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AP Psychology
Advanced Placement course and exam

Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology (also known as AP Psych) and its corresponding exam are part of the College Board's Advanced Placement Program. This course is tailored for students interested in the field of psychology and as an opportunity to earn Advanced Placement credit or exemption from a college-level psychology course. It was the shortest AP exam until the AP Physics C exam was split into two separate exams in 2006.

AP Psychology is often considered one of the easier AP exams; relative to the other tests, the material is rather straightforward and much easier to self-study. Among all the social studies Advanced Placement exams, the Psych exam had the second-highest passing rate in 2018.

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Topics covered

The College Board provides a course of study to help educators prepare their students for the AP Psychology exam. The exam covers the following 5 areas. The percentage indicates the portion of the multiple-choice section of the exam focused on each content area:2

TopicPercent
Biological Bases of Behavior15-25%
Cognition15-25%
Development and Learning15-25%
Social Psychology and Personality15-25%
Mental and Physical Health15-25%

Exam

The exam includes two sections: a 90-minute multiple choice section (75 questions) and a 70-minute free response section (2 prompts). The multiple choice provides two-thirds of the grade and the free-response provides the remaining third. Additionally, the free response questions consist of one AAQ (Article Analysis Question) and one EBQ (Evidence Based Question).3

Beginning with the May 2011 AP Exam administration, total scores on the multiple-choice section are based only on the number of questions answered correctly.4 Points are no longer deducted for incorrect answers. Grading (the number of points needed to get a certain score) is slightly more strict as a result.

Grade distribution

The exam was first held in 1992. Grade distributions for the Psychology exam scores since 2010 were:

Score2010520116201272013820149201510201611201712201813201914202015202116202217202318202419
519.6%20.1%20.7%21.2%18.7%20.2%19.1%19.1%21.1%20.2%22.4%14.1%17.0%16.9%18%
426.6%26.3%26.0%26.6%26.9%26.2%26.1%25.1%26.3%25.4%25.4 %21.2%22.2%23.2%23%
320.0%19.8%19.4%19.5%19.9%19.8%19.1%20.0%18.3%18.8%23.5 %18.0%19.1%19.5%20%
212.7%12.9%13.5%13.0%13.5%13.1%14.2%14.6%14.5%13.7%9.6 %15.2%13.1%12.4%12%
121.1%20.9%20.3%19.7%20.9%20.7%21.6%21.2%19.8%22.0%19.1 %31.5%28.5%28.0%27%
% of Scores 3 or higher66.2%66.2%66.1%67.3%65.5%66.2%64.2%64.2%65.7%64.4%71.3%53.3%58.3%59.6%61%
Mean3.113.123.133.173.093.123.073.063.143.083.222.712.862.892.93
Standard Deviation1.421.421.421.421.411.421.421.421.421.441.401.451.471.461.46
Number of Students177,708197,719220,361238,962259,789276,971293,350302,369311,759311,215295,621288,511292,501321,329

Controversies

In August 2023, the Florida Department of Education ruled that AP Psychology was in violation of the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act due to content on sexual orientation and gender identity in the course, effectively banning the course in the state of Florida.20 The department told school officials that the course may only be taught if material on sexual orientation and gender identity was removed from the curriculum. College Board responded that if such topics were removed, the class would not be compliant with college requirements, and thus not be eligible for Advanced Placement.21 The ban came amidst a broader backlash against the teaching of LGBTQ+ topics in the United States.22

Notes

References

  1. Edwards, Halle. "Complete List of AP Courses and Tests". blog.prepscholar.com. Retrieved 2019-04-08. https://blog.prepscholar.com/list-of-ap-exams ↩

  2. "AP: Psychology". Archived from the original on 2008-04-02. Retrieved 2008-04-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20080402161553/http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/psych/topics.html ↩

  3. "AP: Psychology". Archived from the original on 2008-01-28. Retrieved 2008-04-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20080128173006/http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/psych/exam.html ↩

  4. "Scoring Worksheet" (PDF). College Board. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 May 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link) https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/apc/env-sci-scoring-worksheet-1998.pdf ↩

  5. "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved June 3, 2024. https://reports.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Student-Score-Distributions-2010_1.pdf ↩

  6. "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved June 3, 2024. https://reports.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/AP-Student-Score-Distributions-2011_1.pdf ↩

  7. 2012 AP Scores Distribution http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/student_score_distributions_2012.pdf ↩

  8. 2013 AP Scores Distribution http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/apcentral/ap13_psychology_ScoringDist.pdf ↩

  9. 2014 AP Scores Distribution http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2014/STUDENT-SCORE-DISTRIBUTIONS-2014.pdf ↩

  10. "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved June 3, 2024. https://reports.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Student-Score-Distributions-2015_1.pdf ↩

  11. "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved June 3, 2024. https://reports.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Student-Score-Distributions-2016_1.pdf ↩

  12. "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved June 3, 2024. https://reports.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Student-Score-Distributions-2017_1.pdf ↩

  13. "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved July 23, 2022. https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2018/Student-Score-Distributions-2018.pdf ↩

  14. "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved July 23, 2022. https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2019/Student-Score-Distributions-2019.pdf ↩

  15. "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 9, 2021. https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2020/Student-Score-Distributions-2020.pdf ↩

  16. "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved July 23, 2022. https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2021/2021-ap-student-score-distributions.pdf ↩

  17. "AP Psychology Student Score Distributions–Global AP Exams–May 2022" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-11-28. https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap22-psychology-score-distributions.pdf ↩

  18. "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS AP Exams - May 2023" (PDF). https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-score-distributions-by-subject-2023.pdf ↩

  19. "2024 AP Score Distributions". Retrieved July 8, 2024. https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions ↩

  20. Lavietes, Matt (2023-08-04). "Florida effectively bans AP Psychology course over LGBTQ content, College Board says". NBC News. Retrieved 2023-08-05. https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/florida-effectively-bans-ap-psychology-course-lgbtq-content-college-bo-rcna98036 ↩

  21. Meckler, Laura (2023-08-03). "Florida 'effectively' bans Advanced Placement psychology course". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2023-08-05. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/08/03/florida-bans-ap-psychology-class/ ↩

  22. Anderson, Zac. "Ron DeSantis wants to scrub AP classes of LGBTQ subjects. The College Board isn't having it". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2023-08-03. Retrieved 10 August 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230803200836/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/06/15/desantis-trying-to-cut-lgbtq-topics-from-ap-courses-psychology/70326534007/ ↩