Has anyone taken ap seminar? If so do you recommend it? I am going to be a junior next year and not sure if I should take it. Was if easy to get an A?
Hello, I’m a junior who is currently in AP seminar. So as far as whether it’s easy to get an A, I can’t really speak to that as I’m sure it varies from teacher to teacher. I think maybe like 2 out of 13 students in my class got Bs each quarter and the rest got As. Like I said, I have no clue whether this will be similar or different for you. The main thing to know I guess about Seminar is that you’re not really learning content, you’re developing and demonstrating skills in research, writing, and presenting. There’s really no way to study for the AP exam IMO because it’s about reading comprehension and writing skills. Either you understand the argument the source is making or you don’t, it’s not at all about remembering definitions or anything like that. The class (at least the way my teacher did it) was basically long term projects and most of our homework was to work on our paper/presentation. We didn’t have any tests, we were just assessed on our projects. If you’re really interested in learning to write research papers, you’ll like the class. Most people I know however probably aren’t interested in this though. The majority of the class is researching and writing papers based on the research, and then you’ll work for a little while on a multimedia presentation of the research you did. Seminar is most comparable to an English class if you were wondering. I definitely wouldn’t recommend the class if you dread being assigned research papers in English because that’s basically the entire class. I think that it’s definitely helped me in researching/synthesizing my research, but if that’s not your thing you will probably end up procrastinating a ton and then rushing to do the work. Another consideration is if you’re searching for college credit I don’t know of any college that gives credit for this class. So overall if you really like doing serious research and writing papers take the class, if this doesn’t appeal to you pick something else.
I am a rising senior that just completed AP Seminar this year, and this is one of the classes where I feel as though it is inherently easy to get an A as long as you manage your time quite well. I wouldn’t be surprised if grading and rigor varied from teacher to teacher, but it was by far my easiest class in terms of material and content, as you are instead strengthening prior foundations of research, writing, and presentation. As the student above also mentioned, the AP exam isn’t really possible to study for, and practice is what will make perfect here. In terms of how our class was broken down, the first semester was covering the foundations and techniques for research, before we were assigned a team project. Afterwards, we were assigned an individual project, which ultimately counted as out final for the year. For the second semester, it is virtually the same, with exception to any teaching. This portion is important, as the team project and individual project you complete here will count as 55% of you AP score. The best part about the second semester is that you get to choose the topic you want to study (although the individual project must have some connection to stimulus documents).
However, the other 45% of the AP exam is an EOC which consists of two parts. You can find more information about them on the website, but they boil down to a synthesis/argument essay and short-answer analysis about an author’s credibility. I messed up on part of the AP exam because I had written one of my answers in the wrong section of the booklet (rip), but otherwise the questions aren’t anything terrible. They are open-ended in nature and you can write any suitable answer you want, provided you can back it up with support. However, I will admit that the overwhelming majority of students (64%+) specifically get a 3 on the exam, but very little get a score below that.
Overall, I would recommend this class if you have a passion or interest in research/synthesis and language arts, as the class is predominantly focused on the aforementioned, and you can safely manage your time well and work both independently and collaboratively. If anything above isn’t of interest to you, I think it is safe to pass.
In terms of college credit, I do not think most colleges offer it for AP Seminar, but I do know that credit policies have been developed at some schools. It is recognized by plenty of competitve colleges however, and I would assume taking the class would help you stand out among the rest of the crowd. College credit might be offered in some capacity for AP Research, but I’m unsure about that at the moment