What is the Advanced Placement Capstone Diploma?

Mark London, head of marketing at ACS International Schools, explains the elements of the Advanced Placement Capstone Diploma Programme and how it benefits globally mobile students as they prepare for higher education and life beyond.

Mark London

2 February 2017

The Advanced Placement (AP) programme is a firm favourite amongst globally mobile students. Consisting of one-year, highly rigorous courses, the AP programme is taught across a range of subjects, 38 in total, and allows students to complete as many or as few courses as they wish during their high-school career.The programme originates in the US, but is recognised as a prestigious post-16 qualification by universities worldwide, and students can study the AP in any of the 116 countries where it is taught.The AP Capstone Diploma is a more recently introduced two-year course designed to enhance and extend the in-depth study discipline of the AP programme. Through the diploma, students develop independent, collaborative skills essential for thriving at university and the world of work.The AP Capstone Diploma is offered at select schools, with ACS Cobham the first school in Europe invited to offer the curriculum to its students.

AP Seminar and AP Research

Alongside four curriculum AP classes of their choice, students undertaking the AP Capstone also enroll in AP Seminar and AP Research classes over two years. The first year requires students to take the AP Seminar module, which focuses on university- or college-level research, critical thinking and presentation skills, both written and oral, in groups and individually. The courses give students additional analytics skills that transfer across curriculums and other subject learning.

In the second year, completing the AP Research module, students research a topic of their choice in depth, culminating in a formal research essay of around 5,000 words, and an oral presentation in a university-style assessment. In order to receive the full Capstone Diploma, students must take AP Seminar and AP Research and pass the final exams with a score of three to five, as well as pass the four other AP modules of their choice.Students who are not taking AP courses can still take AP Seminar and AP Research modules and be awarded the AP Seminar and AP Research Certificate, showing that they have attained college-level academic and research skills.

University prospects

Ultimately, this two-year process reveals a student’s ability to collect, evaluate, analyse and synthesise knowledge and information, and communicate the findings, indicating a high level of preparation for university or college courses.Completing the AP Capstone courses shows higher-education admission officers that students are challenging themselves and preparing for the rigorous level of study they'll encounter at their institution and beyond.For example, one ACS Cobham student, Calvin Chapman, undertook his AP Capstone Research project in order to examine the relationship between sport participation and academic achievement, using statistical analysis of his own data.“The AP Capstone Programme is definitely something I would recommend to others,” Calvin said. “It gave me the opportunity to take on a project that was completely original and independent, unlike anything else I had done at school. I had the freedom to research and study exactly what I was interested in, which really motivated me.“I learned how to manage my time, stay organised and how to evaluate and analyse sources and information on a far deeper level than I had done before. I was independently researching and writing, which in turn enabled me to become more confident and develop transferrable study skills.”It’s also been shown by numerous studies in the US that AP students have a higher rate of success at university than students without such qualifications or preparedness.A recent ACS Cobham Alumni said, “I learned college-level writing and critical thinking skills especially in my AP Capstone classes. These skills will be very valuable in my continued education.”Depending on a student’s goals, learning styles and university aspirations, the AP can be a very strong alternative to other post-16 qualifications, such as A Levels and the IB Diploma. Here at ACS Cobham, we’ve witnessed more international students being drawn to the AP Capstone Diploma for the learning experience and to enhance their opportunities for university placement, both in the UK and at institutions across the globe. They finish school with highly developed skills that enable them to truly thrive and succeed in the academic sphere and far beyond.