Of the many inquiries filling college admissions message boards about AP testing, it seems people are especially unsure of what’s involved in AP Research and whether this course is a good use of a busy student’s time. For aspiring researchers, it may seem a more obvious elective to pursue. But many factors come into play before diving into the yearlong independent research project required for this course, including whether the student has the bandwidth to fulfill the multiyear requirements of the Capstone Diploma program, whether their target universities provide credit for AP Research, and whether taking the science fair route might actually be a more illuminating option for those seeking to sample the life of a professional researcher.
Background on AP Research and the Capstone Diploma
AP Research is an interdisciplinary course designed to demonstrate critical thinking and academic research skills. The course is divided into five sections: Question and Explore, Understand and Analyze, Evaluate Multiple Perspectives, Synthesize Ideas, and finally, Team, Transform, and Transmit. Over the course of a year, students learn how to conduct independent research, analyze sources and evidence, apply context and perspective, write a college-level academic paper, and present findings to an audience. As the nonprofit organization overseeing AP testing, the College Board prompts AP Research students to explore various research methods and commit to an independent research topic. Those topics vary widely, with examples including the algorithm of K-pop music, learning chemistry through musical chords, and environmental justice in subsidized housing. The College Board site states:
In AP Research, you decide what to study. Curious about the impact of AI on society? You can make a project out of that. Are you passionate about social causes? Interested in climate change or mental health? You can research these as well. In this course, you’ll learn about different research methods and will develop advanced research skills while researching a topic of your choice.
Rather than taking a traditional end-of-course written exam for an AP course, AP Research students are assessed on performance tasks completed through their yearlong research project. Graded outputs include an academic paper, a presentation, and an oral defense. AP Research teachers are trained to evaluate the presentation and defense based on a rubric from College Board, and the papers are due to College Board assessors in the spring. Students receive an AP score of 1 to 5 over the summer.
The requisite 4,000- to 5,000-word paper constitutes 75 percent of the AP score. AP readers evaluate the content, structure, format, and conclusions of the paper, as well as the student’s demonstrated ability to cite sources. The remaining 25 percent of the score is based on the presentation and oral defense. The presentation covers a student’s research question, methodology, and findings. And the oral defense involves addressing three to four questions from a panel of trained evaluators and the AP Research teacher. This culminating event can take about 20 minutes.
Importantly, AP Research is a part of the AP Capstone Diploma program. This distinction requires taking the yearlong course AP Seminar before taking the yearlong AP Research course. Although AP Seminar is sometimes offered in high schools as an ELA credit, these two courses are often counted as electives toward graduation requirements. That is, because the Capstone Diploma program focuses on interdisciplinary skills rather than a specific academic field, AP Research is rarely offered as a STEM credit.
The College Board promotes that the AP Capstone Diploma Program will let students: study topics of their own choosing, in depth; master key skills they’ll use in college and their career; and stand out in college applications and interviews. The two yearlong courses focus on developing the critical thinking, research, collaboration, time management, and presentation skills needed for college-level work. If a student earns scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and in AP Research and on four additional AP exams of their choice, they receive the AP Capstone Diploma. Those who earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research alone receive a certification.
Benefits of Taking AP Research
The College Board contends that students earning the AP Capstone Diploma stand out to college admission officers, who recognize that these students know how to build evidence-based arguments, apply research methods, work in teams, deliver professional presentations, and complete long-term academic projects. The College Board states that AP Research specifically can help students:
· Develop key skills you’ll use in college and career
· Become a self-confident, independent thinker and problem solver
· Study topics you’re passionate about, in depth
· Earn academic awards recognized by colleges worldwide
· Stand out in the college admission process
· Earn college credit
For students seeking to earn additional College Board distinctions such as the AP Scholar Award, pursuing the Capstone Diploma provides a sufficient number of AP courses to qualify (with passing scores). Last year, 85 percent of students pursuing AP credit in Research received a passing score of 3 or higher.
The bottom line is that AP Research exposes students to scientific inquiry and puts them in a position to formulate their own research questions. Students gain experience in investigating a topic, writing a long-form paper, properly citing sources, and presenting their own research. These are all critical skills for an aspiring researcher in both college and their future career.
AP Research Limitations
AP Research provides lessons in time management from many perspectives. Those wanting to earn the Capstone Diploma will need to plan ahead to complete the two-year program (or more, if spreading out those additional four AP courses) before graduation. AP Research itself can be a significant time commitment for an elective, especially for those students who have not yet found their stride in producing long-form papers. All performance tasks for AP Research are typically due by the end of April, just before exams for other AP courses typically start. And this schedule rarely perfectly aligns with science fair timelines. For those completing AP Research their senior year, they can state their intentions to earn the Capstone Diploma in their college applications; but the awarding of AP Capstone distinctions and inclusion in score reports typically comes in July—well after deadlines for college acceptances and commitments. In short, this is a pursuit that requires early planning and a flexible bandwidth.
But is it worth the time commitment? Although the College Board suggests that AP Research is equivalent to introductory research or general elective courses, not many schools provide credit for this AP test. There are currently about 5,300 colleges and universities in the United States. And as of fall 2024, the College Board site indicates that only 580 accept AP Research credit and only 636 accept AP Seminar. (As a point of comparison, about 2,100 accept popular AP options such as chemistry or either of the English tests.) The college Board’s marketing brochure for AP Capstone list its acceptance at university systems such as the University of Texas (UT) without noting that of the 13 institutions in that system, only UT-El Paso and UT-San Antonio and not its flagship provide credit for AP Research. Looking at U.S. News rankings of the top 20 universities, only one university accepts credit for AP Research: MIT. And even there—with the significant caveat of needing to score 5 on both exams—AP Seminar and AP Research are classified as general elective credits. A Capstone Diploma may help illustrate a student’s college readiness but not necessarily translate into college credits. And rarely do the AP credits replace specific university courses (i.e., subject credits).
This might be because the AP Capstone Diploma program does not seem broadly known or recognized by more competitive universities. As noted in the introduction, confusion abounds on whether the program is worth it. Looking at chat rooms, articles, and guidance counselor recommendations, there seems to be a lack of consensus on its value—even among college admission officers.
Scoring on AP Research is another point of contention. For high achievers seeking the AP Scholar with Distinction award (requiring five passing AP scores and an overall average of at least 3.5), the AP Capstone score distributions in 2024 did not on average give 5s as frequently as exams for the overall categories of AP Arts, History & Social Science, Math & Computer Science, Sciences, and World Languages & Cultures. And some have issue with how those scores are distributed within AP Research.
Anecdotally, there are instances of students producing remarkable scientific findings that receive middling AP scores. I spoke with a teacher who both has taught AP Research and has extensive real-world professional experience in laboratories as a researcher. She noted that the AP Research course requirements do not consistently mimic what researchers actually do at the college and professional levels. The course is aligned with an all-encompassing rubric so that students cannot necessarily adhere to the procedures appropriate for their selected field of study. This teacher noted that the rubric emphasizes reflection—in terms of what the student learned from the research process—over a focus on the actual research. So there can be a misalignment between the quality of the research and what AP assessors are judging.
This issues circles back to how AP Research is scored. AP Research teachers undertake a week of online training on how to score work using the rubric. But the papers then go to College Board assessors who are often not familiar with that paper’s field of study. The College Board does not seek to give all research papers focused on biology to a biology-trained assessor, for example. So a high school English teacher may be assessing a science paper with no background knowledge of the pertinent field. And when students and teachers receive a score, there is no feedback for why a paper is passing at a 3 or exceptional at a 5. This can be frustrating.
AP Research or Science Fair?
AP Research certainly can provide structured exposure to key skills relevant in college. But does it ideally prepare aspiring researchers? Those students whose schools do not even offer AP Research or the Capstone Diploma program can take solace in that the traditional science fair approach may help to more realistically sample the life of a researcher.
Both the AP course and a science fair project begin with a research question and conclude with a reflection component. But science fairs provide more freedom for the student to adhere to the demands of the particular field they are researching in. That is, they can shape their study based on discipline-specific best practices. Science fairs may provide better real-world experience of how academic research occurs at the college and professional levels, where researchers conduct studies, prepare poster presentations, and present their findings at conferences. AP Research has a presentation component too, but science fairs mimic the real world by drilling into whether a student knows and understands their research well and its significance. Whereas AP Research focuses the student’s attention on what they learned from the research process, the science fair approach is more centered on the actual research produced.
Ideally, with sufficient bandwidth, an aspiring researcher in high school might alternate years where they conduct independent research through a science fair or through AP Research. But the Capstone Diploma might better be considered as a matter of general college preparation than a practical grounding in any specific field of scientific inquiry.
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