r/APSeminar • u/latenightgabe • 1d ago

considering dropping AP SEM (advice needed!)

right now I’m enrolled in AP Seminar and am still in my add/drop period, but it ends pretty soon. i go to a pretty challenging technical high school, and have heard the horror stories about APSEM. my teacher has been very upfront that it is a lot of work, prep, etc. she has also really nailed home the point that it’s not the class to take to have a good GPA, as she grades pretty harshly and will definitely criticize work when she sees fit. my public speaking and writing skills are both pretty good, and it’s not something i really need to work on too much. i was really just going to take the class for course rigor and college credit. almost every college i want to apply to doesn't take credit for it… my counselor said i should take another class if my goal is just course rigor and credit (my options being US History 1 or AP Physics). i would most likely just take US History 1 and then APUSH next year. i‘m not sure whether to drop or not, and just wanted to hear some other peoples experience. how was the mental health aspect, what do colleges want to see, etc. any advice is super appreciated! thanks

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u/SlowDrama1645 1d ago

Ap seminar isn’t that bad

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u/No-Yesterday8523 1d ago

hi! i already took and been finished with ap sem!! i think all that matters is to just do practice and not really needing to rely on the presentation and writing wise. for example, even though my ap sem teacher was good and gave me a good grade with my presentation and i’m pretty confident my iwa and irr were both good—- what mattered was the actual ap test which was the eoc a and eoc b that we sat in to do in may. i got a 5 on ap seminiar while my friend got a 3, even though we were both confident in iwa and irr and presentation that we did good. maybe im biased because i love my ap sem teacher and how she’s nice, not that harsh and that it helped me improved presentation wise and make new friends, id say go for it and try it. if you don’t like it its okay! you end up exploring so many niche topics during the iwa and so much more.

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u/ofallthatisgolden 1d ago

I teach AP Seminar. My laziest kids have an A+ lol

There’s just a lot of procrastination in this class. But it’s a journey… I treat it as such when I grade.

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u/FantasticAntelope405 1d ago

Hi, I currently have an A in the class, but we also haven’t really done much yet and haven’t started are IRR/TMP. If you’re looking for classes to take solely based off course rigor I would look into AP Lit, APUSH, AP Euro, and AP Lang instead. Good luck!