AP Capstone Diploma™ Program

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 digital AP 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.
• AP Seminar is a prerequisite for AP Research.
• Schools can choose to offer AP Seminar as a standalone course if they don’t want to participate in the AP Capstone Diploma program.

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™.

Ordering

AP coordinators order AP Seminar and AP Research Exams along with all other AP Exams in AP Registration and Ordering. For more information about ordering AP Exams, go to Ordering and Fees.

• 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. Reminder: 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.

AP Digital Portfolio

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.

Students will use the AP Digital Portfolio to submit their performance tasks for AP Seminar or AP Research, and teachers will use the AP Digital Portfolio to submit their scores. Additionally, AP Seminar teachers will use the AP Digital Portfolio to publish stimulus materials to students and assign students to teams.

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

Visit the AP Digital Portfolio page for more information. 

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 AP Digital Portfolio to validate that student work has been submitted by the April 30, 2025, 11:59 p.m. ET submission deadline and that AP Seminar and AP Research teachers have scored all presentations and completed required affirmations by the May 10, 2025, 11:59 p.m. ET.

AP coordinators don’t have to manually submit work to the AP Program through the AP Digital Portfolio for it to be scored. All performance tasks that have been submitted as final by a student will automatically be sent to the AP Program for scoring after the deadline as long as an exam was ordered for them.

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