AP Seminar

Digital Practice and Testing Information

Updated April 8

Digital Practice Now Available

Starting April 8, you can try out the test-day experience, by answering example questions in the digital testing application. See the Digital Practice page for general information about practice options.

AP Seminar students will have two options to answer example questions in the digital testing application. Both provide approximately the same time limit per question as the full exam.

• Digital Practice is full-length (Part A and Part B, 2 hours).  
• The App Demo consists only of Part A, and lasts 30 minutes.

We highly recommend you take the Digital Practice, and strongly advise that if you can’t take the Digital Practice, at least take the App Demo. Both can be taken multiple times, and can be accessed directly in the digital testing application. You can access your answers and FRQ scoring guidelines for the Digital Practice. Note: Taking the App Demo after completing Digital Practice may override your answers from Digital Practice.

Taking the Digital Exam

You should be aware of some aspects of testing digitally that you’ll encounter–in the Digital Practice and on exam day:

• The digital testing application includes an annotation tool, which allows students to mark text and make notes on the provided sources. You can use the digital annotation tool to highlight key elements within texts, organize your thoughts, and create brief notes. While the annotations will not be scored, annotating is an opportunity for students to analyze texts to help them as they write their responses.
• The directions for Part A of the exam are the same on the paper and pencil and digital exams. However, the provided source on the digital exam may include footnotes, which students should consider as part of their analysis.
• The rubric for Part B of the digital exam has been adjusted slightly with points distributed differently across rows. The directions for Part B are the same as usual, but students must follow the instruction to incorporate at least two of the provided sources to access higher scores on the rubric. View the Part B rubric for the digital exam.
• On Part B, you’ll view the Sources directly in the exam app. You can click on the tabs on the left side of the screen, lettered A through D, to view one source at a time. You may need to scroll down to view the tabs and the complete sources.
  
• As a reminder, students will type all responses directly in the digital exam application. Scratch paper is permitted for notes or planning, but students cannot handwrite or otherwise upload responses. 
• Students may go back and forth among questions 1, 2 and 3 while answering Part A, but once they move onto Part B, they cannot go back to Part A. They must complete Part A first.
• Exam directions and section-specific directions will not be read by a proctor–they’ll appear entirely in the application. You’ll see them at the beginning of each section, and can access them at any time during the exam. Please note that the exam timer starts when the directions appear. While you should read the directions, be aware that the timer will be running while you do so. You can view the full text of the exam and section directions in advance of the exam.