AP Exam Tutoring

2021 AP Exams

College Board has created a complex calendar of in-school and at-home testing in an effort to make AP Exams fully available to students this spring. Some schools are choosing to have students take AP Exams at home because of the certainty it provides. Schools, not students, make the choice on exam schedule and format. High schools need to finalize plans with College Board by April 1, 2021, so you should be able to find out from your teacher or AP Coordinator how and when you will take your AP Exams.

The test content and length will be largely the same whether you are testing at-home or in-school, with paper and pencil or on the computer. The 2021 APs will be nothing like those given last year. They are full-length exams that will feel similar to the tests and quizzes you’ve practiced on in class. Because of test security concerns, world language exams and Music Theory will not have an at-home option.

Use the following toggle panels to expand the schedules for each administration window. See key differences between the digital and paper-and-pencil exams below.

How digital testing will work

Students testing at home — or at schools that choose to provide on-site computers — will use a new College Board program referred to as the “digital exam app.” The program will work on Windows and Mac PCs and on school-managed Chromebooks. Students are not able to take a digital exam on a tablet or smartphone. A practice version of the digital exam app will be available in early April. College Board has promised that all testing accommodations will apply to both paper-and-pencil and digital exams. To minimize submission errors, the digital exam app will auto-save students’ responses as they work and will automatically submit responses at the end of the testing period.

Similarities and differences between digital and paper-and-pencil exams

Content, structure, and scoring are similar across exam formats. Some differences have been introduced, however, in order to keep the exams fair.

For example, College Board was concerned about maintaining the integrity of the long essay question (LEQ) on the digital version of the U.S. History Exam. The LEQ has been removed from the digital exam and been replaced with two additional short answer questions (SAQs). Also, students taking that digital exam will not be allowed to choose from among SAQs.

On the digital exams, questions have been written so that students do not need to produce graphs or complex symbols. This will mean some differences between exam formats in subjects such as Calculus and Statistics.

A number of STEM and Economics exams have “no calculator” sections on the paper-and-pencil versions. Instead of trying to police at-home calculator use, College Board has constructed the digital exams so that calculators do not provide an unfair advantage on those sections. The AP Calculator Policy still applies.

Students taking exams on the computer will not be allowed to go back to previous questions. They will have to make a decision about when to lock in an answer and move on. Timing practice is essential.

Learn what is on your test

Students should check the latest information on exam format on AP Central. Students taking U.S. History on the computer, for example, do not need to worry about practicing LEQs and can focus their time on multiple choice, SAQs, and the document-based question.

Scheduling differences

Paper-and-pencil exams will be given in the traditional manner, with students taking the exams at school on local time (8:00 AM and 12:00 PM). Digital exams, on the other hand, will begin simultaneously across the globe (12:00 PM EDT and 4:00 PM EDT). Chinese Language and Japanese Language exams are the only exception. While they are computer-based, they are taken in school on the paper-and-pencil timeline.

Credit from colleges

Because the 2021 APs are so similar across formats, we do not expect colleges to distinguish between digital and paper-and-pencil or between at-home and in-school when looking at AP Exam scores for admission review or course credit or placement.

What Do AP Scores Mean?

Because they cover many of the same subject areas, students and parents sometimes confuse AP exams with SAT Subject Tests. It is important to note that, while students can earn college credit for posting strong AP scores, AP exams are not admission tests per se.

What do AP scores mean? The College Board defines 3 as “qualified” to receive college credit, 4 as “well qualified,” and 5 as “extremely well qualified.” Ultimately, however, the answer varies from college to college. Some schools give credit for a 3, while others require a 5. Some of the most selective schools don’t give credit for any score. The one generalization we can make with confidence is that failing to post a 3 or better is likely to place a student in the bottom half to bottom third of his or her peers nationwide.

AP Exams – May 2019

Learn more about what AP test scores mean here.

Learn more about schools’ credit and placement policies here.