^^^as for the experience, everything @skieurope said is accurate.
More detail:
1-I had the “easy” teacher and scored a 4 and got a 96 in the class, my friend had the “hard” teacher and got a 4 with an 85 in the class. It really depends on the teacher.
2- Again, depends on the teacher. I had about one in-class essay a month and maybe one hw assignment a week. My friend above had an in-class essay every week and nightly hw.
3- Again, depends on the teacher. You’ll most be doing article analysis and essay writing though, as well as research.
4- Not as a senior
5- Yes, if you’ve completed the program with AP Research
6- Yes, if you take it with AP Research, the courses build off one another
7- See 1
8- Check with the colleges. Most don’t, or they’ll do it on a case-by-case basis. Check out this from college board. (Some give credit for the whole program)
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/getting-credit-placement/search-policies/course/40
For me, it was pretty easy since I had a fun and laidback teacher, for my friends with the other teacher, it made up about half of their hw (which was a lot). Overall, I don’t think it’s worth it if you aren’t going to do the full Capstone diploma since most of the “skills” you learn can be taught in other classes like English. The only thing I learned from AP Seminar that applied to other classes was how to do an annotated bibliography, which was a hw assignment and I learned again later in English. The exam is easier than others since its just an essay, so there’s that.