Sophomore Mia Lambers looks at the clock and realizes she’s been at it for hours as she finishes her AP Seminar homework, working until 1a.m. in the morning. She’s currently revising her paper in preparation for the AP exam.

AP Capstone Seminar and AP Capstone Research have the reputation of being very important and useful AP classes. Completing both classes looks appealing to colleges, yet only 100,000 of students in the US actually complete it annually. For reference, 239,470 students complete more popular AP class like AP Biology.

AP seminar is a prerequisite for AP research. These classes focus on developing research and presentation skills, along with clear and persuasive writing. If both seminar and research are completed, students are awarded a special diploma at their graduation ceremony.

Sophomore Mia Lambers is in the fourth quarter of AP seminar. Seminar students are currently in the midst of their AP exams, despite it being only March, as it is composed of multiple exams lasting the whole second semester. She just completed her Performance Task 1, which included a Individual Research Report (IRR) and Team Multimedia Presentation (TMP). For the TMP, students in groups of three to four choose a topic and each write essays from a different lens (ethical, medical, historical, etc.) and then combine all their research to give a persuasive presentation for college board. In the IRR, students individually choose a question and topic to write about and, after developing an essay, present a speech to persuade college board.

Lambers covered the social lens surrounding their group topic of ultra processed foods.

“It was a lot of hard work but I’m really proud of what me and my team accomplished,” Lambers said. “It took many hours outside of school to be able to get everything done, and it took so long, but ultimately I’m really proud of us.”

Next, seminar students begin their individual research report, followed by their individual presentation.

In research, students are working to finish a research paper that they started at the beginning of the year. The objective of AP research is to develop a research question at the beginning of the year, then conduct studies and procedures, and eventually report all findings utilizing and expanding on the skills they learned in seminar.

Not everyone wants to have to stand up and present a side deck for 10 minutes and answer two oral defense questions, or conduct studies in a lab and do math problems – only to have to type them up on a computer.

However, this class looks excellent to colleges, and with lifelong writing and critical thinking skills, these classes can help prepare students for any field.