beginning of content:

Important Updates

For more information, please see the AP Coordinator’s Manual, Part 1 and the AP Coordinator’s Manual, Part 2 (available in late fall). The AP Exam Instructions will be available in 2020.

Program Overview

AP Capstone™ is an innovative college-level program based on two courses—AP Seminar and AP Research—that complement and enhance discipline-specific AP courses.

  • In AP Seminar, students are assessed on 2 performance tasks completed during the school year and a 2-hour end-of-course written exam administered in May. Check the AP Exam schedule.
  • In AP Research, students are assessed on a 4,000–5,000 word academic paper, and presentation and oral defense of their research. There is no exam administered in May.

Students who earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research and on four additional AP Exams of their choosing earn the AP Capstone Diploma™. Students who earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research but not on four additional AP Exams earn the AP Seminar and Research Certificate™.

Schools must apply to participate in the program. To learn more, go to collegeboard.org/apcapstone.

Role of the AP Coordinator

If you are an AP coordinator in a school that is participating in the AP Capstone diploma program, you must take the following steps to ensure students are set up to submit performance tasks for AP Seminar or AP Research and/or take the AP Seminar End-of-Course Exam.

New! The process for ordering AP Capstone Exams has been made easier with the 2019-20 changes to the AP Program.

AP coordinators order AP Seminar and AP Research Exams along with all other AP Exams in AP Registration and Ordering. AP Seminar End-of-Course Exams can be ordered for regular testing or late testing. AP Research Exams can only be ordered for regular testing. (AP Research does not have an end-of-course exam, but an exam must be ordered for each student enrolled in the course so their performance task can be scored by College Board.)

Schools no longer need to order preadministration materials. The new AP ID labels for 2019-20 eliminate the need for preadministration materials or Student Packs. For more information about AP Registration and Ordering, see Accessing and Using AP Registration and Ordering.

The AP Digital Portfolio is directly linked to My AP. When students enroll in an AP Seminar or AP Research class section in My AP, their enrollment will carry over to the AP Digital Portfolio. An AP ID will be assigned to the student through My AP and will also carry over to the AP Digital Portfolio. This eliminates the need for students to log in to the AP Digital Portfolio separately to enter an AP number.

The AP Digital Portfolio is a separate system from My AP. Students will still use the AP Digital Portfolio to submit their performance tasks for AP Seminar or AP Research, and teachers will still use the AP Digital Portfolio to submit their scores. Additionally, AP Seminar teachers will still use the AP Digital Portfolio to publish stimulus materials to students.

AP coordinators will still log in to the digital portfolio to check the final submission status of students’ performance tasks and status of teacher scoring.

New! Because students provide registration information when they first enroll in a class section in My AP, AP Seminar and AP Research students no longer need to complete a paper answer sheet.

Validate Online Submission

Students taking AP Seminar and AP Research will use the AP Digital Portfolio to submit final individual and team performance tasks for scoring. In the spring, the AP coordinator will use the digital portfolio to validate that uploaded student work is ready to be submitted to College Board for scoring by the April 30, 11:59 p.m. ET submission deadline and that all presentations have been scored by AP Seminar and AP Research teachers.

Additional instructions about using the AP Digital Portfolio are available in the Help section of the application.

AP Capstone Timeline for AP Coordinators

By November 15, 2019

April 30, 2020, 11:59 p.m. ET

  • All student presentations must be scored by AP Seminar and AP Research teachers by this deadline. All performance tasks that have been submitted as final by a student, and any teacher scores associated with those performance tasks, will automatically be sent to College Board.

May 12, 2020 (morning)

  • Administer the AP Seminar End-of-Course Exam.

Related Resources