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Advanced Placement

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Advanced Placement
Logo since 2017
AcronymAP
AdministratorCollege Board
Year started1952 (1952)
DurationMostly 2–3 hours[1]
Score range1–5 (details)
Score validityScores archived after 4 years, but remain valid[2]
OfferedYearly
RegionsUnited States and Canada
Fee2024 exams (USD):[3]
Websiteap.collegeboard.org

Advanced Placement (AP)[4] is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board. AP offers undergraduate university-level curricula and examinations to high school students. Colleges and universities in the US and elsewhere may grant placement and course credit to students who obtain qualifying scores on the examinations.

The AP curriculum for each of the various subjects is created for the College Board by a panel of experts and college-level educators in that academic discipline. For a high school course to have the designation as offering an AP course, the course must be audited by the College Board to ascertain that it satisfies the AP curriculum as specified in the Board's Course and Examination Description (CED). If the course is approved, the school may use the AP designation and the course will be publicly listed on the AP Course Ledger.[5]

Exam information

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AP tests are scored on a 1 to 5 scale as follows:[6]

  • 5 – Extremely well qualified
  • 4 – Well qualified
  • 3 – Qualified
  • 2 – Possibly qualified
  • 1 – No recommendation

The multiple-choice (MCQ) component of the exam is scored by computer, and since 2011, points are no longer deducted for incorrect answers.[7][8] The free-response (FRQ) component is scored by trained readers at the AP Reading each June. The scores on various components are weighted and combined into a raw composite score. The Chief Reader for each exam then decides on the grade cutoffs for that year's exam, which determine how the composite scores are converted into the final grades. During the process, a number of reviews and statistical analyses are performed to ensure that the grading is reliable. The overall goal is for the grades to reflect an absolute scale of performance which can be compared from year to year.[9]

Some colleges use AP test scores to exempt students from introductory coursework, others use them to place students in higher designated courses, and some do both. Each college's policy is different, but most require a minimum score of 3 or 4 to receive college credit.[10] Typically, this appears as a "CR" grade on the college transcript, although some colleges and universities will award an A grade for a 5 score.[11] Some countries, such as Germany, will directly admit students who have completed a specific set of AP tests, depending on the subject they wish to study there. In addition, completing AP courses helps students qualify for various types of scholarships; according to the College Board, 31% of colleges and universities look at AP experience when making scholarship decisions.[12]

AP exams begin on the second Monday in May and end on the following week's Friday for regular testing. Late testing occurs on the following week after regular testing ending for students that missed, had a scheduling conflict, or had/experienced a testing disturbance during the regular exams.[13]

The College Board has offered an Internet-based score reporting service since 2013.[14][15] Students can use their 2013 AP Number or Student Number (if one was indicated) along with a College Board Account[16] to access current and previous years' exam scores. This system can also be used to send scores to colleges and universities for which a four-digit institutional code[17] is assigned.

History

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20th century

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After the end of World War II, the Ford Foundation created a fund that supported committees studying education.[18] The program, which was then referred to as the "Kenyon Plan",[19] was founded and pioneered at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, by the then-college president Gordon Chalmers. The first study was conducted by four prep schools, Lawrenceville School, Phillips Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy, and St. Paul's School, and three universities, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University.

In 1952, they issued the report General Education in School and College: A Committee Report which recommended allowing high school seniors to study college-level material and to take achievement exams that allowed them to attain college credit for this work.[20] The second committee, the Committee on Admission with Advanced Standing, developed and implemented the plan to choose a curriculum. A pilot program was run in 1952 which covered eleven disciplines. In the 1955–56 school year, it was nationally implemented in ten subjects: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, History, French, German, Spanish, and Latin.

The College Board, a not-for-profit organization[21] based in New York City, has run the AP program since 1955.[22] It develops and maintains guidelines for the teaching of higher-level courses in various subject areas. In addition, it supports teachers of AP courses and supports universities.[23] These activities are funded through fees required to take the AP exams.

Early 21st century

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The number of AP exams administered each year saw a steady increase in the 21st century. In 2003, 175,860 English Language and Composition exams were administered. By 2013, this number had risen to 476,277, or an increase of 171%. Such an increase has occurred in nearly all AP exams offered, with the AP Psychology exam seeing a 281% increase over the past decade. In 2022, the most taken AP exam was English Language and Composition with 520,771 students and the least taken AP exam was Italian Language and Culture with 2,194 students.[24]

In 2006, over one million students took over two million Advanced Placement examinations.[25] Many high schools in the United States offer AP courses,[26] though the College Board allows any student to take any examination regardless of participation in its respective course.[27] Therefore, home-schooled students and students from schools that do not offer AP courses have an equal opportunity to take AP exams.

In 2007, hedge fund manager and philanthropist Whitney Tilson helped create a $1 million program (called Reach, for Rewarding Achievement) funded by philanthropists to pay students in 25 public schools and six Roman Catholic private schools in New York City who do well on Advanced Placement exams.[28][29] High school students receiving a top score of five on one of the exams earned $1,000 (a four was worth $750, and a three was worth $500).[28] The schools chosen for the program all had a high proportion of low-income black or Latino students.[28] Tilson approached the Pershing Square Foundation to finance the project, and it agreed to give the project $1 million for its first year.[28]

On April 3, 2008, the College Board announced that four AP courses—French Literature, Latin Literature, Computer Science AB, and Italian Language and Culture—would be discontinued after the 2008–2009 school year due to lack of funding.[30][31] However, the Italian Language and Culture test was again offered beginning in 2011.

Recent developments

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Between 2016 and 2019, the College Board focused on restructuring exam formats to emphasize critical analysis and scenario-based questions. Many exams, such as AP World History and AP U.S. Government and Politics, saw reductions in the number of multiple-choice questions—frequently changing from five answer choices down to four—alongside adjusted time limits and new essay formats.[32][33] AP Biology saw a significant removal of introductory course material in botany, basic zoology, and comparative anatomy and physiology.[34]

The 2020 exam year faced unprecedented disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and exams this year were taken online at home, shorted to 45 minutes, tested only the first 75% of course material, and permitted students to freely consult their notes and books.[35] A class action lawsuit was brought against College Board following various legal, technical, and accessibility issues with this exam.[36] Following this year, standard testing resumed, but the College Board continued to refine exam structures across numerous subjects, including AP Human Geography, AP Computer Science, and AP Latin.[37] These updates largely continued the trend of standardizing multiple-choice sections to four options and adjusting the time allotted for free-response questions. This period also saw the introduction of the new courses AP Precalculus and AP African American Studies, which held their first testing terms in May 2024 in May 2025, respectively.[38][39]

As of the 2024 testing season, exams cost $98 each,[3] though the cost may be subsidized by local or state programs. Financial aid is available for students who qualify for it; the exam reduction is $36 per exam from College Board plus an additional $9 rebate per fee-reduced exam from the school. There may be further reductions depending on the state.

In May 2025, twenty-eight AP exams moved to a fully digital format, primarily in the humanities and computer science, while math and science exams adopted a hybrid model where students view prompts digitally but write their free-response answers on paper.[40] Concurrently, several major courses underwent deep structural revisions: the four AP Physics courses all adopted a new shared format,[41] AP Psychology was reorganized into five large units,[42] and AP Statistics removed several topics alongside the second-year algebra prerequisite.[43]

Courses

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Current subjects

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There are currently 42 courses and exams available through the AP Program.[44]

Arts

English and Capstone

History and Social Sciences

Math and Computer Sciences

Life and Physical Sciences

World Languages and Cultures

AP Career Kickstart

Courses in development

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In 2024, the College Board announced pilot programs for a group of new AP exams as part of the AP Career Kickstart program:

In the announcement, the College Board additionally noted that "We plan to build out multiple career and technical education (CTE) pathways in information technology (networking, cybersecurity, coding) and additional pathways in business and health sciences."[48]

In 2018, when the AP World History exam was discontinued, the College Board announced their commitment to developing two replacement courses, AP World History: Ancient and AP World History: Modern, but so far only the Modern course has launched, with the Ancient course still in development.