When Do AP Scores Come Out? - Top Tier Admissions

Every May, students around the world spend two weeks taking rigorous Advanced Placement (AP) exams. These college-level exams correspond to coursework in 40 subjects, and colleges usually offer credit or placement for students receiving a 4 or 5 (though a 3 is considered “passing,” which some colleges honor). As a former AP Coordinator, I know that shortly after finishing these two-to-three-hour exams, students want to know when, exactly, their AP scores will come out. Typically, this happens in early to mid- July. This year, the College Board (who administers the test) has published that scores will be available starting Monday, July 8, 2024.

Follow these instructions to get your AP scores in July.

In the meantime, there is a lot of chatter on Reddit, College Confidential, and social media about these tests and students often ask us which AP exams are the hardest as they build their course schedule. To demystify the discussion surrounding AP exams, we’ve broken them down by score distribution and student reviews below.

Set your child up for college admissions success today

Schedule A Consultation

Get Our Brochure

AP SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS

The College Board offers a full distribution of test scores for each AP exam, which allows you to see which tests have the most (or least) number of students who score a 5, the highest grade. The 2024 score distributions are currently being rolled out on the College Board website and posted on Trevor Packer’s X account with his commentary and analysis (Packer is the Head of the Advanced Placement Program).

Here are a few of Packer’s observations worth noting:

The most challenging essay this year for AP English Lit students was the prose analysis (Q2; analysis of an excerpt from Mavis Gallant’s short story “One Morning in June”); 16% of students earned 5-6 points of the 6 points possible on it.
The single lowest scoring component of this year’s APUSH exam (Set 1) was Short Answer #1 (origins of the 19th century women’s rights movement); avg score was 44%. SAQs that ask students to compare two different historians’ views are often the most challenging.
AP German teachers and students continue to demonstrate strong recovery from the pandemic learning losses, with a big uptick in 5s this year.

While, so far, the numbers look fairly similar to last year, I’ll use the 2023 distribution to breakdown the overall score trends.

AP SCORE BREAKDOWN

Last year, the hardest tests to earn a 5 on were AP 3D Art and Design (7.1% earned a 5), AP Environmental Science (8.3% earned a 5), AP Spanish Literature and Culture (8.5% earned a 5), and AP Physics 1 (8.8% earned a 5). However, don’t draw the conclusion that these are the hardest exams. In fact, AP Environmental Science is often rated by test takers on social media as being among the easiest. One factor to consider is that AP Environmental Science can be low hanging fruit for a top AP scholar, while it is also often many students’ only AP exam. This means that a student who does not regularly take AP or honors courses may “reach” to take this course and exam. Because they are not used to college-level coursework, they may not be able to earn a 5. At the same time, a student who regularly takes AP exams may find the test to be relatively easy.

While over half of test takers earn a 5 on AP Chinese Language and Culture (54.2%) and AP Japanese Language and Culture (50.8%), this data is also very misleading. Many native Chinese and Japanese speakers take the exam (even without having taken the course), so those numbers are skewed. If you take the language exams out of the calculation, AP Calculus BC (43.5%) and AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism (33.6%) have the highest percentage of students earning a 5. Most high school students would find it hard to believe the AP Calculus BC exam is “easy.” However, to even reach that course, students would have had to show talent and success in high level math courses leading up to it, so they are well-prepared and talented math students, which makes their level of success on the AP exam more understandable.

AP EXAMS: STUDENT REVIEWS

Not surprisingly, when it comes to which exams students think are the hardest, it’s a mixed bag. I’ve seen this in my own experience, as well–the AP Spanish Language exam still gives me nightmares! However, students at schools with strong World Languages program typically do very well on this exam. A good way to discover which AP courses are well-taught at your school (therefore, you are more likely to do well on the exam) is to look at your school- specific AP results, which can sometimes be found on your school profile. If not, ask the department heads or AP Coordinator at your school for those results.

There are a few things we can glean from our student’s experiences and informal chatter: AP Environmental Science, AP Government, AP Psychology, and AP Statistics seem to be universally mentioned as “easier,” while AP Chemistry, AP World History, and AP Physics (all physics tests) are most often in the “hardest” category.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

It’s nearly impossible to determine which AP tests are easiest or hardest because results are very individualized. We see that strong math students universally find AP Calculus BC easy, yet students self-select into that course. As AP Coordinator, I noted that AP Calculus BC often had the fewest test takers, and they were the strongest math students in the school. The most popular and accessible courses, AP English Language and Composition and AP U.S. History, on the contrary, only have about 10% of students earning a 5.

Students wondering what test will be the easiest for them or result in the highest score should assess their own academic strengths as well as past school results, which can show them which courses are likely well taught, with high overall results. Remember, too, that an AP score is only one indicator of student learning and achievement. They are not designed to evaluate student potential or teacher quality.

If you enjoyed this post, follow us on Instagram @toptieradmissions for more tips and subscribe to our blog for expert insights & college admissions news!

Author
Recent Posts

Nellie Brennan Hall

Senior Private Counselor at Top Tier Admissions

Nellie has spent her entire career in teaching, admissions, and counseling. As Associate Director of Admission at Brown University, she spent nearly a decade recruiting and evaluating applicants. In her role as chair of selection committees, Nellie made executive decisions on applicants and also served as a central member of the athletics committee. Armed with a nuanced view of the review process in highly selective institutions, Nellie moved into college counseling at independent schools, helping students craft essays and guiding them through every stage of the college search and application processNellie’s students have gained admission to the top schools in the country, among them Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia, UPenn, Northwestern, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Amherst, and Middlebury. Nellie graduated from Harvard and holds an M.Ed. from Notre Dame in Secondary Education and an Ed.M. from Harvard in Higher Education, where she was awarded the Pforzheimer Fellowship.

Latest posts by Nellie Brennan Hall (see all)