When should exams be administered?

AP Exams must be administered at the set times on the regularly scheduled testing dates, unless arrangements are made to administer late-testing exams on specified late-testing dates. View the AP Exam Dates page for more information. This information is also on the back cover (for regular testing) and inside back cover (for late testing) of Part 1 and Part 2 of the AP Coordinator’s Manual.

To prevent students from gaining advance knowledge about AP Exams by communicating with students in other time zones, the AP Program develops multiple versions of exam for regularly scheduled testing and late-testing. If a school fails to administer the exams on the specified dates at the specified times, scores for those exams are canceled. Mandatory starting times ensure fairness and security of exam administrations at schools participating in the AP Program. A violation of these policies compromises these principles, as well as the validity of AP scores for all students. Schools that knowingly or unknowingly violate test security policies may not be permitted to administer AP Exams in the future and may be held responsible for any damages or losses College Board and/or ETS incur in the event of a security breach.

An AP Exam may only be administered on its scheduled date, at the set time during its designated testing window. Administering an exam on a date other than its assigned date and time–including administering a regularly scheduled exam during the late-testing administration or vice versa–will result in the cancellation of students' exam scores.