College Board Announcement: Starting in May 2025, standard paper testing will be discontinued for 28 AP Exams—these exams will move to the Bluebook digital testing application.
As you may know, one of the reasons AP exams are so challenging is the handwriting component. Not just free response, but literally hand-written. In a digital world where most students are proficient typists, handwriting can slow down a student’s ability to convey their words in written form. College Board sent out an announcement that they’re moving most AP exams to a new digital platform! NOTE that Homeschooling for College Credit students must still LOCATE A SCHOOL and obtain testing permission. This digital format does not allow home-based proctoring. Here is what we know so far:
As announced to the AP community, the AP Program is accelerating the transition to digital testing to ensure the continued security of AP Exams.
- Students will take digital exams in the Bluebook app. AP coordinators and proctors will administer digital exams using the Test Day Toolkit web application.
- Paper exams in these subjects will only be available to students approved by the College Board to receive a paper exam for digital assessments.
- For math, science, and economics exams that require graphing or symbolic notation, students will view free-response questions and prompts in Bluebook and write their answers in paper exam booklets.
- All schools, including schools and test centers outside of the United States, must administer these 28 AP Exams digitally.
- Late-testing exams in these subjects, if offered by the school, are also in digital format.
Digital AP Exam Subjects
Of the 28 digital exams in 2025, 16 will be fully digital and 12 will be hybrid digital.
Fully Digital Subjects
Students complete multiple-choice and free-response questions in Bluebook, with all responses automatically submitted at the end of the exam.
- AP African American Studies (U.S. schools only)
- AP Art History
- AP Comparative Government and Politics
- AP Computer Science A
- AP Computer Science Principles
- AP English Language and Composition
- AP English Literature and Composition
- AP Environmental Science
- AP European History
- AP Human Geography
- AP Latin
- AP Psychology
- AP Seminar
- AP United States Government and Politics
- AP United States History
- AP World History: Modern
Hybrid Digital Subjects
Students complete multiple-choice questions and view free-response questions in Bluebook. They handwrite their free-response answers in paper exam booklets that are returned for scoring.
- AP Biology
- AP Calculus AB
- AP Calculus BC
- AP Chemistry
- AP Macroeconomics
- AP Microeconomics
- AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based
- AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based
- AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
- AP Physics C: Mechanics
- AP Precalculus
- AP Statistics
Note: The AP Exam administration for exams with audio components and exams consisting solely of portfolio assessments is remaining unchanged for the May 2025 AP Exam administration:
- AP 2-D Art and Design
- AP 3-D Art and Design
- AP Drawing
- AP Chinese Language and Culture
- AP French Language and Culture
- AP German Language and Culture
- AP Italian Language and Culture
- AP Japanese Language and Culture
- AP Music Theory
- AP Research
- AP Spanish Language and Culture
- AP Spanish Literature and Culture
What to Know About Digital AP Exams
Bluebook digital testing is user-friendly and designed to keep testing smooth and secure.
- Exams can be taken on Mac and Windows devices, iPads, and school-managed Chromebooks. College Board will provide schools with loaner devices and Wi-Fi supports as needed.
- Students only need to be connected to the internet to start the test and at the end to submit their responses. If the internet drops during testing, students can continue testing without disruption.
- After the proctor starts the exam, Bluebook controls the exam timing; exam responses are submitted automatically as soon as the exam ends.
- In case of a widespread internet outage for an extended period or another unforeseen issue that prevents automatic answer submission at the end of the exam, students have up until 4 days after the exam to find an internet connection and submit their encrypted responses.
- Accommodations such as extended time are provided in Bluebook.
- Students will have ample opportunities to familiarize themselves with digital AP Exams, including test previews in the Bluebook app, AP Classroom practice assessments that closely mimic the look and feel of Bluebook exams, video tours of Bluebook features and tools, and more.
Testing logistics are similar to those for paper AP Exams.
- Digital exams require the same number of proctors as paper exams.
- Exams can be administered in typical testing rooms, including classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, computer labs, gymnasiums, and auditoriums.
The basic requirements of the exams aren’t changing.
- The number of sections, number and type of questions, question choice (if applicable), and timing remain unchanged.
- Students can go back within a section or part to review or complete previous questions. Students may not return to parts within a section that have already been completed.
- Digital AP Exams allow students to highlight and annotate exam stimuli and questions, mark questions to revisit, and eliminate answer choices. Students will be able to plan and outline on scratch paper provided by the proctor.
- AP calculator policies are unchanged.
- Reference materials, such as the periodic table, equation sheets, and Java Quick Reference, will be available in Bluebook.
More information will be provided this academic year.
