My First AP Self-Study

Hey guys, it’s your boy Yash back at it with another blog! I took AP Hug (Human Geography) as my first AP as a freshman. Halfway into the year I decided to do my first AP self-study and let me tell you the AP Psychology exam burnt me out like hell. In this blog I want to share how I studied for the exam and how it actually went.

How I Studied:

I started off by watching some review videos on YouTube for AP Psychology. The two channels I’d recommend are Advanced Placement and Mr. Sinn. Personally, I preferred the Advanced Placement videos because they’re probably more closely aligned with what’s actually on the AP test. But Mr. Sinn is still a great option—he does a solid job of summarizing the content, even though he doesn’t go as in-depth.

After finishing a unit, I’d hop on ChatGPT and ask some questions about what I had just learned. I specifically asked for Baron-style questions, since I learned those are more similar to what the AP test actually uses. That helped me get some solid practice. Later, I also found a free pdf digital copy of Baron 2025 AP Psych book which I uploaded to a GPT project and that helped me prep notes for each unit and generate practice questions. My biggest lesson using ChatGPT was to master the art of prompting. When I first started I would only have basic prompts like “Generate notes for unit 1 and then follow up a 10 AP style questions.” After creating a project and adding the book, I started being more specific with my prompts like this one:

Generate AP Psychology multiple-choice questions in the style of Barron’s, incorporating content from the 2025 Barron’s prep book and trends from recent AP Psychology exams (2020–2024). Cover key concepts from Unit 1 and provide 25 MCQs including a DBQ and a aAAQ. For each MCQ question, include:

1. The correct answer,

2. A short explanation of why that answer is correct,

3. Explanations for why the other answer choices are wrong (elimination reasoning),

4. A reference to relevant Barron’s material or textbook section where possible.

How the Exam Went:

Overall, I think the exam went decently. I feel like I did pretty well on the MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) section—I finished super quickly and even had 20 minutes left to review my answers.

Now, the AAQ (Article Analysis Question) and DBQ (Document-Based Question)? That’s where I struggled. This year, College Board changed the format, removing the old FRQ (Free Response Question) and replacing it with the AAQ and DBQ. That totally threw me off because I did not prepare for that part at all. I didn’t even study those formats. But I still tried my best, and hopefully it didn’t go too badly.

Overall, self-studying for this AP exam was kind of annoying at times but, also fun in its own weird way. I’ll be sharing my results soon (don’t think I am getting anywhere close to 5) so make sure to stay tuned for that! But I learned a lot along the way and think my AP self journey will be better next year.