AP Seminar EOC Exam Overview & Tips

Summary

In an engaging video, Mr. Z provides a thorough overview and essential tips for the AP Seminar End-of-Course exam, scheduled for May 5th. The exam has two parts, Part A focuses on analyzing a single source's argument and Part B involves crafting a written argument based on four sources. The tutorial delves into the specifics of the exam's format, including understanding author claims, evidence evaluation, and the rubrics used to score it. Students are encouraged to annotate thoughtfully and draw connections effectively through practice opportunities offered in class. Mr. Z provides insight into incorporating credible evidence and constructing a logical argument, underscoring successful strategies for scoring highly on the exam.

Highlights

• Mr. Z introduces the AP Seminar exam format, focusing on the importance of understanding its structure. 🧑‍🏫
• In Part A, students must identify an author's argument and evaluate the evidence used. Critical thinking and detailed annotation are key. 🧐
• Part B challenges students to build an original argument using information from four sources, with a focus on synthesis and coherence. 🌟
• Mr. Z advises planning with a thesis and claims, using sources effectively to back arguments, and emphasizing the logic flow. 📜
• The tutorial emphasizes practice and resource utilization, encouraging students to harness available tools for exam readiness. 🚀

Key Takeaways

• The AP Seminar EOC exam consists of a two-part structure, with Part A focusing on single-source analysis and Part B on crafting an argument from multiple sources. 📝
• Mr. Z recommends using 'says/does' annotations to track and evaluate claims and evidence in Part A. 📑
• A strategic and well-planned response for Part B can significantly impact your final score, as it holds 70% of the weight. 🏆
• Leveraging credible sources and logically connecting arguments are crucial for a high-scoring exam. 🔗
• Students have access to numerous supportive resources via Google Classroom to prepare effectively for the exam. 📚

Overview

Mr. Z kicks off the video with a warm welcome to AP Seminar students, detailing the agenda focused on mastering the upcoming exam. He promises an on-point introduction to the exam structure, followed by practical tips designed to elevate students' performance. Students can access shared resources like rubrics and high-scoring sample responses on Google Classroom to enhance their preparation.

Diving into Part A, students learn to dissect a singular source by identifying the argument's main idea and evaluating its line of reasoning. Mr. Z emphasizes the importance of says/does annotations to track claims and evidence used. Key success tips include evaluating evidence for credibility, relevance, and sufficiency, which forms the bedrock for crafting a coherent response.

For Part B, which constitutes a significant portion of the score, Mr. Z explains creating a personal argument by synthesizing evidence from four given sources. Strategies discussed include planning with a mini-outline, employing credibility lead-ins, using a clear thesis, and logically connecting ideas. Practice materials and additional tips on organizing responses are made available to aid thorough preparation.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction In the 'Introduction' chapter, Mr. Z provides an overview of the video content, which focuses on the AP Seminar end-of-course exam scheduled for May 5th at noon. He outlines that the video will cover the exam's directions, scoring guidelines, and rubrics. Additionally, Mr. Z mentions that he will share a document related to the exam on Google Classroom.
• 01:00 - 03:00: Overview of AP Seminar Final Exam This chapter provides an overview of the AP Seminar Final Exam. It introduces a one-page document that contains essential information about the exam, including directions, rubrics, and weightings for each exam component. Additionally, the document links to sample student responses categorized as high, medium, and low scoring, which will be reviewed after the video. The chapter aims to prepare students by giving them a clear understanding of how to effectively approach the AP Seminar Final Exam.
• 03:00 - 06:00: Part A: Annotating and Understanding Claims This chapter provides an overview of an educational exercise where students will engage in practice exams similar to their end-of-course assessments. The exercise includes two main components: Part A focuses on evaluating the debate surrounding the benefits of sweatshops for children, while Part B involves analyzing four different sources related to the theme of food. Students are required to read these components thoroughly and produce handwritten written responses, mimicking the actual exam conditions. The chapter aims to prepare students for the rigorous requirements of their final examinations by focusing on comprehension and written articulation of complex topics.
• 06:00 - 09:00: Part A: Evaluating Evidence Part A: Evaluating Evidence focuses on a two-hour long evaluation exercise divided into two parts: Part A and Part B. In Part A, you have to read a single source and track the author's argument. The goal is to identify the author's main idea, argument, or thesis, summarized in one to two sentences, as the answer to question one.
• 09:00 - 11:00: Part A: Tips and Strategy Chapter two focuses on analyzing the author's argumentative strategy, particularly through a multiple paragraph response format. The chapter emphasizes the importance of identifying the author's claims and understanding how these claims are connected. It also discusses evaluating the structure and effectiveness of the author’s argument, recognizing whether it is organized or disorganized.
• 11:00 - 13:00: Part A: Sample Analysis In 'Part A: Sample Analysis,' the focus is on evaluating the effectiveness of evidence in an argument. The aim is to determine whether the evidence used is credible, relevant to the claim, and sufficient to support the argument. The chapter guides readers in analyzing how effectively ideas are connected and provides criteria for assessing the quality of evidence presented.
• 13:00 - 18:00: Question Two: Analyzing Arguments The chapter provides a guide on analyzing arguments, specifically emphasizing the importance of understanding and breaking down the course rubric to identify keys for success. It encourages students to pause and carefully review the rubric, focusing on high-scoring criteria to enhance their performance in the course.
• 18:00 - 23:00: Question Three: Evaluating Evidence The chapter emphasizes the importance of using 'says does' annotations while reading to enhance comprehension and critical thinking. On one side of the text, readers should note what the author is actually saying. On the other side, they should identify which part of the argument the author is making, such as identifying claims and evidence. This approach helps in summarizing the main idea of each body paragraph once the entire text is read.
• 23:00 - 28:00: Part B: Written Argument Overview This chapter focuses on the process of analyzing a written argument, specifically using a sample about public libraries. The main task is to identify the main idea of the entire article, not just the first paragraph. It emphasizes the importance of tracking claims throughout the reading to understand the argument comprehensively.
• 28:00 - 35:30: Part B: Reading and Synthesizing Sources In Part B: Reading and Synthesizing Sources, the focus is on identifying claims within text. Claims often appear at the beginning of new paragraphs, indicating either a shift to a new point or an expansion on a prior one. Readers should be attentive to these transitions during exams. Additionally, it is crucial to evaluate the credibility of evidence supporting these claims. This involves checking for credibility lead-ins and background information regarding the sources used, ensuring the argument is solidly supported.
• 35:30 - 41:00: Part B: Planning and Writing the Response In "Part B: Planning and Writing the Response," the focus is on assessing the use of evidence in writing. Key points include evaluating whether the evidence presented is credible, relevant, and supports the claim effectively. Readers are encouraged to identify both effective and ineffective uses of evidence. Lastly, the importance of determining whether there is sufficient evidence to support an argument is emphasized.
• 41:00 - 43:00: Conclusion and Final Instructions The final chapter, titled 'Conclusion and Final Instructions,' focuses on providing guidance for crafting a comprehensive response to a question. It emphasizes the importance of using evidence to support claims and suggests that any issues or flaws identified in the argument should be noted while reading. The recommended time for this task is about 30 minutes, though up to 40 minutes is permissible.

AP Seminar EOC Exam Overview & Tips Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hi ep seminar students it's mr z here um today's video is going to be an overview and some tips and tricks about the end of course exam which will currently be happening on may 5th at noon so um what's in this video today uh first we're gonna go through an overview of the ap seminar final exam uh directions in scoring guidelines we'll take a look at those rubrics uh then i will be sharing this document with you uh this is over on google classroom
• 00:30 - 01:00 located right here eoc one pager and on this one pager it has just a one page view of the directions what you are to do rubrics are linked in here it has the weights for each part of the end of course exam and also has links to a sample that i'm going to have you view and it has high medium and low scoring student responses after this video is over and after you have a good idea of how to approach this ap seminar final exam the
• 01:00 - 01:30 substitute teacher should be giving you a practice and of course exam part a sweatshops benefit children and part b which is the four sources with the theme of food so you'll be reading both of those and then you'll be completing your written response uh by handwriting the response just like you do for the end of course exam so let's dive into this stuff um first thing first as we look at our end of course exam it is around 120
• 01:30 - 02:00 minutes long so exactly two hours long there are two different parts there is what's called the part a and the part b uh the part a oops the part a is one source that you have to read and within that source you have to be tracking the author's argument so uh your goal is to identify the author's main idea argument or thesis that is question one one to two sentences what's the main idea of the entire source
• 02:00 - 02:30 uh question two is a multiple paragraph response where you are explaining the author's line of reasoning by identifying the claims that they made throughout their argument and identifying how they connect their ideas from one to another and so really this is going to be tracking the author's claims and understanding the order of these claims and making sense of them sometimes these are disorganized sometimes they're organized well that is your job to evaluate whether or not it is effective and organized and whether
• 02:30 - 03:00 or not ideas are connected effectively or not lastly for question three for the part a um you are going to be evaluating the effectiveness of evidence and what they mean by that is you look at the evidence that's used throughout the argument and your goal is to determine is this evidence credible is it relevant to the claim being made and is there sufficient evidence to support the argument so um if you would like to really really
• 03:00 - 03:30 quickly go ahead and pause my video and you can take a look at the end of course rubric now what i want you to do with this rubric is really break it down and determine what is uh what are the keys to success for this high scoring row go ahead and pause the video and then you can pick it back up whenever you are done reviewing that rubric okay so you are finished up with reviewing that rubric and you've really noticed that there are a couple of keys to success with this part a so um
• 03:30 - 04:00 as we read a key to success is going to be doing our says does annotations while reading on one side of the text what is the author actually saying on the other side what part of the argument is the author currently in so identifying claims on that right-hand side of the page identifying evidence that's used uh versus on the left side you're just kind of summarizing the main idea of each body paragraph once you've read through the entire
• 04:00 - 04:30 piece there's a sample linked in here if you would like to take a look at it um eoca this one is about public libraries uh you can see it's relatively short um it's about a page page and a half but you're trying to identify the main idea of the entire article not the first paragraph but the entire article that is for uh question one there so um identifying that main idea of the entire piece and then as you are reading as well ensuring that you're tracking those claims that you see throughout and
• 04:30 - 05:00 oftentimes we know that claims are going to be at the start of any new paragraph they're going to be either shifting to a new claim or building upon a previous claim so that's a good place to look for those claims as you move through this exam um also as you are reading the questions you want to look for and ask yourself are is the evidence that's being used is it credible which means are there credibility lead-ins do they give background about the sources that they're using to support their argument
• 05:00 - 05:30 you can always criticize if they don't or you can always applaud them or uh you know say that they did an effective job with evidence if they are including credible evidence also you want to check is it relevant to the point they're making some evidence that's used might not be relevant to a claim or it might be very relevant so you want to tell me that as you are kind of reading and annotating identifying effective versus ineffective uses of evidence and then lastly is it sufficient right is there enough
• 05:30 - 06:00 evidence to prove a claim those can all be things that you use to write about in your response to question three here um and then lastly any sort of issues with the argument as a whole that you identify as you read or flaws with the argument definitely write those things down as you read and annotate and then you should be able to uh really fully elaborate on each one of these questions so the approach for the part a is as followed they recommend about 30 minutes um but you can take up to 40 is
• 06:00 - 06:30 what i would recommend the first 7 to 12 minutes you want to spend reading the source again doing what i just had discussed reading and says does annotating identifying the main idea of the entire article tracking each claimed really figuring out how many claims are made and what are the claims that are used to support the argument and then understanding is the argument flawed in any way also are the claims connected to one another if so how are they connected
• 06:30 - 07:00 and then as you are reading as well really looking at the evidence that's used is it credible is it sufficient and is it relevant so 7 to 12 minutes really breaking down the argument then you approach each question you answer each question on a separate page of paper they're labeled at the top of those written response sheets again question one one to three sentences that explains the main idea or thesis of the entire piece so if you wanted to
• 07:00 - 07:30 take a look at a sample here you can see the high scoring example for the end of course a the author's main argument is that although libraries are threatened by a lack of funding they are an integral part of the american social fabric and they might help to bridge the digital divide though uh striving for oh through striving equity of access so libraries can be a place for people to access information um and they could be
• 07:30 - 08:00 more equitable but sadly they are threatened due to a lack of funding is the main idea of this entire piece so there's a sample for you to take a look at uh right there for question one now question two is a little bit more complicated it is a multi-paragraph response and if you just scroll down in that high scoring sample you can get an idea of how long you should be writing this person looks like they filled up about two pages of writing whenever you are reading this and analyzing this high scoring sample some
• 08:00 - 08:30 of those keys to success on question two are going to be as follows do you first explain the main idea just like you did in part one then you're really evaluating how clear the line of reasoning is so how many claims are made are they strong claims are they presented in a logical manner or might they not be presented in a logical manner you're really going through and chronologically identifying each claim made so the author's first claim to support their argument is this
• 08:30 - 09:00 then you elaborate whether that is clear unclear strong support for their argument or weaker support you're kind of looking at the claims that are being made then how is that claim connected to the next claim identify the next one i would say this is anywhere between three and six paragraphs normally uh where you're really just identifying claims and then going through and determining is this organized in a clear-cut way or not and then lastly uh for and if you want to see samples again those are linked in
• 09:00 - 09:30 here in that one page where you can read a student high scoring response now lastly here question three is a multiple paragraph response again and it's going to ask you to evaluate the evidence that's being used by the author and if we've been tracking that well as we read you simply are explaining each uh claim throughout the argument and you're determining the evidence that's used underneath each claim you can name the type of evidence right is it an anecdote
• 09:30 - 10:00 is it statistical evidence is it a testimonial as evidence are those uses of evidence credible so do we know the background of the source or the author that is uh being used to support the argument if not you can say it's ineffective evidence if yes they are credible tell me what makes them credible a second thing we are uh really making sure that those pieces of evidence are relevant to the claim being made so they're not using it in a relevant way you want to know that it's related to the point they're trying to
• 10:00 - 10:30 make uh if it is then you can lift it up as a strength of the evidence used if it's not really relevant definitely talk about it's not relevant and explain why throughout your response and then lastly uh is there sufficient evidence like we know some claims are bigger than others if there's a large claim in a bold claim is there enough support do they have multiple pieces of evidence or might it be lacking if they have a lot of evidence you would say that it's sufficient to support the claim and if there's not a ton of evidence you
• 10:30 - 11:00 would say that it lacks sufficiency in some way so those are kind of uh the tips and the strategy for the part a if you want to go ahead and pause the video and work through your part a the practice one again that you'll be getting in class is called sweatshops benefit children you go ahead and pause my video and you can work through that part now whenever you're ready you can pick the video back up here and i'll be talking through uh part two which is the
• 11:00 - 11:30 part b okay so if you've paused the video welcome back um we are also going to be talking about uh the part b for the end of course exam um so the part b is worth around 70 of your score so this is going to be the question we really want to make sure we are ready for uh it's simply a written argument we've been writing arguments all year so i trust that you have a lot of the basic skills to form a thesis statement supported by claims and evidence
• 11:30 - 12:00 but how are we going to form this argument what is this argument going to be about well that's based on the four sources so what college board does is they give you four sources of information you read each one just like our performance task two there is a theme or a concept or an idea that is connected within all the sources um you can look at the sample here the theme is motivation if you would like to kind of skim through that and get an idea you may do so
• 12:00 - 12:30 there's also high medium and low scoring responses and then the practice one that you are going to be writing about the theme is about food so different ways to improve food and reduce food waste so um go ahead and take a minute if you want to pull up the rubric for a second just to clarify any directions go ahead and pause this video and make sure you are moving through this rubric and identifying what it takes to receive a high score
• 12:30 - 13:00 so if you have done that the keys to success on part b are going to be very very similar to our performance task 2 and the stimulus materials that we work through you have four short sources and you're going to want to read and identify the main idea of each source and then identify what is the theme or the concept that's connecting all of them so a good recommendation for how to do that is just take a scratch piece of paper as you can see here write out each
• 13:00 - 13:30 source in a corner or in a quadrant of the paper write down the main idea in any evidence that you see that you think is relevant and then in the center you can write the theme and you can kind of form what your argument's going to be so again there's going to be one theme that ties all of these together and your goal is going to be to write an argument a personal argument with a unique perspective based on what you learned from those four sources now that's not all if you are reviewing the rubric here you know
• 13:30 - 14:00 that you have to really have a clear argument so you want a thesis statement you want some claims to support your argument and you want to find evidence to support those claims now where do you locate those those pieces of evidence if you actually find those within the four sources themselves so you want to synthesize or connect at least two of the sources from uh the four that you're given you want to utilize evidence from at least two of those within your response
• 14:00 - 14:30 so again you wanna making sure that you are synthesizing and utilizing at minimum two of the sources if you can utilize three uh you can do that as well so um as we are moving through uh these keys to success we know that in order to get there we're going to need to read analyze annotate those different sources and really get those main ideas and get that theme figured out early on once you are done with really reading and analyzing the sources you then want
• 14:30 - 15:00 to move into your own stance so form your own thesis you then kind of briefly outline an argument that will support that thesis and you determine what are the two sources you can use and what is the evidence you're going to use from those sources to support your claims then again you are writing your response and you are synthesizing those two sources when you reference them in your response you want to say source a source b source c if you can use credibility lead-ins uh definitely do that you know
• 15:00 - 15:30 that's a good writing move have a clear line of reasoning so definitely connecting your ideas in a logical way first this then this then this prove your point and anytime you can add commentary or your own personal knowledge you are welcome to do that you can use that to clarify conclude and connect to your argument in some way so like i said before um it's an hour and a half for the entire exam the part b what is recommended is around an hour
• 15:30 - 16:00 and 20 minutes to an hour and 30 minutes um so the stages and the approach that i would take to move through the part b are as follows the first stage is reading and analysis of those sources and i would read and says does just like you did for the part a identifying the parts of the argument main idea evidence used i would use this quadrant approach or at least a scratch sheet of paper to get the main idea of each source so that you're clear on what that theme is later on
• 16:00 - 16:30 once you've identified the main idea you can write down the theme if you use the quadrant sheets write down the theme in the center or if you're using scratch sheets just make sure you write that theme down now once you've identified the theme you know you have to write an argument and in order to have a strong line of reasoning we have to plan out our argument so i think a mini outline is something that you can do on a scratch sheet of paper where you just write down your thesis you write down your claims and that's when you're going to want to start to
• 16:30 - 17:00 figure out uh what evidence can i use to support my argument so looking back to the sources source a b c or d what evidence can you use where to support your unique perspective or your argument now this is definitely easier said than done but one thing to keep in mind is our solutions buckets that we talked about when it came to the part b you know that government action can be offered as an argument maybe that is related to the theme you've identified the four sources arguing for increased
• 17:00 - 17:30 laws social programs subsidies regulations maybe some more oversight or committees you could argue for individual change so people do something individually to alter their practices you could argue for some sort of expansion of technology or altering technology if that is what the theme allows for if lack of education is something you could definitely argue for an increased education or access to information or some sort of new advocacy group or
• 17:30 - 18:00 social movement to spread the word about this unknown topic or problem if that's what the theme allows for and lastly we know that we can argue unique solutions by changing existing institutions if that is part of the problem so almost on your scratch sheet of paper what you want to form is something like this your main idea or thesis what is your argument based on the four sources it should be a unique argument that is not present in the source then kind of scratching out your i don't know two to four main reasons
• 18:00 - 18:30 why your claims and then finding out which pieces of evidence from what source might help you to support each claim so again you're taking about 15 minutes to plan that response your general thesis and idea at least three claims and then evidence from your different sources at minimum two sources to support that argument and then lastly you want to take about 40 to 60 minutes um so that last hour of the exam to
• 18:30 - 19:00 really draft out this argument and this is something that though it is a time crunch here if you organized well up to this point you should be able to get a basic argument out with your clear thesis statement and unique solution and you should be able to utilize at least two of the sources if you're interested in seeing a sample end of course b go ahead and take a look at that here also here is a high scoring response from a student you can see this
• 19:00 - 19:30 is a couple pages long around three to four pages usually um they you know have a clear introduction context they have their thesis here just like we do in class they're claims supported by the different sources you can even see this a source a source b with in-text citations that is definitely an option uh for you there so um generally speaking that is the overview of the end of course exam and like i had stated at the start of this video um definitely take a look at
• 19:30 - 20:00 google classroom if you are struggling um i have this one pager linked in there i have some sentence stems and a checklist if you would like to use that as a reference and then i have some notes with steps if you would like to follow those as you're putting together your response over the next couple of class periods um now when do i want your end of course exam stuff completed uh please make sure you complete this by april 28th which is uh thursday this week you will just write your responses
• 20:00 - 20:30 on the response sheets on the line paper that is provided for you and then go ahead and put that into the blue bin by the door and turn in next to your period's name make sure your name is on that document as well and then later this week and into next week we will review go over the end of course exam a bit more and really see how we can grow our scores um if there are any questions feel free to reach out to me via email i will not
• 20:30 - 21:00 see you until thursday or at least most of you because of cmass testing so have a wonderful week and good luck on your presentations as well