Understanding Your AP Exam Score

How Are AP Exams Scored?

If you’re studying for an AP exam right now or are thinking about taking an AP class in the future, you might be wondering: how are AP exams scored?

In this post, we'll break down the scoring process, all the way from the raw scores you earn on the multiple-choice section and essays to how you get a final score on a scale of 1-5. Knowing how AP exams are scored can help you do your best on them—especially if you want a perfect 5!

The AP Scoring Scale

Each AP test is given a score from 1 to 5. According to the College Board (the group that administers AP tests), these numbers translate in the following ways:

• 5: Extremely Well Qualified

• 4: Well Qualified

• 3: Qualified

• 2: Possibly Qualified

• 1: No recommendation

Any score that's 3 or higher is considered a passing score, though some colleges only accept 4s and 5s for credit. (See AP’s college database for specific policies at each university.) Getting a 5 is especially desirable because, for most exams, it puts you in the top 10-20% of scorers.

Your 1-5 score is a scaled score, converted from a composite score. Your composite score is calculated from the total number of raw points you earned from your correct multiple-choice answers and your free response. It’s a bit confusing, but we will guide you through the process!

How Are AP Tests Scored?

The majority of AP exams consist of two sections: multiple choice and free response. On some exams each section is weighted equally, whereas on others one section is worth slightly more. You can look up the specifics for each exam on the official AP courses pages.

The multiple-choice section is graded by a computer. There are no deductions for incorrect or blank answers, so your raw multiple-choice score is simply the number of questions you get correct.

The free-response section is graded during the annual AP Reading held in the first two weeks of June. The AP Reading is basically a huge convention. Tons of teachers and college professors gather to grade thousands and thousands of student-written responses for each exam.

This is why you don't get your AP scores until July even though you take the test in May: the written portion of your exam isn't graded until mid-June.

After that, the College Board has to calculate the composite score and final scaled score for each exam, equating the test so the scores stay even from year to year. (For example, they want to make sure a 3 on the AP US History exam means the same thing from one year to another, even if one version of the test turned out to be more difficult for students.)

(Side note: There is a good chance that an AP teacher at your school goes to the AP Reading each year. It can be interesting and helpful to talk to them about what happens at the convention, how quickly free responses are scored, and the best and worse free responses they’ve seen. These are answers that will vary a lot from subject to subject but could ultimately be helpful to you!)

Each free response is given a "holistic" score, meaning it's evaluated for its overall effectiveness or correctness. Typically, points aren’t deducted for the occasional small error, such as a spelling or grammar mistake. Most tests grade their free responses between 1 and 9, with 1 being least effective and 9 being nearly perfect.

Your raw free-response score is the total of the scores you get for each response.

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How to Get a Scaled AP Score Between 1 and 5

After your multiple-choice section is graded by a machine and your free response is graded by a human, your essay and multiple-choice scores are combined to give you a composite score. This score is just a way of combining the two section scores so that they are weighted correctly. For example, for AP English, multiple choice is worth 45% and free response is worth 55%. Often, composite scores are between 0 and 100, or 0 and 150.

The composite score is then converted to a number on the scaled score range 1-5. This means that for each scaled score, there is a range of possible composite scores that could earn it. For example, a 5 could be any composite score between 110 and 150 on one exam.

Since scaling varies year to year, there are no exact cutoff numbers for scores for AP tests, and the College Board does not release detailed scoring data. Furthermore, you will not see what your composite score was on your AP score report—you'll only get the final number between 1 and 5.

However, many teachers, prep books, and websites have come up with formulas to predict the scaled score for each AP test, which can help when you are grading your practice tests and trying to come up with a target score.

Scoring Example: AP English Language and Composition

As we've seen, AP test scoring is not exactly straightforward. To help clarify the process, we will walk through a scoring example using the most popular test, AP English Language and Composition.

Also known as the class in which you annotate every. Single. Thing.

Here are the basics of the AP English exam: it has 55 multiple-choice questions, worth 45% of your score, and three essays, worth 55% of your score. Each essay is graded between 1 and 9.

Before we get into the scoring example, remember that this guide is an estimation since score conversions can vary year to year based on test difficulty. While it's impossible to precisely predict an AP test score before you get your score, you can still get an idea of how the process works.

Step 1: Add Up Your Correct Answers to Get Your Raw Scores

There are 55 multiple-choice questions on the AP English exam. Let's say you get 40 right, get eight wrong, and leave seven blank. Your raw multiple-choice score would be an even 40 points.

Out of the three essays, let's say you earn the following scores from the graders: 4, 7, and 8. This gives you a total raw essay score of 19 (4+7+8).

Step 2: Convert Your Raw Scores to a Single Composite Score

Now, this is the tricky part in which we will convert each of those raw scores to a single composite score between 0 and 150.

The maximum converted essay score is 82.5, or 55% of 150. The maximum converted multiple-choice score is 67.5, or 45% of 150. To figure out your composite score, use this formula:

(Multiple Choice Raw Score x 1.23) + (Essay Raw Score x 3.05) = Composite Score

In this example, your multiple-choice composite score would be 49.2, and your essay composite score would be 57.95. Thus, your total composite score would be 107 (rounded down).

Step 3: Use the Chart to Estimate Your Scaled Score

The last step is easy. Use the chart below to estimate your final AP score (on a scale of 1-5):

Composite Score (0-100 or 0-150)Scaled Score (1-5)104-150592-103476-91350-7520-491

As you can see, your score of 107 would earn you a 5—but just barely!

Again, these numbers are estimates and will shift from year to year based on test difficulty. Since 107 is just over the mark of 104, it's possible that in some years it could net you a 4 instead of a 5.

What About Scoring Other AP Tests?

We’ve learned how to score an AP English Language and Composition exam. However, you can’t use this exact same process for every AP test. Most AP tests have slightly different section weights and question totals, so the scoring formulas are different.

For example, AP Calculus AB has fewer multiple choice questions (45), more free responses (six total), and weighs each section at 50%.

Each AP subject is a unique challenge ... and has its own scoring formula.

So how can you figure out how the AP tests you are taking are graded?

First, if you’re taking the AP class for the test you want to take, ask your teacher if he or she has a formula for converting practice test scores to scaled scores. Most AP teachers have a formula they use with their students for practice exams.

If you’re not taking the class or your teacher doesn’t have a formula, either find a prep book for your specific test or search online.

Remember that all formulas are estimates. So if you really want a 5, you shouldn’t aim for the lowest possible composite—you should aim for perfection, or very close. That’s the only way to guarantee you'll get a 5 on test day.

On the other hand, if you just want to make sure you pass, try to aim for a 4 so that even if you make more mistakes than you're hoping to, you’ll still get at least a 3!

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Vint Hill Educational Services offers subject-based tutoring in math, science, reading, writing, English, history, and foreign language. Our tutors take subject-specific tests to demonstrate their content knowledge before being hired. We can guarantee they know the content. 

Science Tutoring:

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Reading Tutoring:

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English Tutoring:

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History Tutoring:

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Parents receive access to our online Teachworks tutoring system and will be able to review tutor session notes, receive session email reminders, plus keep track of session hours used/hours remaining. 

For more information, please contact us here.

Addressing COVID-19 Learning Disruptions

Addressing COVID-19 Learning Disruptions:

Four Recommendations for

Effective Tutoring Interventions

As more students return to in-person learning, education leaders are working not only to rebuild school communities and help students transition, but also to address gaps in learning resulting from COVID-19 disruptions. One strategy states and districts are considering is tutoring, or focused instruction provided to students in one-on-one or small group settings. 

Research suggests that tutoring programs can meaningfully increase learning for K–12 students and are especially effective in increasing the achievement of students who are at risk for poor learning outcomes. A range of studies shows that many tutoring programs generated learning gains in reading and mathematics, with greater gains attained in reading at early grades and math at older grades. The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) signaled the importance of building the research based on tutoring programs and scaling up effective interventions when it launched Operation Reverse the Loss in late 2020. IES received $100 million from the American Rescue Plan to conduct research related to learning disruptions caused by COVID-19.
 

Recommendations for Choosing and Implementing Tutoring Interventions

Tutoring Supports in States

• In 2020, the Tennessee Tutoring Corps recruited 1,000 college students to tutor students entering grades 1–4 during the summer to address student learning needs.

• With support from federal funds, the Louisiana Department of Education launched a $1 million initiative to create a library of supplemental tutoring lessons aligned to state curriculum standards in English and math.

• Leaders in Maryland and Oklahoma have announced plans to leverage federal stimulus funds to create grants to address the impact of COVID-19, and identified tutoring as one of the approaches that families and schools may use.

• Texas is developing high-quality instructional materials to address student learning needs that can be used in summer learning programs and other learning settings.

The American Rescue Plan includes $129 billion in education funding for new programs and interventions designed to address the impact of the pandemic on student learning. To that end, here are four recommendations to help leaders interested in exploring the use of evidence-based tutoring interventions to accelerate student learning and address pandemic-related learning disruptions.

1. Use evidence-based tutoring models.

Before implementing a broad-scale tutoring program, education leaders should examine the demonstrated effectiveness of different tutoring models and programs to ensure that they are backed by evidence. Evidence-based practices are practices informed by research that lead to improved educational outcomes. Systematic reviews of the research on tutoring have found that “high dosage” tutoring—tutoring that happens in a one-on-one relationship or in small groups at least three times a week—generates positive gains for students in reading and math. In addition, a brief from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University describes design principles for effective tutoring based on rigorous education research, and it covers tutor-to-student ratios, tutoring frequency, focus, and curriculum.

Education leaders can leverage a number of resources to identify evidence-based tutoring models and practices. The What Works Clearinghouse reviews existing education research on various education programs and practices to identify “what works” in education. Its resources include a rapid review of the evidence on distance learning that includes studies of online and computer-based tutoring programs.

Further, the National Center on Intensive Intervention, led by AIR, has developed a series of charts to help educators and families select academic and behavioral assessment and tutoring intervention tools. Resources from the center include a chart comparing research on various academic interventions; an overview of the Taxonomy of Intervention Intensity, which helps educators ensure tutoring interventions are aligned to students’ needs; and a suite of companion resources focused on the taxonomy.

2. Ensure tutors are qualified to deliver the selected model.

Delivering a tutoring lesson to an individual student or small group of students calls upon different skills than those needed to deliver a lesson to a large class of students.

Education leaders will also need to consider the workforce required to implement a larger-scale program and ensure a fit between the type of intervention and staff training and skills. Delivering a tutoring lesson to an individual student or small group of students calls upon different skills than those needed to deliver a lesson to a large class of students. Systematic reviews of tutoring programs have found that tutoring efforts generally are more effective at increasing student learning when led by teachers. However, some evidence-based interventions have been validated with tutors who may not be certified teachers, such as non-teacher school staff, college students in the education field, and service fellows. Recent studies suggest that tutoring programs that use AmeriCorps members and paraprofessionals can be as effective as teacher-led programs in one-to-one or small group settings. Further, research shows that tutoring offered by nonprofessional and family members benefits students, but the benefits are smaller than for tutoring conducted by professionals or paraprofessionals

Leaders should consider the type of training needed to build tutors’ content knowledge and facilitation skills, as well as the ongoing supports that tutors will need throughout their relationship with students. Parents and family members who provide additional academic support may especially benefit from clear, accessible materials that provide scaffolding for how to engage and work with a child on a given learning task.

3. Create conditions for learning.

We know that all students have the potential to thrive when they experience safe, equitable, and engaging learning environments. Building strong, positive relationships between tutors and students can generate meaningful outcomes for students beyond academic gains. Drawing from a synthesis on the science of learning and development, the SoLD Alliance partners have articulated whole-child design principles for education systems; the first principle is that learning environments should support positive developmental relationships that we know have the potential to increase students’ sense of belonging and connection at school.

Given the contexts and experiences that students and tutors alike will bring to the table, education leaders should equip tutors with support and guidance so that they cultivate meaningful relationships with students to bolster their resiliency and engage them in learning—within the tutoring context and beyond.

4. Monitor and support quality implementation.

Carefully designing and implementing tutoring programs—as well as setting up rigorous monitoring systems—can allow education leaders to adjust and target interventions to the greatest needs.

Broader scale efforts to implement tutoring services have taught us that leaders need to monitor implementation. A good example of this is the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which provided funding for students in Title I schools to access tutoring services. Many states did not have the capacity to monitor the supplemental education services being offered, nor could they conduct more rigorous evaluations of the programs to understand their efficacy. Carefully designing and implementing tutoring programs—as well as setting up rigorous monitoring systems—can allow education leaders to adjust and target interventions to the greatest needs.

Leaders may want to review materials from the National Center on Intensive Intervention, which identified five considerations for the effective implementation of an intervention: student engagement, program specificity, adherence to the intervention plan, quality of delivery, and the duration of the intervention. Tools from the center can support educators as they implement and monitor interventions and assessments.

Throughout the lifecycle of the tutoring program, leaders can incorporate practices from continuous improvement science to collect data, build in flexibility, make adjustments, and reflect on what’s working—and what’s not. In our work with district and school leaders through the District and School Improvement Center, we have found this approach allows leaders not only to implement and monitor ongoing feedback loops, but also to make data-based decisions that lead to improvement for all students.
 

Next Steps

Just as the COVID-19 pandemic has lasted longer than many of us anticipated, education leaders also should be prepared that the process of recovery and rebuilding from the pandemic also will take time. The federal stimulus funding for K-12 education provides an opportunity for states to invest in new programs and opportunities, and leaders must consider both the scalability and sustainability of these programs to meet students’ needs for academic support—and understand that these needs may extend beyond 2021. These investments also provide an opportunity to build the lasting capacity of the education system to provide universal and intensive, individual supports and leverage research to accelerate student learning.

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Combat the “Covid-19 Slide”

How Tutoring Programs Can Combat the “Covid-19 Slide”

The current pandemic has led to unprecedented disruptions in student learning in the United States. Remote learning, decreased instruction time, and fewer opportunities for personalized interactions with teachers have set the stage for widespread learning loss, also referred to as the “Covid-19 slide.” These risks are greatest for low-income students, students of color, and students who were already in need of additional support before schools closed their doors. As the education system works to stabilize and adapt, addressing learning loss must stay at the forefront of the conversation. Policy and education officials must be proactive in identifying strategies to combat the growth of preexisting inequities and gaps in educational access and achievement. Rigorous research indicates that tutoring — supplemental one-on-one or small group instruction — may be one of the most effective tools they can employ.

J-PAL North America’s new publication, “The transformative potential of tutoring for PreK-12 learning outcomes: Lessons from randomized evaluations,” summarizes a meta-analysis of 96 randomized evaluations of different tutoring programs. Drawing primarily from research in high-income countries, this publication examines the effectiveness of tutoring programs across a variety of characteristics, including tutor type, subject, student grade, and others. The meta-analysis finds that tutoring programs have consistently large, positive impacts on students across this range of program aspects. The magnitude and consistency of the findings point to tutoring as one of the most agreed-upon and impactful tools available to educators for improving student learning.

The review identifies valuable insights and trends across five categories.

• Program effectiveness: Across all studies included in this analysis, tutoring programs consistently lead to large improvements in learning outcomes for students, with an overall pooled effect size of 0.37 standard deviations. (Effect sizes greater than 0.3 standard deviations are considered to be large impacts, especially in the context of education interventions.) This impact translates to a student advancing from the 50th percentile to nearly the 66th percentile.
  

• Tutor type: Tutoring programs led by teacher or paraprofessional tutors are generally more effective than programs that use nonprofessional (volunteer) or parent tutors. Paraprofessional tutors include, among others, non-teacher school staff, undergraduate and graduate students in education, and service corps fellows. Paraprofessional programs led to positive effects of nearly the same magnitude as teacher programs and were more consistent in their outcomes. This presents a potentially cost-effective option for highly impactful programming.
  

• Student grade level: The effects of tutoring programs tend to be strongest among students in earlier grades, although a smaller set of programs at the secondary level was also found to be effective at improving learning outcomes.
  

• Subject material: While overall effects for math and reading tutoring programs are similar, reading tutoring tends to be relatively more effective for students in preschool through first grade, while math tutoring tends to be more effective for students in second through fifth grade.
  

• Time and location of tutoring: Tutoring programs conducted during school tend to have larger impacts than those conducted after school. Many programs shown to have weaker effects used parents as tutors or took place in an after-school program. Researchers hypothesize that it is difficult to ensure that tutoring actually occurs in these settings.

This publication is meant to serve as a resource for supporting student learning and minimizing the growth of academic disparities during the Covid-19 slide. In addition to highlighting tutoring as an effective educational tool, it also identifies meaningful trends to inform how tutoring programming can be implemented most effectively. Finally, the publication outlines key open questions about how to effectively scale tutoring programs, support older students, and make tutoring accessible to the students who need it most. J-PAL North America is seeking to answer some of these questions through their COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Initiative.

We also invite you to explore how Vint Hill Educational Services can help if you need greater flexibility in the how, when, and where of your educational journey. We have a consistent record and demonstrated success of helping students improve their grades, scores, and overall academic functioning. In addition, all our programs are taught by highly qualified teachers and tutors. You can find out more about us by visiting our website or calling us directly at 540-680-4004. We're always happy to talk with you about your options and how we can help.