Are you looking to understand the ins and outs of the 2025 AP® Psychology exam? Read the FAQs below to learn everything you need to know before crushing the test!
What We Review
Is AP® Psychology easy? What can make it hard?
The AP® Psychology course is definitely more difficult than the typical high school psychology course. AP® courses are meant to teach students at an introductory college level. Compared to other AP® exams, AP® Psychology is considered one of the easier exams to pass in the AP® catalog for the reasons described below.
In 2024, the AP® Psychology exam had a passing rate of 61.7%, with a mean score of 2.97.
Historically, the AP® Psychology exam has had a relatively high passing rate compared to all other AP® exams.
All of these statistics are based on the total number of students who sit for the AP® Psychology exam every year. This exam averages about 300,000 students yearly (in 2024, the exam had 320,164 test-takers), making it one of the most popular exams in the AP® test catalog.
If you want to maximize your study time, you’ll want to focus on the areas most represented in the exam. It will be helpful to know how the individual units are weighted on the exam so you can target your study time accordingly.
For the multiple-choice portion of the exam, each of the five course units is represented equally.
- Unit 1: Biological Bases of Behavior
- Unit 2: Cognition
- Unit 3: Development and Learning
- Unit 4: Social Psychology and Personality
- Unit 5: Mental and Physical Health
Our AP® Psychology score calculator (previewed below) can further help you determine how to perform to score a passing grade!
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Is AP® Psychology worth it?
Many students feel that taking the AP® Psychology exam is worth their time and effort. First, AP® courses, in general, provide a glimpse into college-level classes and their associated workload. Also, students who do well in AP® courses feel better prepared and more confident about their upcoming college experience.
Second, for students who plan to attend college, having AP® classes on your resume can assist you in the admissions process, especially at the more competitive colleges. According to the National Society of High School Scholars, “College admissions professionals like to see that you have challenged yourself and are also prepared for college-level curriculum. Doing well in AP® courses can show college admissions staff that you are ready to succeed in college.”
Third, and probably most importantly financially, are the potential savings you could realize when using AP® courses for college credit. Students who enter college with credits through AP® courses can see big savings by paying for fewer credit hours.
Below is a chart that shows these savings for a few select colleges that accept the AP® Psychology exam for college credit.
| School | Minimum Score Required | Number of Credits |
| American University | 4 | 3 |
| Rutgers University | 4 | 3 |
| Univ of California – Berkeley | 3 | 2.7 |
| Ohio State University | 3 | 3 |
| Northeastern University | 4 | 4 |
| San Diego State | 3 | 3 |
| Texas A & M | 3 | 3 |
| Carnegie Mellon | 4 | 9 |
Given that the average cost per credit hour ranges anywhere from $406 (for in-state residents at a public 4-year college) and up to $1,469 (for a private 4-year university) or greater, this can result in a savings of at least $1,218 to over $5,876. As you can see, the academic benefits combined with the financial benefits make taking the AP® Psychology exam worth your time and effort.
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When is the 2025 AP® Psychology exam?
The 2025 AP® Psychology exam will be given as a fully digital exam via Bluebook. The 2025 AP® Psychology exam will take place on:
Friday, May 16, 2025, at 12pm local time
Curious about when other AP® exams are happening in 2025? View or download the complete AP® exam schedule here.
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When do AP® Psychology scores typically come out?
According to the latest update from the College Board exam season timeline, students will receive their AP® scores in July 2025. Historically, the College Board typically releases AP® scores early in the month of July.
You’ll be able to access your AP® scores online with your College Board account username and password
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How is AP® Psychology scored? What’s the weighting of different questions?
Below is the scoring breakdown for the AP® Psychology exam:
| Section | Questions | Time | % of Exam Score |
| 1: Multiple Choice | 75 questions | 90 minutes | 66.7% |
| 2: Free Response | 2 questions | 70 minutes | 33.3% |
The first section is the multiple-choice section. In this section, you must answer 75 questions in one hour and 30 minutes. This requires you to answer questions at a rate of 1.2 minutes per question.
In the multiple-choice section, you will be required to define and explain concepts as well as apply skills such as concept application, data analysis, and scientific investigation.
The free-response portion consists of two questions. In these questions, you will need to apply a variety of theories and concepts from different subsets of psychology. You will also be required to analyze research studies and analyze and interpret quantitative data.
Pro tip: Memorization of terms and concepts is not enough to do well on the AP® Psychology exam. You will need to have the ability to apply these concepts to real-world scenarios in order to gain the best grade on this exam. The chart below shows how the different course units are reflected in the exam questions. To see how these weightings translate into an exam score, try Alberts’s free AP® Psychology score calculator.
| Units | Exam Weighting |
| Unit 1: Biological Bases of Behavior | 15-25% |
| Unit 2: Cognition | 15-25% |
| Unit 3: Development and Learning | 15-25% |
| Unit 4: Social Psychology | 15-25% |
| Unit 5: Mental and Physical Health | 15-25% |
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What happens if you fail AP® Psychology?
Failing the AP® Psychology exam is not the end of the world. You can reduce the impact of a failing score on your academic career in many ways.
Students have the ability to take the AP® Psychology exam as often as they like. That means that if you fail the exam, you can retake it every May until you achieve the score you want. You will be responsible for all exam fees each time you choose to take the exam.
If you are concerned about the impact that failing the AP® Psychology exam might have on your overall high school GPA, you’ll be happy to hear that AP® exam grades are rarely factored into high school grades. Your AP® teacher will base your course grade on the work and tests that occurred prior to the AP® exam.
The college admissions process has the most opportunity to be impacted by failing the AP® Psychology exam. If you are attempting to use your AP® Psychology exam score for college credit, you will need a score of three or better in order to be awarded college credit.
However, as the student, you control which exam scores are sent to colleges. If you fail the exam, you can choose not to send the score. If you do end up sending a low score you have the ability to cancel it. You also have the ability to substitute a higher score from a future re-take.
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When do students typically take AP® Psychology? When is best?
According to our research, students typically take AP® Psychology in their sophomore year. It is commonly considered one of the easier exams, and, as a result, schools tend to recommend that it be taken earlier in a student’s AP® course career.
AP® Psychology typically requires no prerequisites and covers a straightforward body of knowledge that is easier for students to memorize and explain on an AP® exam. It does not cover as wide a content area as some of the other AP® History and Social Science exams, allowing students more time to get familiar with the content.
Since AP® Psychology is not as intensive as some of the other AP® courses like AP® World History or AP® US History, students can consider taking this alongside some of the more intensive courses. As you plan your high school career, it is helpful to know which AP® courses you want to take and plan each year’s courses in advance to attempt to pair more intensive courses with less intensive ones.
In the end, when you decide to take AP® Psychology is completely up to you. We recommend discussing the timing of your AP® courses with your teachers, your guidance counselor and your parents. They can provide you with valuable insight into when might be the right time to take AP® Psychology.
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Where can I find past AP® Psychology exams?
You can prepare in advance for the AP® Psychology exam. The College Board has provided a few multiple choice questions and free response questions in their AP® Psychology Course and Exam Description. However, this guide won’t cover all of the concepts that will be covered on the exam.
You can get more practice on Albert’s AP® Psychology exam prep page. This page provides hundreds of additional multiple-choice questions that are aligned with the learning objectives of the AP® Psychology course and brand-new FRQs.
To fully prepare for the AP® Psychology exam, you should explore all of the resources available on the AP® Central website.
In the end, it is important to remember that the free response portion of the AP® Psychology exam only accounts for 33.3% of your overall exam grade. The other 66.6% comes from the multiple-choice section, so you will want to make sure you’re prepared for that section as well. You can find hundreds of sample multiple-choice questions at the Albert AP® Psychology website. These questions have been carefully designed to follow the learning objectives of the AP® Psychology course.
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Who should take AP® Psychology? What sort of students may like it more than others?
AP® Psychology is a course that can be a good choice for many students. The subject matter is easily accessible and relatable for many students. If you are interested in how the human brain works and can memorize terms and concepts, AP® Psychology would be a good choice for you. You can find more information about AP® Psychology in the course overview.
Of course, no AP® exams are required. If psychology as a subject does not interest you, or if you struggle with memorization, you might want to choose a different AP® course that is more aligned with your skills and academic strengths.
AP® Psychology can also be a good choice for students who want to achieve high scores on all their AP® exams. This exam has a higher-than-average passing rate. In 2024, 61.7% of the students who took this exam passed with a score of 3 or better.
If your goal is to score a 5 on your AP® exams, then AP® Psychology is also a good choice. In 2024, 19.2% of students who took this exam scored a 5. This is one of the higher percentages of perfect scores among all of the AP® exams.
Of course, you should not take an exam just because you have a better chance of scoring a 5 on it. If psychology is not interesting to you, you may struggle to engage with the content, which could hurt your exam score.
As a student, you control which AP® courses you choose to take. We suggest that you reach out to your guidance counselor, parents, and teachers for advice before you make this important decision.
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How do students typically score on AP® Psychology? What’s the score distribution?
Students typically score a three or better on the AP® Psychology exam. In recent years, approximately 60% of the students who took the exam passed it, which is higher than the overall passing rate for all AP® exams. You can find a detailed scoring breakdown below that can provide some useful numbers as a guide. Your individual score, of course, will depend on how well you study and prepare for this exam.
The score breakdown for recent AP® Psychology exams is as follows:
| Year | % of 5s | % of 4s | % of 3s | % of 2s | % of 1s | Pass Rate % |
| 2024 | 19.2% | 23.1% | 19.5% | 11.8% | 26.5% | 61.7% |
| 2023 | 16.9% | 23.2% | 19.5% | 12.4% | 28.0% | 59.6% |
| 2022 | 17.0% | 22.2% | 19.1% | 13.1% | 28.5% | 58.3% |
| 2021 | 14.1% | 21.2% | 18.0% | 15.2% | 31.5% | 53.3% |
| 2020 | 22.4% | 25.4% | 23.5% | 9.6% | 19.1% | 71.3% |
| 2019 | 20.5% | 25.3% | 18.7% | 13.5% | 22.0% | 64.5% |
| 2018 | 21.2% | 26.3% | 18.1% | 14.5% | 19.9% | 65.6% |
| 2017 | 19.1% | 25.1% | 20.0% | 14.6% | 21.2% | 64.2% |
The AP® Psychology exam has seen a higher-than-average passing rate for the last few years. The number of students who score a 4 or higher is nearly 50%, with approximately 20% of test-takers receiving a 5 on this exam. The scores starting with the 2021 exam season were significantly lower than in previous years.
The mean score for the AP® Psychology exam for 2024 was 2.97, based on a total AP® Psychology testing population of 320,164.
Need help preparing for your AP® Psychology exam?
Albert has hundreds of AP® Psychology practice multiple-choice questions, free-response questions, and full-length practice tests to try out.
