Enloe Magnet High School is excited to announce the launch of the AP’s first course dedicated entirely to Gen-Z slang: Yap AP, or “YAP” for short.
As a new form of communication, yapping has taken the world by storm. Today, a remarkable 87% of spoken words are categorized as “yapping.” To adapt to our rapidly changing society, the AP overlords elected this as a newfound class for all graduated students, who will have to come back to high school and take it. Yapping isn’t exclusive to the TikTok sensation, where it first emerged in mid to late 2023. It was often used to comment on videos, such as “What is bro yapping about?” An absolute stride in the usage of the English language and the wide variety in our linguistic capabilities became a common way to express confusion about a piece of content. The word “yap” was originally coined in the 1660s to describe the bark of a small dog, a “yapping dog.” In 1868, the meaning evolved into what we understand it to mean today: mindless chatter. In recent years, the word has exploded from hibernation to be used 5 billion times a second.
What is this class?
In this AP class, students will dive into mindless slang. Studying pop culture vocabulary through time and how the very dictionary has been affected by this widely accepted language usage. In the 1900s alone, collywobbles, hotdogs, and flappers were introduced to the language. Group seminars and discussions will be the primary method of teaching to help students prepare for the AP exam format. Throughout the year, students will research various topics/themes/ideas that will benefit them by providing a toolbox of knowledge to be used on the exam. Similar to AP research or AP seminar, this class adds a layer of oral presentation that isn’t usually present in AP exams, besides for languages.
YAP Exam
This 2-part exam aims to see how a student can begin at one topic and touch on as many unrelated topics/themes/ideas as possible while integrating them seamlessly into the original presented topic/theme/idea. The exam consists of an oral assessment with two sections: three free-response yaps (FRYs) and one document-based yap (DBY). The FRYs are 12 minutes long, during which students are provided with stimuli, given two minutes to prepare, and then expected to yap for ten minutes on the provided topic. Points start at zero and increase to 536.7 points which are awarded based on the detail of the yap and the amount of social commentary or questionable evidence presented, extra points for using social media as a source of information. Across all parts of the exam, using outdated slang correctly in a modern sentence is how to achieve a 7 on an AP exam. The document-based YAP has a unique never-before-seen structure on an AP exam. Students are given a sheet of paper with three topics/themes/ideas with lines connecting them. Within 45 minutes, students are expected to write an essay connecting the provided stimuli. Scoring is identical to the FRY’s, with points starting at 0 and points increasing up to the standard 536.7. This exam is the longest out of all AP exams, taking up 82 minutes of test-taking time and another two hours of free talking time with provided Chick-Fil-A.
This class is truly a step forward in keeping up with the modern language, no longer having outdated AP classes, and making every high schooler take this class!
