AP Exams: Myths vs. Facts You Should Know
Springtime has arrived, and that means Advanced Placement (AP) exams are less than two months away. Perhaps you’re already on track to ace your exam this May. Or you plan to take the test but don’t know how to prepare. Or you’ve heard about AP but don’t know much about it. Whatever the case, we want you to know the facts about AP exams, so we’ve debunked four common myths surrounding AP exams to equip you with the knowledge to be more prepared and confident this May.
What Are AP Exams?
Like the SAT and PSAT, AP exams are designed and administered by the College Board. AP exams are intended to test a student’s mastery of material presented in an AP course at their school on a specific subject. While some students take AP courses in 9th grade, most take them in 10th and 11th grades.
Some colleges grant a student special status based on their performance on an AP exam. Depending on the institution, certain scores will qualify students for college credit or advanced placement. The College Board offers a search engine to help you find which colleges recognize AP scores, and the score necessary to qualify for special status. Getting credit for an AP exam may allow you to bypass the introductory course, saving you time and money to focus on the advanced courses in that subject.
Altogether, there are 39 AP subjects, each with its own exam. Most exams are 2 to 3 hours long and have two parts: (1) a multiple-choice section, followed by (2) a free-response section, which may take the form of an essay, a solution to a problem, or a spoken response.
The first half of an AP exam is typically administered via paper and pencil. The exceptions are Chinese and Japanese, which are administered via computer.
Six AP exams involve a digital portfolio. In some cases, such as Art and Design Principles, the portfolio replaces the paper-and-pencil exam. In other cases, such as Computer Science Principles, students will still take the multiple-choice part of the exam, with the portfolio replacing only the free-response section that typically constitutes the second half of an AP exam.
Although all exams are offered in May, AP courses are offered in both the fall and spring semesters. In 2023, the exams are offered between May 1 and May 12.
AP exams are scored on a scale from 1 to 5. Percentiles for AP scores vary widely from test to test and are available here.
The fee for most AP exams is $97 per test in the U.S., its territories, and Canada. In other parts of the world, the fee is $127. However, the fee for AP Capstone exams is $145, regardless of where the test is administered. For students whose families meet certain income criteria, the cost of the exam is reduced to $53 in the U.S., its territories, and Canada, and to $83 in other parts of the world. The reduced fee for AP Capstone exams is $101. Fees are collected by local schools that offer the AP exams, and policies vary by school. Some schools will pay for part, or even all, of its students’ AP exam fees, so if you need financial aid, contact your school.
Myth #1: Everything You Learn Will Be Covered in Your AP Test
Although the goal of an AP course is to prepare its students to ace the AP exam by teaching both the content and skills that the exam will test, no two AP courses are identical. This means it’s highly unlikely that all the material you cover in your AP course will be tested on the exam. In fact, it’s even possible – but far less likely – that something you didn’t cover in the course might appear on the exam.
As the College Board explains “Individual teachers are responsible for designing their own curriculum for AP courses, selecting appropriate college-level readings, assignments, and resources.” They are guided by the “Course and Exam Description” that corresponds to every AP exam. The College Board describes this as “the core document for the course,” and it “clearly lays out the course content” for any given course, as well as details concerning the exam and the AP program in general. The task of the classroom teacher is to present the relevant material and ideas to their students, help them develop specific skills, and familiarize them with the kinds of tasks that will appear on the AP exam.
Myth #2: You Must Earn a 5 To Receive College Credit
Very few colleges require a perfect score of 5 on any AP exam for a student to receive credit for the exam. In fact, the vast majority of schools require only a 3 or higher for any AP exam. Of the 1,651 colleges that offer credit for the AP Human Geography exam, for instance, only 12 (or 0.7 percent of the total) require a perfect score on the exam. And over 80 percent of all schools grant credit for any score of 3 or higher.
Myth #3: Like the SAT, AP Exams Are Scored on a Curve
Although the College Board claims that the SAT is not scored on a curve – meaning that your score will depend on how others in your cohort performed – there is strong evidence that the scoring scale for each particular test undergoes some degree of post-exam curving depending on how test takers performed.
With AP exams, however, the situation is unambiguous: they are not scored on a curve. This means that all students who meet the criteria can receive a 5, and there is no post-exam curving or equating. In fact, a College Board official, pointing to a sharp uptick in scores in recent years, attributes this to “years of effort from AP teachers and an accumulation of powerful data from colleges on how well AP students are performing” in college courses beyond the introductory course.
Myth #4: Any College Will Be Able To See My AP Exam Scores
It is, in fact, entirely up to the individual student which colleges, if any, see any of their AP scores. Using the “My AP” website, you can send some or all of your scores for free to one recipient every year that you take AP Exams. You can order as many score reports as you need online after scores are released. By default, your score report includes all your scores from all the AP Exams you took in the past. Your entire score history will be sent to your designated college, university, or scholarship program, unless you choose to withhold or cancel any of your scores. For a fee, you can even mix and match which colleges see which of your AP scores.
How to Prepare for AP Exams
Although preparing for an AP exam can be daunting, careful and intentional planning can give you the confidence you need to get the score you need. Here are some key tips:
We recommend giving yourself 6 to 12 weeks before the exam to fully prepare. This means beginning your intentional AP exam prep sometime between mid February and late March. If you’re enrolled for this year’s exams, you should start as soon as possible.
The surest foundation for a successful AP exam is to do well in your AP course. If you’re enrolled in an AP course in the spring semester, the course will be geared towards the exam. But if you’re preparing for an AP exam whose course you took in the fall, or one year earlier, you’ll want to rely on careful notes, as well as your tests and quizzes from the course.
However, you shouldn’t rely exclusively on your AP course. To ensure you’re as well prepared as possible, you’ll want to take some additional initiative. Carve out intentional time several days each week to focus on preparing for the exam, and stick with that plan.
Review past AP exam questions that you might not have covered in your class. You can find these on the AP website, where the College Board shares past exams for each AP course. In addition, Khan Academy offers free review courses for AP topics in math, science, social sciences, computing, and the humanities. Albert.io, which charges a subscription, offers robust review courses for 32 AP subjects, including online practice tests for each subject.
Take a proctored practice test. In addition to practicing at home with past tests, you may find it helpful to take a practice test that better replicates the official testing experience, providing better structure to your practice test experience.
Work with a tutor. A tutor not only provides you with accountability in your process of preparing for the AP exam, but also offers expert and individualized support in your efforts to improve, helps you identify patterns in your performance, and shares practical strategies that are rooted in years of experience with the exam. In addition, a tutor can give you detailed feedback on your Free Response Question (FRQ) essays, the section of the exam where – given its format – it is most difficult to gauge how well you’re performing.
Conclusion
If you’d like support in preparing for an AP exam this spring, or if you’re planning ahead and want to discuss a plan for next spring’s exams, please reach out to our team of expert tutors, who can help you get the score you need to give you a head start as you begin your college journey.