AP COMPUTER SCIENCE PRINCIPLESThe Exam

Assessment Overview

The AP Computer Science Principles Assessment consists of two parts: performance tasks and the end-of-course AP Exam. Both measure student achievement of the course learning objectives.

Assessment Format

Two Performance Tasks | 40% of Overall AP Score

• Create — Applications from Ideas | 24% | 12 hours
• Explore — Impact of Computing Innovations | 16% | 8 hours

The Create performance task focuses specifically on the creation of a computer program through the collaborative and iterative process of programming.

The Explore performance task requires students to identify a computing innovation, explore its impact, and create a related digital artifact – ex. digital art, video – accompanied by a written response.

Students need to submit their final performance tasks on the AP Digital Portfolio by April 30.

We have pulled the Reproducible for Students section from the Course and Exam Description to create a new publication titled Assessment Overview and Performance Task Directions for Students. Please download and share this document with your students, as it provides instructions around the performance tasks and explanations on questions they will see on the AP Exam.

End-of-Course Exam: 74 Questions | 2 Hours | 60% of Overall AP Score

• Single-select and multiple-select questions

The AP Computer Science Principles Course and Exam Description (.pdf/2.05MB) includes complete information about the performance tasks and the end-of-course exam.

Scoring Guidelines and Notes for the 2018 Exam Administration

For the 2018 AP CSP exam administration, we will use the Scoring Guidelines and Notes from the table below to score students’ work. Student responses from the 2017 exam administration, which include artifacts from the Explore task and videos from the Create task, have been rescored using the 2018 Scoring Guidelines and Notes. 

As part of the through-course assessment for the Create performance task, students are also required to submit their entire program code as PDF via the AP Digital Portfolio.  Please note that we have chosen not to publicly post entire programs alongside sample responses.

Sample Responses and Scoring Information

Student sample responses from the 2017 exam administration, along with scoring information, will be posted on the table below this fall.

As part of the through-course assessment for the Create performance task, students are also required to submit their entire program code as PDF via the AP Digital Portfolio.  Please note that we have chosen not to publicly post entire programs alongside sample responses.

You can also use student responses and scoring guidelines from the 2016 pilot reading to promote discussion with your students about the requirements of the tasks.

Students cannot submit these samples to the College Board for scoring purposes.

Assessment Resources

AP Digital Portfolio