Overview of the AP Program
Since 1955, the AP Program has enabled millions of students to take college-level courses and exams, and to earn college credit or placement while still in high school.
- The AP Program offers 34 courses and exams.
- More than 18,000 schools worldwide participate in the AP Program.
- 32.4 percent of U.S. public high school students in the class of 2012 took an AP Exam at some point in high school. In 2012, more than 2 million students worldwide took 3.7 million AP Exams.
- Most colleges and universities offer credit, advanced placement and/or consideration in the admission process for qualifying AP Exam scores. In 2012, more than 3,600 U.S. and international colleges and universities received AP Exam scores.
- Each AP Exam, with the exception of AP Studio Art, consists of multiple-choice questions that are scored by machine, as well as free-response questions (essays, translations, problems, oral responses) that are scored at the annual AP Reading by more than 11,000 college faculty and AP teachers using scoring standards and rubrics developed by college and university faculty who teach the corresponding college courses.
- The composite score for each AP Exam is converted to a score of 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1. An AP Exam score of 5 is equivalent to grades of A+ and A in the corresponding college course; a score of 4 is equivalent to grades of A-, B+ and B; and a score of 3 is equivalent to grades of B-, C+ and C.