Advanced Placement exams

Advanced Placement (AP) examinations are exams offered in United States by the College Board and are taken each May by students.

The tests are the culmination of year-long Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which are typically offered at the high school level.

[2] The first Advanced Placement exams were administered in 1954 by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to students limited to 27 schools participating at that time.

[3] On March 20, College Board announced[4] changes to the spring 2020 exams due to the impact of COVID-19 on school closings.

[9] Additionally, College Board will be providing a free distance learning curriculum[10] by livestreaming AP review lessons on YouTube.

In order to make sure that students from underprivileged backgrounds do not face disadvantages in terms of technology to take the test, College Board further invested in technology resources, as that year's exam required the student to possess a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or computer and a reliable internet connection.

Both high school AP teachers and university professors are invited to grade the exams at a predetermined location.

When the AP Reading is over for a particular exam, the free response scores are combined with the results of computer-scored multiple-choice questions based upon a previously announced weighting.

AP exam scores are widely recognized in the admissions process around the world, but credits are only sometimes accepted outside of Canada and the United States.

As of August 2019, the College Board provided a downloadable list of universities outside the US that recognize AP for admission and academic credit, in a file which they refer to as "Global Higher Education Recognition".