can take it on UCScout, BYU, etc. Some resources to study for it are Khan Academy, Youtube Advanced Placement review videos, Collegeboard resources, etc.
However, one word of advice: if you're really interested in Psychology and might even want to pursue a Psychology major/career, you should take a class with a teacher you can get to know, preferably taking it junior year. This is because that teacher can write you a good recom letter, especially if you want to go into that field.
I would say try taking AP Psych for a semester then if you don't like it then drop the class and self-study the rest of the year. But if you cannot do that then I would suggest self studying. I took AP Psych and it's easy just the memorization parts.
I think that you should go ahead and self-study AP Psychology, since you are interested in the subject matter and likely won’t decide to give up on it and since it will free up room in your schedule for junior year. I believe that top 25 schools will view your decision to self study favorably since you took the effort to self study an AP course, which shows your interest in psychology, and since you were able to add more room to your schedule for junior year to take more AP and Dual Enrollment courses.
As someone who has taken 6 AP classes throughout High School, my recommendation would be to try to take it and if you are struggling to keep up with the workload you can try to drop or self study.
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Thank you! I can't really drop out anytime without it affecting my record, so I think this is another reason I should probably self study.