Homeschooled, Independent Study, and Virtual School Students and Students from Other Schools

Parents and students cannot order AP Exams directly. Students who are homeschooled, independent study, attend virtual schools, or attend schools that don't administer AP Exams will need to find a school where they can test. The AP Program encourages AP coordinators to help these students.

Homeschooled students and students whose schools don’t offer their AP subjects need to do the following as early in the school year as possible:

• Use the AP Course Ledger to look up nearby schools where they might be able to test.
• Contact the schools and ask to speak with the AP coordinator to see if one of them can arrange testing. Students should remember that schools may have their own local deadlines and policies regarding testing outside students.

If your school agrees to order and administer exams for homeschooled students or students whose schools don’t offer AP:

• Inform the students of exam fees and your school’s ordering deadline.
• Create an exam only section for each exam subject being taken at your school by a homeschooled student, independent study student, or student from another school, including a virtual school. (A best practice is to create a separate exam only section for these students.)
• Provide the join code for each exam only section to the students so they can enroll in the section in My AP. (Only the AP coordinator can create and provide the join code for an exam only section.)
• Review the students’ information in your exam roster and order the exams.
• Inform the students when and where to take the exams.
• Plan to collect and submit their exam fees with those from your school. Schools may charge students a higher fee to recover additional proctoring or administration costs.

AP Exam Ordering Deadline

Include homeschooled students, independent study students, or students from other schools in your order by the November 15 final ordering deadline.

If a homeschooled student or a student whose school doesn’t administer AP Exam(s) contacts you after the November ordering deadline, you can add them to your exam order. If you’re adding the student to your order after November 15 because they couldn’t find a school before the fall ordering deadline to order and administer their 2025 AP Exam(s), AP coordinators can contact AP Services for Educators no later than March 14 to request the late order fee be waived—this applies only for homeschooled students and students whose school doesn’t administer the AP Exam(s) they’re planning to take. These students must be included in your exam order by March 14. 

AP Classroom Access

All students—including those enrolled in exam only sections—will have access to AP Daily videos and some additional course resources in AP Classroom. Students enrolled in exam only sections won’t have access to AP Classroom resources that need to be assigned by teachers because assignments go only to the students in a teacher’s specific class sections. However, if a student is enrolled in both an exam only section and a teacher-led class section, the student will have access to resources assigned by the teacher for the class section. See details about AP Classroom.

Students Taking AP in Virtual Schools

In addition to being able to access AP Classroom assignments from teachers, there are several other reasons why students from virtual schools may need to be enrolled in both a class section through their course provider and the exam only section through your school. For additional details about these scenarios, see the AP Coordinator’s Manual, Part 1.

• Score reports: For the virtual school to receive the student’s score report, the student needs to be enrolled in the class section for the course through their virtual school in addition to the exam only section at your school.
• State subsidies: If a state requires students taking an AP Exam to be enrolled in the corresponding course in order to receive state funding for their exam, students need to be enrolled in a class section through their virtual school to be eligible for funding.
• Spring-semester courses: If a student is taking a spring-semester course through their virtual school, you may need to submit their exam order after November 15. In this case, the student needs to be enrolled in both an exam only section at your school and a spring-semester class section through their provider so that the late order fee won’t be applied.