05/05/2025
College Board Transitions Most AP Exams to Digital This May
More than 3 million students are expected to take nearly 6 million fully digital or hybrid digital AP Exams this spring
Starting today, students will power up their computers instead of sharpening pencils, as Advanced Placement® (AP®) Exams go digital—offering a more secure, streamlined, and student-friendly testing experience.
As announced in July 2024, College Board is transitioning most AP Exams to a digital format for the 2025 AP Exam administration, which will take place in schools from May 5 to 16, 2025. Standard paper testing has been discontinued for 28 of the 36 AP subjects with end-of-course exams.
Exams for these 28 subjects are moving to the Bluebook™ digital testing application—the same platform successfully used by millions of students for the SAT®—and will be either fully digital or hybrid digital with a course-specific paper component for subjects that require graphic or symbolic notation.
“We’ve found that almost all students who’ve taken a digital AP Exam or participated in an AP digital testing pilot have adapted quickly to the new format,” said Trevor Packer, head of the AP Program. “Students today are ‘digital natives’ and appreciate the user-friendly features of the Bluebook interface.”
College Board has administered digital AP Exams for select subjects since 2022. In 2024, 650,000 AP Exams were delivered digitally, with more than 75% of students and administrators rating the digital testing experience the same as or better than paper testing. And digital exams also make for an easier and more secure testing process for schools.
Bluebook supports testing on commonly used devices and students can use their own or a school-issued device. Test previews are now available for all subjects in Bluebook and students can access free online practice exams, quizzes, and other teacher-created resources in AP Classroom.
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About AP
The Advanced Placement® Program (AP®) enables willing and academically prepared students to pursue college-level studies—with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both—while still in high school. Through AP courses in 40 subjects, each culminating in a challenging exam, students learn to think critically, construct solid arguments, and see many sides of an issue—skills that prepare them for college and beyond.