2025 AP Exam Score Distributions Are Out!
Introduction
High school group chats are buzzing and AP teachers are trying to figure out how their students might have done on the 2025 AP Exams. College Board has officially released the 2025 AP Exam Score Distributions, providing initial comprehensive looks at how students performed, given this year’s exams had a significant digital component.
Trends Similar to 2024
Despite the move to digital assessment for most exams, preliminary comparison shows a surprising trend: that 2025 align remarkably closely with previous years. In some cases, certain AP exams showed more consistency between 2024 and 2025 than they did between 2023 and 2024.
But beyond the numbers lies a more important question: what do these score distributions actually tell us about student achievement and college readiness?
The AP score distributions were initially released to publicly display trends in student achievement and build on the validity of exams. This public display also allows College Board to incorporate feedback into refining their curricula and developing new standards for educators to implement within their schools.
Interpreting Each Metric
Looking at these metrics, students and teachers tend to span more of their attention towards the breakdown percentage of students who scored 4s and 5s. This is not a surprise, as the barrier of entry to getting into college has become more difficult. Pupils too frequently self-inflict stress and anxiety, expecting fives and perfection within their studies.
In reality, many colleges accept a passing score, meaning the student scores a 3 or higher. Additionally, a 3+ score means a lot in terms of collegiate preparedness, since AP exams reflect college-level content. Thus, the “3+” column is often overlooked, when it is actually a good measure to see academic talent of students, and if they can achieve collegiate success early on in high school. Now, let’s go in depth with tests on an individual basis, evaluating each of their score distributions.
Looking at Individual Tests
Starting with the AP History and Social Sciences department, AP African American Studies had a passing rate of 79%, an uptick from its piloted year in 2024 at 73%. This can be attributed to the curriculum stabilizing and advancing since its introduction. Another notable test includes APUSH, which maintained a strong performance with a 73% passing rate, slightly up from last year. Analyzing this increase, College Board noted that students demonstrated stronger knowledge and analytical skills, which is especially pivotal as they move on to building their careers when they move on to college.
In the mathematics and computer sciences department, AP Precalculus jumped to a 81% passing rate, jumping up from its previous 76% while remaining strong. AP Statistics maintained solid performance, with numbers almost identical to its score distribution from 2024. AP Calculus BC continued its high performance at 79%, along with a 44% 5 rate, a testament to how significant the role of barrier for entry plays in Calculus BC.
In other words, for a higher-level standardized exam like Calculus, students are well-equipped and bound to be more prepared to do well on the exam, reflecting its higher five rate in scores. This starkly contrasts to the results displayed from the AP Calculus AB exam, with a disparity of 15 plus points in passing rate between Calculus AB and BC, and a low five percent rate of 20%. This disparity, again, ties back to the barrier of entry and level of preparation a student has going into the exam. Calculus AB is an entire level lower than BC, and can also be seen as a precursor to taking the BC exam, which also covers AB material.
Jumping to the computer science courses, both AP Computer Science exams (A and Principles) maintained their trends of having scores that had at least a 60% passing rate, but a low five rate at 25% and 11% respectively.
A Special Case
A metric that jumps out lies within the AP Sciences department, where AP Physics 1 had a groundbreaking 66% pass rate, which is the biggest increase in terms of all AP exams and their pass rates between 2024 and 2025. Physics 1 had a 47% pass rate and a low 10% five rate, however, the implementation of a hybrid exam this year seemed to bring a major change in student performance. This solid uptick in scores also reflects an increase students’ critical thinking abilities with application-based questions, which are prevalent within the AP Physics 1 exam.
On the other hand, both AP Physics C exams (Mechanics and Electricity/Magnetism) experienced a downgrade in five rates, with 20% and 23% respectively. Last year in 2024, 29% of students scored a 5 on Mechanics, while 35% scored a 5 on Electricity/Magnetism. Changes in trends like these are not surprising – College Board is constantly ramping up the difficulty of some exams that students have historically scored well on, while also simplifying exams that have challenged students.
Takeaways
Now that we’ve looked through multiple score distributions across many exams, what do we get from this? Generally, the transition to hybrid/fully online AP exams had virtually no effect on student performance, maintaining historical trends, with the exception of the AP Physics exams. However, this does not diminish the fact that College Board is still trying to convert to a fully online platform, which is why we, at Magna Education, prioritize student user experience and engagement with AP material through our comprehensive quizzes and practice exams. Feel free to look into us more at magnaeducation.ai and even create a free account to start studying for your future AP exams today!