AP Physics 1 scores by year
These are College Board’s figures for every year of AP Physics 1, which was first given in 2015. The “3 or higher” column is what most people mean by the pass rate.
| Year | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 or higher | Students | Mean score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 19% | 24% | 25% | 15% | 17% | 68% | – | – |
| 2025 | 19.8% | 24.7% | 22.9% | 13.4% | 19.2% | 67.3% | 174,401 | 3.12 |
| 2024 | 10.2% | 17.9% | 19.2% | 26.1% | 26.6% | 47.3% | 164,481 | 2.59 |
| 2023 | 8.8% | 18.3% | 18.5% | 28.0% | 26.4% | 45.6% | 159,582 | 2.55 |
| 2022 | 7.9% | 17.0% | 18.3% | 27.1% | 29.6% | 43.2% | 144,526 | 2.47 |
| 2021 | 6.9% | 16.3% | 18.9% | 26.4% | 31.4% | 42.1% | 137,229 | 2.41 |
| 2020 | 8.8% | 17.9% | 24.8% | 26.5% | 21.9% | 51.6% | 149,488 | 2.65 |
| 2019 | 6.7% | 18.2% | 20.5% | 28.7% | 25.9% | 45.5% | 161,071 | 2.51 |
| 2018 | 5.7% | 15.3% | 19.6% | 28.6% | 30.8% | 40.6% | 170,653 | 2.36 |
| 2017 | 5.4% | 16.2% | 20.3% | 29.1% | 29.0% | 41.9% | 170,447 | 2.40 |
| 2016 | 4.6% | 14.0% | 21.2% | 30.2% | 30.0% | 39.8% | 169,304 | 2.33 |
| 2015 | 5.0% | 13.6% | 20.7% | 29.8% | 31.0% | 39.2% | 171,074 | 2.32 |
For ten years the exam was hard to pass. The rate crept from 39.2% in 2015 to 47.3% in 2024, with one bump in 2020, the year AP exams were free-response tests taken online at home. Then 2025 broke the pattern: the share of 5s nearly doubled, the share of 2s halved, and the mean rose from 2.59 to 3.12.
Older figures near 60% belong to AP Physics B, the exam College Board gave before 2015. From 2002 to 2014, between 57.6% and 62.6% of its students scored 3 or higher. It was a different exam, so those rates don’t carry over to Physics 1.
What changed in 2025
| 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Scored 3 or higher | 47.3% | 67.3% |
| Scored 5 | 10.2% | 19.8% |
| Scored 1 | 26.6% | 19.2% |
| Mean score | 2.59 | 3.12 |
| Students | 164,481 | 174,401 |
Two things changed in the same year. 2025 was the first exam of the revised course, with a new unit on fluids and four new types of free-response question in place of the old five questions. It was also the year College Board set new score standards for Physics 1, one of nine subjects that went through what it calls evidence-based standard setting in 2025.
College Board hasn’t said how much of the jump came from each change. What it has published is about the standards. Its July 2025 note on scoring uses physics as its example of how the old method, small panels of professors, could swing results: it says a panel cut the AP Physics pass rate from 60% in 2014 to 37% in 2015, the first year of Physics 1. College Board’s own table shows 39.2% for Physics 1 that year. The 2025 study replaced that 2015 panel’s judgment with far more evidence.
How College Board set the 2025 standard
Standard setting decides how many points a 3, 4 or 5 takes. College Board’s findings sheet for Physics 1 compares the two studies:
| 2015 panel | 2025 study | |
|---|---|---|
| College professors | 8 | 205 |
| Colleges and universities | 8 | 189 |
| College students represented | about 1,600 | 43,323 |
The 205 professors teach the matching college course, which goes by names like Physics I, General Physics or Algebra-Based Physics 1. They rated how hard the AP exam was against their own course and said what grades their own students would earn on it.
| Grade | Earned in the course | Would earn on the AP exam |
|---|---|---|
| A+ or A | 27% | 22% |
| A−, B+ or B | 35% | 20% |
| B−, C+ or C | 24% | 22% |
| C−, D+ or D | 8% | 17% |
| D− or F | 5% | 20% |
| C or higher | 86% | 64% |
So the professors judged the AP exam harder than their own course: a fifth of their students would receive D− or F on it, against one in twenty in the course itself.
The study also compared AP students with college students:
| Measure | AP | College |
|---|---|---|
| Share scoring 3 or higher (AP, 2025) and earning a C or higher (college) | 67% | 86% |
| Hours of instruction in the course | 139 | 72 |
| Grade in the next course: AP 3s and college B−, C+ or C students | 3.21 | 2.20 |
| Grade in the next course: AP 4s and college A−, B+ or B students | 3.49 | 3.10 |
| Grade in the next course: AP 5s and college A+ or A students | 3.73 | 3.80 |
| Average SAT score: AP 5s and college A+ or A students | 1474 | 1254 |
| Average SAT score: AP 3s and college B−, C+ or C students | 1334 | 1185 |
From this College Board concludes that AP standards “remain significantly higher” than the college course’s. By its reading, a C in the college course is easier to get than a 3 on the AP exam, and AP 3s went on to do better in the next course than college students with C-range grades. AP 5s were the one group that did slightly worse than their college counterparts, 3.73 against 3.80.
What a 3, 4 or 5 means
| AP score | College Board’s label | Matching college grade |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Extremely well qualified | A+ or A |
| 4 | Very well qualified | A−, B+ or B |
| 3 | Qualified | B−, C+ or C |
| 2 | Possibly qualified | – |
| 1 | No recommendation | – |
For Physics 1 the matching college course is the first semester of introductory algebra-based physics. Whether a score earns credit or placement is up to each college, and policies differ, so look up the colleges you care about in College Board’s credit policy search.
Physics 1 next to the other physics exams
| Exam | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physics 1 | 47% | 67% | 68% |
| Physics 2 | 71% | 72% | 72% |
| Physics C: Mechanics | 76% | 72% | 72% |
| Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism | 72% | 72% | 75% |
Before 2025, Physics 1 trailed the other physics exams by 24 to 29 points. Now it sits a few points below them. All four went through the new standard setting in 2025.
What this means if you take it in 2027
The standard set in 2025 is the one you’ll be held to. College Board says the standards from its evidence-based studies are kept and applied from year to year, and it equates each year’s scores so that a harder or easier set of questions doesn’t change what a score means. The 2026 results, on new questions, came out almost the same as 2025’s.
So the old line that only about 40% pass is out of date. Roughly two in three students now earn a 3 or higher, and about one in five earns a 5. Those figures describe the students who chose to take the exam, not a quota and not your odds: there is no fixed number of 5s, and your score depends only on the points you earn.
The May 2027 exam has 42 multiple-choice questions in 85 minutes and 95 minutes for the free response, small changes from 2025 and 2026, and each section still counts for half. To see where your practice scores land, try the AP Physics 1 score calculator, which estimates the score lines from the 2025 results. The exam guide has the date and format, and the cheat sheets cover each unit.
Sources
- Past AP Physics 1 Score Distributions, 2015–2026, and Past AP Physics B Score Distributions, 2002–2014 (AP Students)
- 2026 AP Score Distributions, all subjects, updated on a rolling basis (AP Students)
- AP Physics 1 Student Score Distributions, May 2025, global (PDF)
- AP Physics 1 Student Score Distributions, May 2024, global (PDF)
- Student Score Distributions, AP Exams, May 2018: AP Physics 1 counts by score (PDF)
- Trevor Packer, “2025 AP Exams: Scoring, Standards, and Security in a New Digital Era,” College Board, July 1, 2025
- Key EBSS Findings: AP Physics 1, College Board, July 2025 (PDF)
- Implementation of Evidence-Based Standard Setting for Advanced Placement Exams, College Board (PDF)
- AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based Course and Exam Description: question types, how AP scores are set, credit recommendations (PDF)
- AP Physics 1 Course and Exam Description Clarifications and Corrections, Fall 2026: the May 2027 question counts and timing (PDF)
- Chief Reader Report on Student Responses, 2025 AP Physics 1: fluids as a newer addition to the course (PDF)
- AP Physics 1 Scoring Statistics, 2024: the five-question free-response section (PDF)
- AP Physics 1 Past Exam Questions: the 2024–25 course and exam revisions (AP Central)
- “Students Take More Than 4 Million Advanced Placement Exams Online for the First Time,” College Board, May 22, 2020
- AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based course page: the college course equivalent (AP Students)
- AP Credit Policy Search (AP Students)
- AP Score Scale Table (AP Students): current score recommendations