Important Updates for AP Coordinators

Updates for 2026-27

New Courses Launching

Find course and exam details for AP Business with Personal Finance and AP Cybersecurity, our two new AP Career Kickstart™ courses launching in the 2026-27 school year. 

AP World Languages and Cultures

• Starting in May 2027, AP Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish Language and Culture will be delivered as fully digital AP Exams through the Bluebook digital testing application. 
• Students will complete the multiple-choice and free-response questions in Bluebook, with all responses automatically submitted at the end of the exam.
• For the speaking part of the exam, students will hear audio prompts and record their responses directly in Bluebook. 
• Students will need wired headsets with microphones. Additional headset information will be available in August.
• CD players, language labs, handheld digital recorders, the Digital Audio Capture (DAC) app, and the DAS portal will no longer be used.  
• For these subjects, students will complete a project and submit a Personalized Project Reference (PPR) through the AP Digital Portfolio. AP coordinators will need to print each student’s PPR before exam day for students to reference while completing their exam. Details about how AP coordinators access and print the PPRs will be in the 2026-27 AP Coordinator's Manual, Part 2. 
• As with all digital AP Exams, AP coordinators and proctors will use Test Day Toolkit to prepare for and oversee testing.

AP Music Theory

• Starting in May 2027, AP Music Theory will be delivered as a hybrid digital AP Exam through Bluebook.
• Students will hear audio prompts and complete multiple-choice questions in Bluebook. In the free-response section, they will view their free-response questions and sight-singing melodies in paper exam booklets and handwrite their free-response answers in paper exam booklets. Students will sing and record their sight-singing free response in Bluebook. 
• Students will need wired headsets. Additional headset and microphone information will be available in August.
• CD players, language labs, handheld digital recorders, the Digital Audio Capture (DAC) app, and the DAS portal will no longer be used.  
• As with all digital AP Exams, AP coordinators and proctors will use Test Day Toolkit to prepare for and oversee testing. 

AP Spanish Literature and Culture

• Starting in May 2027, AP Spanish Literature and Culture will be delivered as a fully digital AP Exam through Bluebook.
• Students will complete the multiple-choice and free-response questions in Bluebook, with all responses automatically submitted at the end of the exam.
• Students will hear audio prompts in Bluebook. CD players will no longer be needed.
• Students will need wired headsets. Additional headset information will be available in August. 

AP Statistics

• Starting in May 2027, the AP Statistics Exam will be delivered as a fully digital AP Exam through Bluebook.
• This exam will no longer be hybrid and won’t require free-response booklets. Students will complete the entire exam through Bluebook.  

2026-27 AP Registration and Ordering

• In the first week of August 2026, AP coordinators and principals will receive an email with their school's AP Registration and Ordering access code for the 2026-27 school year.
• AP coordinators will need this code to complete initial setup in AP Registration and Ordering. 
• This email will also include the link to download the 2026-27 AP Coordinator’s Manual, Part 1. 

Updates for 2025-26 AP Exams

If your school will use Chromebooks for the 2026 AP Exam administration, please note the following updates:

Bluebook on Chromebooks

• To learn the latest about how Bluebook works on Chromebooks, visit the Bluebook website.

DAC App for Chromebooks

• If your school uses the DAC app for Chromebooks to record responses for AP French, German, Italian, Spanish Language and Culture, or AP Music Theory Exams and your school deployed the 2025 version of the DAC app, the app appears updated in the Google Admin console (it will say “DAC App 2026"). However, the app installed on Chromebooks will remain the 2025 version. To be ready for the 2026 administration, you must manually uninstall the app before installing the 2026 version (2.0). If the previous version isn’t uninstalled, recording won’t work on exam day.

To ensure the latest version is installed:

• Launch a Chromebook. Don’t log in.
• Click the Apps menu, and then the 2026 DAC app icon to launch the app.
• Click on the ETS logo at the bottom-right corner of the home screen. If it says version 1.0, uninstall the 2025 DAC app and install the 2026 DAC app. If it says version 2.0, the 2026 DAC app is installed.
• All details are in the AP Digital Audio Capture (DAC) App Overview for Chromebook.

Note: There aren't any changes for Chromebooks for AP Chinese and AP Japanese Exams. If you already installed the AP Chinese and AP Japanese exam application on Chromebooks for last year's exam administration, no updates are required aside from the standard readiness checks before exam day. 

Guidance for 2026: Smart Glasses

New (March 2026): There’s an update for smart glasses, including details for AP coordinators and proctors when monitoring for smart glasses in the exam room. See the "Guidance for 2026: Smart Glasses" section on What Students Need to Know About AP Exams.

Reference Information

For the 2026 fully digital and hybrid digital AP Exams that have relevant reference information, such as equation sheets and reference tables, the reference information will be printed and mailed to schools in addition to being available in Bluebook in the test preview and on exam day. For more information, see Reference Information for Specific AP Exams.

Scratch Paper

For the 2026 AP Exam administration, proctors will initially distribute the same number of pieces of scratch paper (2) for all digital AP Exams—there’s no longer a difference between the number to be distributed for fully digital and hybrid digital AP Exams. See the Exam Day Procedures section in the 2025-26 AP Coordinator’s Manual, Part 2 for details.

Desmos Calculators

All 2026 AP Exams that allow or require the use of calculators—including AP Statistics—will now have the appropriate built-in Desmos calculator in Bluebook. Depending on the exam, this may include graphing, scientific, and/or 4-function (basic). These Desmos updates will also be available in AP Classroom. Note: The AP calculator policies about the types of calculators allowed and how they can and can’t be used aren’t changing. Review details at AP Exams Calculator Policy.

AP Latin 

Beginning in 2025-26, AP Latin will include two in-class checkpoint tasks as part of the course project. Teachers will enter students’ checkpoint scores in the AP Digital Portfolio.

2026 AP Capstone Fee Update

Beginning in 2025-26, the exam fee for AP Capstone™ courses (AP Seminar and AP Research) is the same as all other AP Exams: $99 per exam at schools in the U.S., U.S. territories, and Canada, and all DoDEA schools; $129 per exam at schools everywhere else. Review all fee information at AP Exam Fees.