Jamison Elliott

Student works diligently on their work for AP Seminar. The beginning of the year is a lot of work and takes time but in end it is all worth it in preparation for the Advanced Placement test, which gives students college credits for the course.

For the majority of Advanced Placement (AP) classes, the final AP test is taken towards the end of the year in May. However, AP Seminar students begin their AP assessment much earlier in the year.

AP Seminar is a research-based class where students learn to research effectively and apply their findings in their own academic writing. It is extremely different from any other typical English class and requires students to open their minds to a whole new way of writing.

This new way of writing for students is applied in Seminar’s AP tests. However, the tests are quite different. AP Seminar classes have the AP testing take place throughout the entire year with a series of performance tasks.

“The AP test has three parts: the first part is Performance Task One, which has the Team Multimedia Presentation (TMP) and Individual Research Report (IRR),” AP Seminar student Jasper Patel said. 

And all of that is just for the first task that takes place in the second quarter with two more parts following subsequently in the third and fourth quarters of the school year.

Before pen meets paper to start writing up these massive assessments, students must undergo an eight-week ‘boot camp’ in order to sharpen their academic writing and research skills before the AP test.

“This boot camp is one unit focused on a topic, and it is where you do most of the classwork for the semester, so it is a lot. It is to help you learn the skills you need to do well on the AP test and in AP research,” Patel said. 

After the boot camp and AP testing begins, students finally start to see their work paying off and see results in no time at all. They go from beginners to experts in a field that can be extremely beneficial for students in the future, and that is why lots of students say they enjoy the class, including McLinden.

“Although AP seminar seems like a hard class, it is beneficial in many aspects, such as college. AP seminar helps with the development of important skills, such as research, showing that it may be a demanding class when it comes to assignments, but in the end, it is worth the work,” McLinden said.

This sentiment is shared by students across all grades, as sophomores, juniors, and seniors are all eligible to take the course.

“AP Seminar has helped me improve my academic writing skills. It also makes me feel more prepared for college and teaches lessons applicable to many other classes,” said junior Claire Steunenberg.