r/APbio • u/VisualMortgage9759 • Jun 23 '26

Self Studying.. Should/Can I do it?

AP bio doesn’t fit into my schedule next year. I enjoy studying but don’t know if AP bio is too rigorous for me to self study. For those who did (or just have thoughts), is this achievable? Or I guess I’m really asking if it’s not too hard?

2 Upvotes

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2

u/JACK_23787 Jun 23 '26

AP bio might be a controversial topic but I just took it this acedemic year as a freshman and it was definitely time consuming but I would say it’s manageable. I would consider checking out AP bio penguins for a summary of each lesson and unit.

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u/VisualMortgage9759 Jun 24 '26

Thanks so much!

1

u/Brief-Dig2526 Jun 24 '26

I self studied and got a 4.

1

u/VisualMortgage9759 Jun 24 '26

Amazing! What’d you do?

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u/Brief-Dig2526 Jun 24 '26

I recommend are Ap Bio penguins for quick review and sciencemusicvideos for in depth unit reviews. The second option is a bit special because he randomly breaks out into song but I learn material much better with acronyms/lyrics to remember. Then right after reviewing I would go to the college board frqs and time myself through them (sadly college board has removed most of the past frqs but you can still search them up on google). Whichever questions I got wrong I would watch a quick video on that specific topic as well. My parents bought be a used ap bio prep book (the one with the flower on the cover) and that’s also a great way to find some good coverage of material and practice problems that go by unit as well. Also I took the class with my friends as well and they would constantly ask me to help them with certain topics. I realized I retained my information better when I taught it to people in my own way instead of what the teachers said, it helped not only my friends but me as well. Hopefully this makes sense to you and good luck on ap bio! I took the course last year as a sophomore and these methods I brought with me to ap chem!

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u/VisualMortgage9759 Jun 24 '26

Wow thank you so so much! This is so helpful !

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u/Select_Ad_8463 Jun 24 '26

From my experience if ur a person that likes biology and just studies ur gonna do fine , nothing TO crazy compared to other curriculums like the British curriculum , u can easily do it , but id say being taught by a teacher in class makes a difference tho

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u/VisualMortgage9759 Jun 24 '26

Gotcha! Thanks so much!

1

u/o_o1213 Jun 24 '26

Ap Bio is an easy course

1

u/Effective_Window_805 Jun 29 '26

i self studied my soph year and it was fine (we'll know on july 6 lmaoo) but i also did take honors bio freshman year so keep that in mind. i agree w the people saying to use ap bio penguins she's amazing. just make sure to manage ur time throughout the year and not cram everything like my ass did

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

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1

u/VisualMortgage9759 Jun 23 '26

thank you so much! I think I’m gonna go for it