After you finish your AP exam, it will be sent to the College Board for grading. Student answer sheets for the multiple-choice section (Section I, Part A) are scored by machine. Multiple choice questions will be scored are based on the number answered correctly. Note that no points are deducted for wrong answers. Most importantly, however, no points are awarded for unanswered questions... which means, if you don't know the answer--then guess! Leave no question blank.

The free-response sections (Section I, Part B &, Section II) are evaluated and scored by hand by trained AP readers. Rubrics based on each specific free-response prompt are released on the AP central website after the exams are administered.

After your total scores from Sections, I and II are calculated, your results are converted to a scaled score from 1 to 5. The range of points for each scaled score varies depending on the difficulty of the exam in a particular year, but the significance of each value is constant from year to year. According to the College Board, AP scores should be interpreted as follows:

5 = Extremely well qualified

4 = Very well qualified

3 = Qualified

2 = Possibly qualified

1 = No recommendation

Colleges will generally not award course credit for any score below a 3, with more selective schools requiring a 4 or 5. Note that some schools will not award college credit regardless of your score. Be sure to research schools that you plan to apply to so you can determine the score you need to aim for on the AP exam.

Okay, now take a  look at the following chart, which shows what percentage of test-takers received each possible AP score (1-5) on the AP World History test in 2021.

As you can see, roughly 53% of test-takers scored a 2 or 3, about 28% scored a 4 or 5, and only 19% scored a 1. Since most test-takers scored a 3 or lower on this test, it's safe to say that a lot of AP World History students are not scoring as well as they could be.