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Future AP Computer Science A Revisions
Learn more about AP Computer Science A revisions launching in the 2025-26 school year.
We periodically update AP courses and exams to reflect new developments in their disciplines and more clearly communicate required content and skills.
Recent college faculty surveys and syllabus studies have shown that many Computer Science 1 and 2 courses use Java. We are revising AP Computer Science A to reflect this research and align with other expectations of current introductory college programming courses.
These revisions will launch in the 2025-26 school year (May 2026 exam).
What’s Going to Change?
Course Revisions
- Adding topics on text files and data sets.
- Removing the inheritance unit (Unit 9). This will more closely align the course with introductory college courses and allow teachers to cover other topics in more detail.
- Consolidating Units 1-8 and 10 into 4 units.
Exam Revisions
Multiple-Choice Section
- 42 questions—an increase from 40.
- 4 answer choices per question—a decrease from 5.
- 55% of overall exam score—an increase from 50%.
Free-Response Section
- 4 shortened questions with 25 scored points—a decrease from 36 scored points.
- Removing arrays from Question 3 (Data Analysis with ArrayList). This question will focus only on ArrayLists.
- 45% of overall exam score—a decrease from 50%.
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