<p>If you have a passion for learning outside the classroom, you shouldn’t need to take an AP test to prove it. Taking the AP test just looks like resume-padding. </p>
<p>Besides, IMO AP test scores count for very little in college admissions anyway, whether self-studied or not. They’re not designed or intended for use as college admissions tests, and the College Board wants to steer colleges toward using its other products, the SAT Reasoning Test and SAT Subject Tests, for that purpose. For their part, colleges don’t want to encourage an “arms race” among students accumulating AP test scores, partly because they’re quite expensive at $87/test, and thus would operate to discriminate against financially less well-off students. So colleges generally just look at how many AP classes you’ve taken (compared to the number offered at your school) to rate the rigor of your HS curriculum, and may look at AP test scores to verify the rigor of your AP courses. If it really counted for a lot in admissions, they’d want official AP score reports sent directly from the College Board as for SAT I and SAT scores; the fact that they rely on self-reported scores suggests they don’t take this information all that seriously.</p>