Trigger Warning

The moment I finished answering my final oral defense question, my mind just went numb. I was done. Full-on Senioritis kicked in immediately. I did not want to do anything. My IQ dropped by a 100 points. My sanity suddenly returned to me. Stress became a foreign concept to me—waiting to be rediscovered during my college days. AP Research immediately ended...UNTIL I REALIZED I HAD TO WRITE ONE LAST BLOG. In the words of Mrs. Haag: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. So here I sit drunk off of Froyo and high off of Youtube videos, debating whether or not I want to write this last blog. Do I want to feel Mrs. Haag’s wrath or do I want to watch another Youtube video? Man, that’s a tough decision...alright, so that is it for this week’s blog, thank you for reading, I will be wasting away my life watching Youtube videos until COLLEGE.

Finally we are done.

HA! Just kidding. Did you really think that I would do such a thing like that? Well, if you did, you are right.

Ok. I was kidding. I am for real this time. Or am I?

Ok. Ok. I’ll stop. In all seriousness though, this has gotten me to 200 words, so I am already halfway to the word requirement. FINE. I will actually stop trolling. I am actually going to be serious now. Like actually. Trust me.

AP Seminar, in my opinion, was a lot tougher than AP Research. It was the learning curve—that transition from 10th grade level of thinking to Seminar level thinking— that we had to go through that ultimately made Seminar so tough. The techniques that I learned in Seminar ultimately made my life in Research a lot easier, since Research was essentially a larger, more comprehensive, more independent version of Seminar.

For me, AP Seminar improved my thinking and my writing skills. First, I learned new techniques on how to think about an argument or a topic through different perspectives (or lenses). It forced me to think about potential counterarguments and also taught me to address such counterarguments. Seminar changed the way I looked at and formulated an argument, but most importantly it improved my writing. I learned how to properly formulate an argument, organize my line or reasoning, and word my claims.

AP Research was essentially Seminar on steroids. Most of the tools that I had gained in Seminar were used in the literature review of my paper. Everything else in AP Research was another brand new learning experience. But, although the independent research part of AP Research was incredibly difficult, it was not as steep of a learning curve as the one we had in Seminar.

Research essentially took the tools we learned in Seminar out of the “bubble” that was the BASIS Scottsdale classroom and forced us to apply everything we learned to “the real world.” Also, Research really forced me to up my presentations skills. Yes, Seminar taught me a lot about presenting, but it was Research that really took it to the next level.

Last, but not least, the OG, the BAWS, the Ms. Hol—I mean—Mrs. Haag. She worked her butt off for us. She really helped us all the way through the process. If it weren’t for her, I might be out on the streets begging. Mrs. Haag literally killed it this year with everything, she was there every step of the way and helped all of us feel confident about our Research experience.

But the best lesson I learned was how to plagiarize and get away with it.

Ok. Ok. I’m just kidding. I think I just gave Mrs. Haag a heart attack there. I did not plagiarize (I actually got a 5% on my Originality check so everyone calm down).

But, the biggest lesson that AP Capstone taught me was…how to procrastinate.  

Jk. AP Capstone was a really valuable experience and I am really confident that it taught me skills useful for college and beyond that other classes could not teach me.

Word Count: 666 (I swear this was totally on accident...so...Happy Easter?)