Learn About Digital AP Exams
Starting in May 2025, standard paper testing will be discontinued for 28 AP Exams—these exams will move to the Bluebook digital testing application.
As announced to the AP community, the AP Program is accelerating the transition to digital testing to ensure the continued security of AP Exams.
- Students will take digital exams in the Bluebook app. AP coordinators and proctors will administer digital exams using the Test Day Toolkit web application.
- Paper exams in these subjects will only be available to students approved by the College Board to receive a paper exam for digital assessments.
- For math, science, and economics exams that require graphing or symbolic notation, students will view free-response questions and prompts in Bluebook and write their answers in paper exam booklets.
- All schools, including schools and test centers outside of the United States, must administer these 28 AP Exams digitally.
- Late-testing exams in these subjects, if offered by the school, are also in digital format.
Digital AP Exam Subjects
Of the 28 digital exams in 2025, 16 will be fully digital and 12 will be hybrid digital.
Fully Digital Subjects
Students complete multiple-choice and free-response questions in Bluebook, with all responses automatically submitted at the end of the exam.
- AP African American Studies (U.S. schools only)
- AP Art History
- AP Comparative Government and Politics
- AP Computer Science A
- AP Computer Science Principles
- AP English Language and Composition
- AP English Literature and Composition
- AP Environmental Science
- AP European History
- AP Human Geography
- AP Latin
- AP Psychology
- AP Seminar
- AP United States Government and Politics
- AP United States History
- AP World History: Modern
Hybrid Digital Subjects
Students complete multiple-choice questions and view free-response questions in Bluebook. They handwrite their free-response answers in paper exam booklets that are returned for scoring.
- AP Biology
- AP Calculus AB
- AP Calculus BC
- AP Chemistry
- AP Macroeconomics
- AP Microeconomics
- AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based
- AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based
- AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
- AP Physics C: Mechanics
- AP Precalculus
- AP Statistics
Note: The AP Exam administration for exams with audio components and exams consisting solely of portfolio assessments is remaining unchanged for the May 2025 AP Exam administration:
- AP 2-D Art and Design
- AP 3-D Art and Design
- AP Drawing
- AP Chinese Language and Culture
- AP French Language and Culture
- AP German Language and Culture
- AP Italian Language and Culture
- AP Japanese Language and Culture
- AP Music Theory
- AP Research
- AP Spanish Language and Culture
- AP Spanish Literature and Culture
What to Know About Digital AP Exams
Bluebook digital testing is user-friendly and designed to keep testing smooth and secure.
- Exams can be taken on Mac and Windows devices, iPads, and school-managed Chromebooks. College Board will provide schools with loaner devices and Wi-Fi supports as needed.
- Students only need to be connected to the internet to start the test and at the end to submit their responses. If the internet drops during testing, students can continue testing without disruption.
- After the proctor starts the exam, Bluebook controls the exam timing; exam responses are submitted automatically as soon as the exam ends.
- In case of a widespread internet outage for an extended period or another unforeseen issue that prevents automatic answer submission at the end of the exam, students have up until 4 days after the exam to find an internet connection and submit their encrypted responses.
- Accommodations such as extended time are provided in Bluebook.
- Students will have ample opportunities to familiarize themselves with digital AP Exams, including test previews in the Bluebook app, AP Classroom practice assessments that closely mimic the look and feel of Bluebook exams, video tours of Bluebook features and tools, and more.
Testing logistics are similar to those for paper AP Exams.
- Digital exams require the same number of proctors as paper exams.
- Exams can be administered in typical testing rooms, including classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, computer labs, gymnasiums, and auditoriums.
The basic requirements of the exams aren’t changing.
- The number of sections, number and type of questions, question choice (if applicable), and timing remain unchanged.
- Students can go back within a section or part to review or complete previous questions. Students may not return to parts within a section that have already been completed.
- Digital AP Exams allow students to highlight and annotate exam stimuli and questions, mark questions to revisit, and eliminate answer choices. Students will be able to plan and outline on scratch paper provided by the proctor.
- AP calculator policies are unchanged.
- Reference materials, such as the periodic table, equation sheets, and Java Quick Reference, will be available in Bluebook.
Next Steps
- Review the information about digital AP Exams, including answers to frequently asked questions, on this site. This site will be updated throughout the year with further details and supporting resources.
- Join the AP Program’s digital AP Exams webinar series to gain insights and readiness for administering digital AP Exams. Pose questions and receive an immediate response.
- Share the technical information about Bluebook and Test Day Toolkit with the school or district’s device and network managers.
FAQ
The wording for some question directions will be updated to reflect the delivery mode. However, the number of sections, number and type of questions, question choice (if applicable), and timing remain unchanged.
Read more
AP Exam scores are evaluated across administrations and statistically adjusted for form difficulty differences to ensure that the same standards are applied across administrations, regardless of the mode of testing.
Read more
For the 12 hybrid digital AP Exams, students complete multiple-choice questions and view free-response questions in Bluebook. They handwrite their free-response answers in paper exam booklets that are returned for scoring. More information about these exams will be shared with teachers and AP coordinators in the coming months.
Read more
The AP calculator policies are unchanged. Students can use an approved personal or school-provided calculator on AP Exams that allow or require the use of calculators. We will notify AP teachers and AP coordinators if the Desmos calculator will be available in Bluebook for May 2025 AP Exams.
Read more
If the internet disconnects during testing, students will still be able to progress through the exam with no disruption. And if a student’s computer runs out of battery, they can simply plug in, restart their device, and pick up where they left off—all their work will be saved, and they won’t lose testing time. However, with the back-to-back morning and afternoon nature of AP Exam scheduling, schools should have a power plan—either plugging in for testing or recharging between testing periods or ensuring that devices can be connected to power strips during testing sessions, if needed.
Read more
Schools that anticipate device shortages can explore various options, including:
- Purchasing or renting additional devices
- Borrowing additional devices from neighboring schools
- Allowing students to use approved personal devices or devices borrowed from family members or friends
- Dividing testing between the regularly scheduled exam date and the late-testing date for impacted subjects
Schools that are unable to find local solutions for anticipated technology shortages will have the opportunity to request loaner devices and Wi-Fi supports from College Board.
Read more
If students’ devices are fully charged and capable of lasting the duration of the exam (at least 4 hours), they don’t need to be plugged in throughout the exam. In previous digital AP Exam administrations, the vast majority of students reported not having their device plugged in for the duration of the exam. Many devices have sufficient battery life to last through two exams.
We recommend that schools have seats in the exam room next to outlets or power strips, so if a student runs lower on power, they can get the attention of the proctor and move to a seat where they can plug in.
Power banks and external laptop batteries are permitted.
Read more
There are a variety of approaches to ensure that students taking two digital AP Exams on the same device on the same day can test successfully. Once you’ve confirmed with technology staff that the fully charged device is unlikely to last through two digital AP Exams, consider the following:
- Seat the student where their device can be plugged in during the morning exam.
- Provide the student with a power bank or external laptop battery.
- Start the morning exam at the beginning of the start window (as close to 8 a.m. as possible) and start the afternoon exam at the end of the start window (as close to 1 p.m. as possible) to allow time to charge the device between exams.
If these options aren’t feasible, consider providing the student with another device for their afternoon exam, or have the student take one of the exams on the late-testing date instead.
Read more
Per the current policy for digital AP Exams, students must stay for the full duration of their approved extended time. We have heard concerns from some students and educators about digital AP Exams requiring students to stay for the entire amount of their approved extended time. We are looking into these concerns. If there are any changes to the existing extended time testing policy, we will notify AP coordinators, SSD coordinators, and school administrators.
Read more
College Board has a best-in-class test security team. They lead comprehensive investigative efforts to uncover attempted cheating by students and adults and then conduct sophisticated statistical analyses of test results to cancel scores of those who attempt to gain an unfair advantage over other students. Because the thefts and security breaches this past year were limited in scale, we were able to enact score cancellations in a focused way among students who participated in such cheating. The move to digital will prevent the risk of disclosure associated with shipping millions of paper exam booklets to schools worldwide.
Read more
Resources
Article
Browse frequently asked questions about digital AP Exams.
Article
Review device and network requirements for digital testing.
