Beyond Your Campus: AP Participation Continues to Increase and Help Students Plan their Enrollment
In 2023, student participation in AP Exams grew to the highest level ever. The 2023 AP Exam Administration completed on May 12th. The 2023 AP administration was the largest ever, and AP exam participation continued to increase after a pandemic decrease in 2020. In 2023, nearly 2.9 million students took more than 5 million exams.
This year’s AP Reading had the highest AP professor and teacher participation since the pandemic
The 2023 AP Exam Administration scoring took place over three weeks in June. Readings were held in Tampa, Fl, Kansas City, MO, Cincinnati, OH, and Salt Lake City, UT. Aside from the exam scoring during the 2020 covid pandemic, the 2023 AP Reading had the highest participation ever. In 2023, over 23,000 college professors and high school AP teachers participated in the AP Reading. This represents a participation increase of more than 25% since 2019.
AP exam participation among high school freshmen and sophomores is growing at an even faster rate than participation among upperclassmen
More students are challenging themselves to take AP exams earlier in high school. Freshman AP participation grew approx. 10% in 2023 compared to 2022. For sophomores, this growth rate was even higher at approx. 12%.
*Size of circle indicates AP participation volume.
Even before senior year, AP experiences are important to students as both college applicants and scholars in-general. AP helps spark student interest in college majors and potential future career paths.
Survey Question: What motivated you to take AP earlier in high school?
- “Honestly, it prepares me for taking AP courses later in high school, and in college. It’s also nice to meet people from other grades, taking the course later. It is a great experience, and I’ve made so many friends just in this class alone. I’d highly recommend taking AP, it’s very helpful, and will prepare you for college.”
- “To be able to experience a college level course and to see if I have what it takes”
- “It also allows me to figure out my career path by experiencing different types of content.”
- “Hearing that I could potentially transfer the credits to college/university motivated me to take AP earlier in high school.”
AP credit remains important to students in their admissions and enrollment process
Seniors have shared how important it is for them to get credit for their AP scores. 67% of seniors surveyed after the exam said that the desire to earn college credit or placement had a great deal of influence on their decision to take an AP Exam this year.
Question response options are ‘A great deal; A moderate amount; A little; Not at all; Not sure/Not applicable’ [67% reflects those who responded ‘A great deal’. Question sample size n=3198.]
Also, many students said that credit was a substantial factor in their college planning. 67% of seniors said that the ability to earn credit for prior coursework was important in deciding which college they wanted to attend.
Question response options are ‘Yes (dark purple); No (light purple); I’m not sure (light purple); Other (light purple)’. [Question sample size n=1138]
Institutional AP credit offerings continue to grow
While more students continue to take AP exams with expectations of earning credit, colleges continue to improve their credit offerings for AP courses. Each year, the College Board asks campuses to report their AP credit offerings to share the information with students to support their application and enrollment process. According to the 2022 annual AP Credit Policy Survey, 4-year campuses expanded their AP credit policy offerings by an estimated 2% from 2020 to 2022. 69% of these policies award credit for scores of 3, increasing steadily each year and reaching growth of four percentage points between 2017 and 2022.
