While most AP students prepare for their AP testing in mid-May, AP 2-D and 3D Studio Art students will instead assemble their portfolios for submission by May 7.

According to the College Board, the AP Studio Art Portfolio is a “performance-based exam rather than a written exam,” meaning that judges look for the growth and development of skills.

“It sounds very qualitative,” senior Dominic Frost said, “but it is actually easily visually measurable.”

The portfolio acts as an art student’s AP exam and serves to give them early college credits like any other AP exam. The judges look for coherency, technical skill and diversity in use of media.

To create their portfolio, 2-D art students must submit three groups of work, each composing one third of the students’ scores, art teacher Gillian Bailey said.

First, students submit 12 pieces of artwork from any of their years as artists, usually projects made from assignments in Art II and III. This section is designed to show diversity in concepts, mediums and techniques.

In preparation for this submission, as well as for college application portfolios, students in Arts I, II, and III have been uploading photos of all their artwork online, Bailey said.

“It’s part of being a professional artist, to be able to document your work online,” Bailey said. “Who are you if you don’t have a website?”

The next part of the exam submission process is a 12-piece concentration, and this is what the AP artists have spent their entire senior year working on. These 12 pieces must have a visual and conceptual coherence, much like a clothing designer’s runway collection. Students are also asked to write out the concept of their concentration in less than 500 characters.

“It’s been a lot of stress to make sure all the pieces in our concentrations are dynamic and incorporate the elements and principles that the judges are looking for,” senior Rachel Frankel said.

Students are given a lot more freedom during their senior year to come up with original works, Bailey said. Meanwhile, she takes a step back, acting more as a mentor and resource for the students as they find their own voice.

“Ms. Bailey has helped relieve a lot of stress by keeping us on a calendar so we get all our pieces done without the last minute rush and procrastination,” Frankel said.

In total, students submit 24 pieces of artwork, all through an online submission process. However, the AP 2D and 3D Studio Art examiners also ask that all artists send five selected works from their 24 through mail so that they may see and judge the art in person.

“As long as my chosen theme is obviously present, I can do whatever I want,” Frost said.

Last week, students completed their eleventh concentration piece and hung up a selection of completed pieces for the AP art show in the library.