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Course Descriptions and Released Exam Questions
Each Development Committee drafts a Course Description booklet that discusses the content of the AP course and the material evaluated on the exam. The booklet explains the course objectives and content, and provides sample exam questions.
 Course Descriptions
Sample syllabi used by AP teachers and college professors for the equivalent college-level course are also available.
Sample Syllabi
Released exam questions, along with scoring guidelines, sample responses, and grade distributions, are available for each AP course.
Exam Questions
Each AP course has its own Course Home Page that includes links to unique course and exam information, resources for AP teachers, and other professional development materials.
Course Home Page Index
Development of AP Courses
AP Development Committees
The AP course curricula are developed by AP Development Committees composed of an equal number of college and university academic faculty and experienced AP high school teachers for each subject field -- usually six or eight in total. The committee members are representative of the wide range of secondary and postsecondary institutions from all regions of the country, and a diversity of knowledge and perspectives in their fields. They bring to their tasks knowledge of the curricula and instructional materials in their fields, as well as a honed sense of the abilities and skills critical in a given subject, and how students can demonstrate the mastery of such skills.
There are a total of 22 Committees for the 34 different AP Exams. These Committees meet usually three times a year to discuss and develop the curriculum and the AP Exam questions. The Chief Reader, a college or university faculty member who oversees the annual Reading of the free-response section for that exam, also attends each committee meeting. Additionally, two AP content experts work with each Committee, making a total of about 10 individuals attending each committee meeting.
AP content experts are proficient in curriculum assessment -- most hold advanced degrees in the field of their assigned Committee and many are former college professors or high school teachers. Other AP staff members provide support and resources for the Committees through their special expertise in measurement and statistics, publications, research, or questionnaire design.
The Development Committees guide and review the considerable research and data analysis undertaken to make certain that the AP Course Descriptions and exam questions adhere to high academic disciplinary standards for proficiency and excellence. Additionally, the Committees seek to be active participants in the debates around curricular innovation and reform within their fields of expertise.
Roles and Responsibilities of Committee Members
Development Committee members plan, develop, and approve each AP Exam. Their specific responsibilities include: determining the general content of the exam and the ability level that is being tested, writing and reviewing exam questions, and giving final approval for the exams. Development Committees frequently make use of curriculum surveys sent to college and university faculty to align the AP curriculum with that of higher education institutions.
They also review and write descriptive materials for AP students, high schools, and colleges, such as the Course Description and Released Exam booklets. They participate in outreach efforts by making presentations about their experience working with AP at academic and professional conferences.
Development of AP Exams
Each AP Exam consists of two sections -- multiple-choice and free-response. Free-response questions can take the form of essays or problems to solve. With slight variances for each AP Exam, equal weight is generally given to each section in the exam-scoring process.
Multiple-Choice Questions
Multiple-choice questions are written solely by college faculty who teach the college courses that correspond to the AP course. AP content experts make sure that the questions adhere to the highest standards of quality and fairness in test development, as well as to certain editorial and stylistic standards. Statistical specifications are developed to ensure that each AP Exam will be of appropriate difficulty for the test-taking population and that each exam will distinguish among students with different levels of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Reusing a percentage of multiple-choice questions from prior exams guarantees the statistical reliability of each AP Exam from year to year.
Free-Response Questions
Most free-response questions come from Development Committee members. They create a pool of proposed questions, the best of which are refined and focused to ensure that students are presented with ample opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge. In analyzing the proposed free-response questions, committee members and content experts consider issues such as:
- How should we expect a student to respond to the question?
- What knowledge and abilities do we want the students to demonstrate in their answers?
- Is it likely that the question will do what it is intended to do?
- Could the question be better framed in the multiple-choice format?
Once a question is chosen for inclusion in an exam, it goes through several rounds of review and revision by the Committee, typically taking up to two years. Each free-response question on an AP Exam is unique and used only once.
Putting It All Together
The Development Committee reviews the final draft of each exam, judging it on the merits of the individual questions and the exam as a whole. Each exam must meet predetermined content and statistical specifications, and also have a coherence and internal consistency that reflects its purpose of assessing the students' preparation in the subject. In putting its stamp of approval on the final version of the exam, the Committee indicates that each question is appropriate and unambiguous, that all the members agree about the correct answer for each multiple-choice question, and that the exam as a whole is a suitable measure of the prescribed Course Description.
After the exam has been administered, all of the free-response questions are released and made available to the public through AP Central. Sample student responses at various levels of achievement are also posted.
Scoring of AP Exams: The AP Reading
Multiple-choice exam questions are scored by computer, according to a scale that awards one point for each correct answer, and deducts one-quarter of a point for each wrong answer for five-choice test items, and one-third of a point for four-choice test items. This type of scoring is appropriate for tests where students are not expected to have mastered all of the material that might be tested. Scoring the free-response portions of AP Exams is a complex, collaborative process that involves thousands of different AP Exam Readers. Readers gather every June at various locations throughout the country to evaluate over five million essays, solutions to extended problems, audiotaped responses, and Studio Art portfolios. The Chief Reader -- always a college or university faculty member -- is responsible for making sure that each exam is graded fairly and consistently. This involves selecting the Reading leadership and Readers, developing scoring standards for free-response questions, overseeing the entire scoring process at the AP Reading, and determining the scale for converting raw scores into AP grades.
Reading Leadership
Chief Readers typically have attended the annual Reading for many years, and have experience in the different positions of leadership at the Reading, including Exam, Question, and Table Leaders. Table Leaders are appointed by the Chief Reader and have generally already served as Readers for several years. Table Leaders train the Readers and monitor the progress and reliability of the Readers under their supervision. Appointed by the Chief Reader, Question and Exam Leaders have generally served for several years as Table Leaders. In large-volume subjects, a Question Leader supervises the Readers' scoring of a particular free-response question. In some subjects with two exams, an Exam Leader supervises the scoring of one of the exams. These Reading Leaders help the Chief Reader develop the scoring standards and train the Table Leaders on how to apply them.
Readers
All AP Readers are either AP teachers currently teaching the subject or higher education faculty who have recently taught the comparable college-level course, with an equal mix of Readers from each group. Readers are carefully selected to ensure an appropriate balance among several factors including school locale and setting, gender, race, ethnicity, and years of teaching experience.
Development of Scoring Standards
The Development Committee begins the process of creating scoring guidelines by suggesting preliminary scoring standards for each free-response question they have written. In the few days prior to the Reading, Reading Leaders and AP content experts meet at the Reading site to review and test the guidelines by reading and scoring randomly selected student papers, refining and finalizing the scoring guidelines in the process. A subset of these randomly selected papers is chosen for use in training the Readers.
Training of Readers
Table Leaders conduct a thorough training session for each free-response question with the Readers before the scoring begins. This ensures that the Readers are all using the same standard, and it provides the opportunity to further refine the scoring guidelines as necessary. In these training sessions the Readers first review the scoring guidelines and then read sample prescored papers selected by the Reading leadership. These sample responses reflect all levels of ability. After discussing the scores for the samples, the Readers then read another group of preselected responses whose scores are not revealed to the Readers. Groups of Readers determine collectively what score should be assigned, which is then compared to the score given by the Reading Leaders. This process is repeated several times, with responses that represent a wide range of possible and problematic responses. Scores and differences in judgment are discussed until agreement is reached, with the Question Leaders, Table Leaders, or the Chief Reader acting as arbitrator when needed. Once a team has shown consistent agreement on its scores, its members proceed to score individually. Readers are encouraged to seek advice from one another, the Table and Question Leaders, or the Chief Reader when in doubt about a score. A student response that is problematic receives multiple readings and evaluations.
Checks and Balances
Various steps are taken to ensure fair and consistent scoring. The student's identification information, as well as all previous scores given by other Readers, is not revealed to the current Reader. Clerical aides at the Reading record data, and handle paper flow, thus freeing Readers from these duties and enabling them to concentrate on the scoring of student papers. The aides also randomly distribute the responses so that materials from any particular school are scored by a wide variety of Readers. Usually, one Reader will not score any more than one free-response question per student.
Score Conversion
Each exam has a formula for combining the scores for the multiple-choice and free-response sections or subsections and combining them into the composite score. Once the multiple-choice and the free-response sections have been scored, a computer calculates each student's composite score.
Grade Setting
Each year, immediately after the reading of the free-response sections, the Chief Reader in each AP course is presented with statistical data on that year's exam, and decides which composite scores will delineate the boundaries between the five AP grades.
The Chief Readers are provided with a variety of evidence to use in order to maintain AP grading standards over time. This continuity of AP standards allows colleges to be confident that an AP grade of 3 on this year's exam will represent, as nearly as possible, the same level of achievement as a grade of 3 on last year's exam. Some multiple-choice questions appear on the same exam from year to year in order to provide statistical equating of scores from one year to the next. The Chief Reader uses this statistical equating, along with college comparability studies, the distribution of scores on different parts of the exams, AP grade distributions from the past three years, and the Chief Reader's own observations of students' free-response answers, as he or she makes the final decision about AP grades.
Assessment That Serves Learning
After the Reading, the Chief Reader reports back to the Committee on how the students responded to and performed on the free-response portions of the exams. This typically includes a discussion of the relative strengths and weaknesses displayed by the student group as a whole, and specific suggestions for the development of future free-response questions. This evaluation also includes the other Readers' reactions to the free-response questions at the AP Reading. This report back to the Development Committee is vital as it can help shape future free-response test questions in the process of development and inform the Committee's review of the AP curriculum. Often, Committees will use information learned in the process of scoring the AP Exam free-response questions and overall student performance to give teachers and students more and clearer information regarding how best to master the material in a particular AP course.
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