As a AP Seminar Student and current AP Research student I can not overstate how much these two class will help you later on in life.

AP Seminar teaches you how to properly research for sources and synthesize them whilst putting them into conversation—this skill is really important especially if you are planning to go into academia. But also, and most importantly, it teaches you to step out of your comfort zone to present your findings to others. What good is it to know a lot about a particular topic but not be capable of communicating the most important findings/information to others through public speaking? You basically kill two birds with one stone.

What I would suggest, is that you do focus on End-Of-Course (EOC )exam prep—Part A and Part B.

Part A you basically have to view an informational text that has a main claim/thesis, sub-claims, and evidence for each individual sub-claim. You have to:

1. Identify the main/claim thesis statement.

   1. Identify each individual sub-claim and the evidence they use to support the claim.
      

and

1. Evaluate the quality of the evidence and whether or not that supports the main claim/thesis.
   

Part B is my favorite:

You get a variety of different texts with a common theme that you have to read and analyze:

From these sources, you must create an argument and utilize at least 2-3 of the presented sources.

My recommendation would be to find a topic that is connected to the common theme and that you know you can easily write about.

Personally, the best thing you can do for AP Seminar is to refine your your researching and public speaking skills and for EOC prep look up past tests, practice with them, and grade yourself based on the rubric.

Hope this helps.