I studied from my school's textbook (it was free); the textbook recommendations might be better. If you just want a 5 on the AP test, buy the Princeton Review AP Macro/Micro book and memorize it. (Same goes for AP U.S. and AP World History).

Since you quit sports, do you actually spend more time pursuing knowledge? I find I spend more time procrastinating.

For transhumanism, I usually say, "Hey did you see that study? They might have figured out how to cure aging in mice."

"Wow. Cool. Hopefully they figure it out for peop - actually, if they cure aging, we're screwed. Overpopulation - "

"Yeah, definitely. The thing is, all the people who should be figuring out how to deal with that stuff aren't, because it sounds like sci-fi. So instead of thinking of solutions, they're all just, like, 'not going to happen'. Me, I hope they cure aging. Aging sucks."

"You want to live forever?"

"I don't want to die anytime soon, do you? And I think most people only want to die at 80 because being old isn't much fun. If we were getting stronger, smarter, doing interesting stuff... Well, imagine being born in 1700. Wouldn't you still want to be alive today? So much awesome stuff has happened since then..."

"That'd be pretty cool, actually. But if everyone lives forever..."

"That's why we've got to figure this stuff out now, instead of just waiting to see what happens."

(Of the methods I've tested, this seems to be the only conversation track that mostly avoids "But death is good...." conversations).