Future AP World Languages and Culture Revisions
We periodically update AP courses and exams to reflect new developments in their disciplines and more clearly communicate required content and skills.
Thanks to valuable feedback from the AP teacher community, we’re revising the AP world language and culture courses and exams to focus cultural tasks on authentic sources, and we’re transitioning to a digital exam to modernize and improve students’ test-taking experience. Additionally, each AP World Languages course will be anchored in the same skills and will have very similar exam designs.
The earliest these revisions will launch is the 2026-27 school year (May 2027 exam). These revisions will not affect the 2025-26 school year. The courses and exams that will undergo revisions include French Language and Culture, Italian Language and Culture, German Language and Culture, Spanish Language and Culture, Chinese Language and Culture, and Japanese Language and Culture.
What’s Changing
Course Revisions
- Align course frameworks for 6 AP world language and culture courses to streamline skills and learning objectives
- Introduce a course project where students use source materials in the target language to prepare for authentic speaking tasks on exam day
Course Project
- For the course project, students will use source materials in the target language to prepare for authentic speaking tasks on exam day
- On exam day, students will present their project and verbally answer questions about it
- A project manual will be released to help teachers understand the required project components and facilitate students’ preparation for and completion of the course project
Exam Revisions
- Move the exam to the Bluebook digital testing application and discontinue the paper exam
- Reorganize, streamline, and standardize exam items to ensure a smooth digital exam-taking experience and maintain the core tasks and objectives
- Replace current speaking free-response questions (FRQs) with authentic speaking tasks aligned to college-level courses that students will prepare for in advance and complete on exam day
- Streamline FRQ scoring guidelines
What to Expect
We’ll email AP world language and culture teachers and update this page with more information and resources on the following schedule:
- Fall 2025
- Detailed preview of revision timeline
- Course framework preview
- Spring before revisions launch
- Revised course and exam description (CED)
- Summer before revisions launch
- Professional learning opportunities to prepare teachers
- Robust instructional resources and AP Classroom updates
FAQ
What changes will I need to make in my class to accommodate the course project?
Teachers need to allocate class time for students to explore source materials and prepare for their exam-day presentation tasks. The project manual will provide a suggested plan to guide teachers through the process.
How do I score students’ projects?
Teachers are not responsible for scoring students’ projects. Students will deliver their project presentation and answer questions simultaneously on exam day via audio capture in Bluebook. AP readers will assess and score students' exam-day responses.
What equipment will my students need on exam day?
Students can use Mac or Windows devices, iPads, or school-managed Chromebooks. They will also need wired headsets to hear audio prompts and stimuli, and for the recording portion of the exam.
How will the recording process work for students on exam day?
Students will hear audio prompts and record their audio responses in Bluebook, the same application they will use for the multiple-choice and free-response sections of the exam.
Will the textbooks teachers currently use for AP world language and culture courses work with the revised course?
Yes. Textbooks published in the last 10 years will adequately address the revised course material.
We will provide publishers updated information about the course and exam for any textbook updates they would like to make.
Will teachers need to resubmit in the AP Course Audit?
Yes. All new and returning AP world language and culture teachers will need to complete the AP Course Audit the year that the revised course launches. We’ll email teachers and administrators with details after we finalize the launch timeline.
Will colleges and universities still have the same credit policies?
We expect these revisions will preserve current credit and placement policies and create opportunities to broaden them.