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When Do AP Scores Come Out? Can You Get Them Early?
What’s Covered:
- When Do AP Scores Come Out?
- Can You Get Your AP Scores Early?
- What is a Good AP Score?
- How Do AP Scores Impact Your College Chances?
You’ve put a year’s worth of work into preparing for your AP tests. Now that you’ve gotten through them, the hard part is over — at least, to some extent.
You’ve sat for the several-hour exams, and now you want to know: when will you be able to see how you did? Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait a little longer to find out.
When Do AP Scores Come Out?
According to College Board, “The 2022 AP Exams will be administered in schools as paper-and-pencil* exams over two weeks in May: May 2–6 and May 9–13.” Scores for exams will be made available starting July 2022, at 7am EST. The exact dates are to be announced.
Previously, scores were released in waves by different states. It is likely that this will be the case this year as well, so you may not get your scores until after July or August.
The reasoning behind the long wait is because free-response questions are graded by hand by actual humans and can’t simply be scanned by a machine. While this can be anxiety-provoking, it’s a necessary step in order for graders to be thorough and fair.
Can You Get Your AP Scores Early?
It’s not possible to get your AP scores before the first release date. If the College Board releases scores in some states earlier than others as they have done previously, theoretically, you could see your score a little earlier if you were to:
1. Travel to another state with an earlier release date
2. Ask a friend in another state to access your scores through your account.
3. Use a VPN and set your location to a state with earlier release.
However, it’s probably not worth it — the difference is a matter of a day or two.
Be very wary of scam sites claiming to let you see your scores early. Only the College Board can show you your scores. There are some sites that may have servers in states with the earliest release dates, but you will have to log into your College Board account through them, and we do not recommend giving away your login information to a third-party site.
What is a Good AP Score?
At most schools, the minimum score required for earning college credit is a 3 or 4 (usually 4 at more selective schools). But, bear in mind that some colleges don’t award credit at all or only award it for select AP exams. Still, they might use your scores for placement purposes, such as in foreign language or math courses.
If you want to gauge how you did on the test compared to your peers, take a look at the percentage of test-takers who earned a 3 or above on these tests in the past, as per the charts below. This will give you insight into the strength of your performance.
2019 AP Scores
|
AP Exam |
Percentage of Students Who Scored 3 or Higher |
|
Studio Art: Drawing |
91.1% |
|
Chinese Language and Culture |
89.9% |
|
Spanish Language and Culture |
88.7% |
|
Studio Art: 2-D Design |
86.4% |
|
Spanish Language and Culture (Standard) |
82.4% |
|
Physics C: Mechanics |
81.8% |
|
Seminar |
81.1% |
|
Calculus BC |
81.0% |
|
Japanese Language and Culture |
79.3% |
|
French Language and Culture |
77.1% |
|
Research |
75.9% |
|
French Language and Culture (Standard) |
73.9% |
|
Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism |
73.0% |
|
German Language and Culture |
72.3% |
|
Spanish Literature |
72.3% |
|
Computer Science Principles |
71.9% |
|
Studio Art: 3-D Design |
70.0% |
|
Computer Science A |
69.6% |
|
Microeconomics |
69.6% |
|
Chinese Language and Culture (Standard) |
66.8% |
|
Italian Language and Culture |
66.1% |
|
Government and Politics – Comparative |
66.0% |
|
Physics 2 |
65.4% |
|
German Language and Culture (Standard) |
65.1% |
|
Biology |
64.7% |
|
Psychology |
64.5% |
|
Music Theory |
63.7% |
|
Art History |
63.1% |
|
Latin |
62.9% |
|
Japanese Language and Culture (Standard) |
62.4% |
|
Italian Language and Culture (Standard) |
62.0% |
|
Statistics |
59.7% |
|
Macroeconomics |
58.9% |
|
Calculus AB |
58.4% |
|
European History |
58.1% |
|
Chemistry |
55.6% |
|
World History |
55.3% |
|
Government and Politics – United States |
55.1% |
|
English Language and Composition |
54.3% |
|
United States History |
53.7% |
|
Environmental Science |
49.2% |
|
English Literature and Composition |
49.7% |
|
Human Geography |
49.1% |
|
Physics 1 |
45.4% |
As you can see, the score distribution varies for each exam. You can check out our blog post on more information about the difficulty of AP exams.
2020 AP Scores
|
AP Exam |
Percentage of Students Who Scored 3 or Higher |
|
Spanish Language (Total) |
90.0% |
|
Art and Design: 2D |
89.5% |
|
Art and Design: Drawing |
89.1% |
|
Chinese Language (Total) |
88.7% |
|
Physics C Mechanics |
84.3% |
|
Spanish Language (Standard) |
84.2% |
|
Japanese Language (Total) |
83.6% |
|
French Language (Total) |
83.3% |
|
Calculus BC |
81.6% |
|
French Language (Standard) |
80.9% |
|
Seminar |
80.7% |
|
Art and Design: 3D |
75.6% |
|
Italian Language (Total) |
75.4% |
|
Spanish Literature |
75.1% |
|
Physics C E&M |
74.4% |
|
German Language (Total) |
73.8% |
|
Physics 2 |
73.3% |
|
Research |
72.5% |
|
Italian Language (Standard) |
72.2% |
|
Computer Science Principles |
71.6% |
|
Japanese Language (Standard) |
71.4% |
|
Psychology |
71.3% |
|
Chinese Language (Standard) |
70.9% |
|
Computer Science A |
70.4% |
|
Government & Politics: Comparative |
70.2% |
|
Latin |
69.2% |
|
Music Theory |
69.2% |
|
Biology |
69.1% |
|
Economics-Micro |
68.9% |
|
Art History |
68.7% |
|
German Language (Standard) |
67.9% |
|
Economics-Macro |
63.2% |
|
English Language |
62.1% |
|
Calculus AB |
61.4% |
|
World History |
60.2% |
|
English Literature |
60.1% |
|
Statistics |
60.0% |
|
European History |
59.3% |
|
Human Geography |
59.0% |
|
United States History |
58.7% |
|
Government & Politics: United States |
57.5% |
|
Chemistry |
56.1% |
|
Environmental Science |
53.4% |
|
Physics 1 |
51.6% |
How Do AP Scores Impact Your College Chances?
While your AP scores themselves won’t have an effect on your chances of getting into your top-choice colleges, the strength of your curriculum, including the AP courses you take, will. In fact, the most selective schools may not even view the rest of your application if your course rigor and test scores don’t meet their expectations (though this has changed due to COVID-19 and test-optional policies).
To see how your AP classes stack up, use our free chancing engine to find out your odds of admission to hundreds of schools. This helpful tool uses your real information to predict your odds of success and give you tips for improving your profile.
