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Home > AP Courses and Exams > AP Exam Questions > The AP Studio Art Drawing Portfolio

The AP Studio Art Drawing Portfolio

The Studio Art Portfolio
Quality
Concentration
Breadth
Scoring Guidelines
Student Performance Q&A
Grade Distributions
Scoring Statistics
The Studio Art Poster

The Studio Art Portfolio
The Advanced Placement Program in Studio Art: Drawing is a performance-based visual exam. Each student develops and submits a portfolio that serves as a direct demonstration of achievement. The term "drawing" is used very broadly; all sorts of art that involves directly making marks on a surface can fit into this portfolio. This includes not only work in traditional drawing media -- such as pencils, ink, and pastels -- but also many kinds of painting, printmaking, and other forms of expression. The only media that are not allowed in this portfolio are photography and digital art.

There's nothing quite like looking at actual work, so the first section of the portfolio consists of five works that are limited only by size -- they have to fit into an 18-by-24-inch envelope. On the other hand, there's a limit to how much actual work can be physically accommodated for scoring, so the other two sections are submitted in slide form. Although slides are less direct than looking at the works themselves, they actually provide a tremendous advantage; documenting the work in this way means that students are free to work as large as they like for the rest of the portfolio.

The portfolio they are required to produce for Studio Art: Drawing is a performance-based visual exam. Each portfolio requires submissions in three distinct sections: Quality, Concentration, and Breadth.

Quality
The Quality section promotes the development of a sense of excellence in art. For this section, students submit five works that best demonstrate excellence. There are no preconceptions about what the works will look like -- they may have been created quickly or over a long period of time; they may be drawn from observation, imagination, or a combination. The five works chosen for the Quality section may come from the student's Concentration section and/or Breadth section, but they don't have to. They may be a group of related works, unrelated works, or a combination of related and unrelated works.
  2007 Studio Art Drawing: Quality Samples
  2006 Studio Art Drawing: Quality Samples
  2005 Studio Art Drawing: Quality Samples
  2004 Studio Art Drawing: Quality Samples
  2003 Studio Art Drawing: Quality Samples
  2002 Studio Art Drawing: Quality Samples

Concentration
The Concentration section shows the student's in-depth exploration of a particular design concept. It is presented as 12 slides, some of which may be details of works. The stress is on a coherent idea and development of the work, in addition to the artistic success of the work.
  2007 Studio Art Drawing: Concentration Samples
  2006 Studio Art Drawing: Concentration Samples
  2005 Studio Art Drawing: Concentration Samples
  2004 Studio Art Drawing: Concentration Samples
  2003 Studio Art Drawing: Concentration Samples
  2002 Studio Art Drawing: Concentration Samples

Breadth
The Breadth section shows the range of experimentation and experience in drawing. It is presented as 12 slides, each of which shows a different work. In addition to its quality, each work is scored on the degree to which it actually shows a variety of approaches to drawing.
  2007 Studio Art Drawing: Breadth Samples
  2006 Studio Art Drawing: Breadth Samples
  2005 Studio Art Drawing: Breadth Samples
  2004 Studio Art Drawing: Breadth Samples
  2003 Studio Art Drawing: Breadth Samples
  2002 Studio Art Drawing: Breadth Samples

Scoring Guidelines
Please note: The links to Scoring Guidelines for this course are in Adobe® PDF format, and you will need to use the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® to view them. If you don't have Acrobat Reader 6.0 or higher installed on your computer, choose the link for the Adobe Web site below for installation instructions. For help downloading and printing PDF files, choose the link "PDF Troubleshooting" below in "See also."
  2007 Scoring Guidelines
  2006 Scoring Guidelines
  2005 Scoring Guidelines
  2004 Scoring Guidelines
  2003 Scoring Guidelines
  2002 Scoring Guidelines

Student Performance Q&A
  2007 Student Performance Q&A
  2006 Student Performance Q&A
  2005 Student Performance Q&A
  2004 Student Performance Q&A
  2003 Student Performance Q&A
  2002 Student Performance Q&A
  2001 Student Performance Q&A

Grade Distributions
  2007 Grade Distributions
  2006 Grade Distributions
  2005 Grade Distributions
  2004 Grade Distributions
  2003 Grade Distributions
  2002 Grade Distributions

Scoring Statistics
  2007 Scoring Statistics
  2006 Scoring Statistics
  2005 Scoring Statistics
  2004 Scoring Statistics
  2003 Scoring Statistics

The Studio Art Poster
To order the AP Studio Art Poster for 2007-08, choose the AP Order Form or College Board Store link below.
  AP Order Form
  College Board Store
  Images from the Studio Art Poster





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