Join the QUEST: What Exactly IS AP Research?

What exactly IS AP Research? AP Research is a unique Advanced Placement course that builds upon foundations and skills introduced in AP Seminar. It is the culminating class in the AP Capstone diploma program, and the course cultivates the skills and discipline(s) necessary to conduct independent research and inquiry with the ultimate goal of students producing and defending their scholarly work.

The AP Research course allows students to “deeply explore an academic topic, problem, issue, or idea of individual interest”. Your task will be to design, plan, and implement a year-long investigation and study to address a research question of your own design. Throughout the process, you will be continuing to develop the skills introduced in AP Seminar, and you will also reflect upon the process and document the development of your growth and research along the way.

While AP Research draws upon the skills from AP Seminar, it is an entirely new adventure for you. Similar to AP Seminar, you will be in the driver’s seat for much of the course. Additionally, the QUEST framework is still our central framework. As a reminder, QUEST stands for

Q - Question and Explore
U - Understand and Analyze
E - Evaluate Multiple Perspectives
S - Synthesize Ideas
T - Team, Transform and Transmit

Infographic from the College Board demonstrating the recursive nature of the framework.

These are the skills that you will continue to cultivate during the course; they also serve as the five big ideas that the course is organized around. As you work hard to refine your skills, you will be amazed at what you are capable of doing and the growth that you see in your own research and writing abilities!

The end products of this course – what you are working hard to achieve from the start – are your submissions to College Board. Unlike other AP courses, AP Research does not have a traditional AP Exam that you will sit for. Instead, throughout the course, you will identify a gap in research in an area/topic of your choosing and research, design, and complete a sustained Research Inquiry, ultimately producing a scholarly research paper of 4,000 – 5,000 words and also completing a Presentation and Oral Defense (POD). Along the way, you will document all of your steps and revisions. At the end of the year, your finished Research Paper and your POD will be submitted for scoring to College Board using their online digital portfolio platform.

AP logo POD Logo

Before Moving On

The scope of AP Research can be intimidating at first – but you’re ready for the challenge! Hopefully, you have a good idea of what the end goals are for the class and are excited to begin the process of identifying your own topic of study so that we can begin the process of “big R” Research!

[CC BY-NC-SA 4.0] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION - INTENDED ONLY FOR USE WITHIN LESSON.

QUEST IMAGE COURTESY OF THE COLLEGE BOARD, AP RESEARCH CED, P.8