Departments and Courses

Students typically take six to seven classes per semester suited to their course of study and their particular stage of academic development. Each day is divided into four blocks and the school year is divided into two semesters, with mainly year-long courses and a few semester-long courses.

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AP Exam and Statistics

The AP Exam

With the exception of Studio Art, each AP Exam is administered on a College Board-mandated day and contains a free-response section (either essays or problem-solving) and a multiple-choice section. Language exams, such as French and Spanish, also have an oral component in which students are required to produce sentences and respond to questions out loud for a digital tape recorder. AP exams are graded on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 as the highest score, indicating that the student is extremely well-qualified to receive full or partial college course credit at the college chosen.

AP Exam Statistics

  • 37 courses and exams across a wide variety of subject areas
  • In 2015, over 4.5 million exams were taken by more than 2.5 million students at over 19,000 high schools
  • AP Exams are administered at more than 15,000 schools in 100 countries
  • Since the first AP Exams were given in 1956, more than 12.6 million students have taken more than 19 million AP Exams worldwide
  • On average, 62 percent of those taking AP exams receive a grade that is recommended for college credit, advanced placement or both. More than 90 percent of colleges and universities in the United States recognize these exam grades
  • More than 600 universities in 60 countries outside the United States recognize AP Exam scores for credit and/or advanced placement in the admissions process

*Exam facts taken from the College Board website