AP courses are either the bane or pride of every high schooler’s existence. While these college-level courses are certainly not easy, taking as many as possible (or their international equivalent, IB courses) to make a positive impression on admissions officers at highly selective colleges is essential. Students enrolled in AP classes this year will sit for exams starting this May and will receive their scores by July.

Until that fateful July day when high schoolers receive the scores that could play a large part in determining their college admissions prospects, we’re just left to wonder how scores will be distributed in 2025. Even Ivy Coach’s famously accurate crystal ball can’t render a prediction on that one! We can, however, share the 2024 score distribution, as published by The College Board, to get a better sense of what students can expect going into exams this time around. Let’s take a look:

A Look Back at 2024 AP Score Distributions

Exam	5	4	3	2	1	3+
AP Research	12.60%	26.00%	47.50%	11.50%	2.40%	86.10%
AP Seminar	9.40%	19.80%	56.50%	10.30%	4.00%	85.70%
AP 2D Art & Design	11.20%	28.80%	42.80%	14.00%	3.20%	82.80%
AP 3D Art & Design	6.20%	24.30%	41.40%	23.40%	4.70%	72.00%
AP Art History	13.90%	21.50%	27.20%	24.80%	12.50%	62.70%
AP Drawing	15.10%	31.10%	37.60%	13.50%	2.70%	83.80%
AP Music Theory	19.00%	17.50%	23.60%	25.30%	14.50%	60.20%
AP English Language & Composition	9.80%	21.40%	23.50%	28.80%	16.60%	54.60%
AP English Literature & Composition	13.70%	26.90%	31.80%	16.50%	11.10%	72.40%
AP African American Studies	14.20%	30.20%	28.20%	18.60%	8.80%	72.60%
AP Comparative Government & Politics	16.00%	24.80%	32.10%	15.10%	11.90%	73.00%
AP European History	13.10%	33.30%	25.20%	20.70%	7.70%	71.60%
AP Human Geography	17.90%	20.50%	17.80%	14.30%	29.50%	56.10%
AP Macroeconomics	20.70%	20.70%	23.80%	20.80%	14.10%	65.10%
AP Microeconomics	22.90%	23.90%	20.80%	19.20%	13.20%	67.60%
AP Psychology	19.20%	23.10%	19.50%	11.80%	26.50%	61.70%
AP United States Government & Politics	24.30%	25.00%	23.70%	18.10%	8.90%	73.00%
AP United States History	12.80%	33.30%	26.00%	19.40%	8.40%	72.20%
AP World History	11.90%	32.30%	19.60%	27.40%	8.80%	63.70%
AP Calculus AB	21.40%	27.80%	15.30%	22.70%	12.90%	64.40%
AP Calculus BC	47.70%	21.10%	12.10%	13.90%	5.20%	80.90%
AP Computer Science A	25.60%	21.40%	20.10%	10.80%	22.00%	67.20%
AP Computer Science Principles	10.90%	20.00%	33.10%	20.30%	15.70%	64.00%
AP Precalculus	25.90%	23.90%	25.90%	14.60%	9.80%	75.60%
AP Statistics	17.50%	21.80%	22.50%	15.90%	22.30%	61.80%
AP Biology	16.80%	23.10%	28.40%	21.70%	10.00%	68.30%
AP Chemistry	17.90%	27.40%	30.30%	16.90%	7.50%	75.60%
AP Environmental Science	9.20%	27.50%	17.40%	25.80%	20.10%	54.10%
AP Physics 1	10.20%	17.90%	19.20%	26.10%	26.60%	47.30%
AP Physics 2	19.10%	18.00%	33.40%	22.90%	6.60%	70.50%
AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism	35.20%	21.60%	14.80%	17.40%	11%	71.60%
AP Physics C: Mechanics	28.50%	26.80%	20.90%	13.20%	10.50%	76.30%
AP Psychology	19.20%	23.10%	19.50%	11.80%	26.50%	61.70%
AP Chinese Language and Culture	53.30%	19.40%	15.90%	4.90%	6.50%	88.50%
AP French Language and Culture	14.50%	24.90%	32.90%	21.70%	6.00%	72.30%
AP German Language and Culture	26.10%	20.30%	23.40%	20.10%	10.10%	69.80%
AP Italian Language and Culture	22.60%	22.80%	27.00%	17.50%	10.20%	72.40%
AP Japanese Language and Culture	49.10%	10.20%	16.90%	7.20%	16.70%	76.10%
AP Latin	11.90%	16.60%	28.00%	23.00%	20.50%	56.50%
AP Spanish Language and Culture	21.20%	31.40%	30.40%	14.00%	3.00%	82.90%
AP Spanish Literature and Culture	10.20%	23.70%	33.10%	21.60%	11.40%	67.00%

Ivy Coach’s Breakdown of 2024 AP Score Distributions

This data reveals some interesting takeaways. For example, nearly half of students who took AP Calculus BC scored a five on the exam. Does this indicate the exam was too easy or that the students who are smart enough to take Calculus BC are prone to making very few errors in their calculations? And why, for that matter, is this far less true of students taking AP Calculus AB? 

The exams that seem to pose the greatest challenge, such as AP English Language & AP English Literature, AP Seminar, AP 3D Art & Design, and AP Environmental Science, with less than 10% of test takers scoring a 5, may require immediate attention from The College Board. On the other hand, the high success rate of more than half of AP Chinese Language & Culture test takers achieving the highest score possible is noteworthy (or, more likely, native Chinese speakers are just taking the exam to show they can get a 5!). These tests, with their skewed distributions, may need to be overhauled, as a well-constructed test should yield a more even distribution of scores. In the case of AP exams, administrators aim for around 20% of test takers to achieve each of the five scores. But only time will tell whether these changes are made!