As the school year comes to an end in June, a new academic season begins. From all across the country, experienced Advanced Placement teachers and professors are selected by ETS (educational testing service and AP exam administrators) and come together to take part in the AP reading, the thorough process of grading AP exams. Readers are responsible for evaluating and scoring each submitted exam with fairness and efficiency across a one week time frame. Alan Feldman, AP psychology teacher at Glen Rock High School has been a reader of the psychology exam for 35 years. Feldman was one of their first 19 graders of the AP psychology exam at Clemson University in 1992 when 3250 AP psychology tests were scored . To better understand how AP exams are graded, I sat down with Feldman to discuss the ins and outs of the process.

Table leaders arrive a few days before the official grading begins to evaluate a few hundred sample essays in order to clarify and articulate the scoring rubric. These papers are not given an actual score and it is not received by a student; it determines the validity of the rubric and if the readers are scoring consistently with the rubric. “We discuss what the kids write, because a lot of the time kids answer questions correctly in ways we don’t expect, or in a weird way, incorrectly,” Table leader (since 2004) Feldman explained. In other words, they find questions students consistently misinterpreted, address why and decide if these answers should be given credit. They determine precisely what is scoreable.

On the first day, before the actual scoring can begin, all readers must undergo an extensive training process called validation. During this training, they must score a series of 18 sample essays to ensure their grading is inline with the official rubric. If they fail to score to the official standard within the first three attempts, they are removed from the reading. 

“The most important thing at the reading is to make sure everyone is grading the same way,” Feldman said. “Some graders would say I wouldn’t give credit for that student’s answer in my class. You have to give it here to be fair to the student.” The mantra often proclaimed to readers is, “Be one with the rubric.” 

The slight exception to this process is the use of a floater point. Numerous AP tests use floater points; when a student’s answer is on the border of earning credit, a reader may then look for extra correct information on another point not specifically asked for and if there, they can award credit for the ambiguous point.

Once readers are validated, the process of grading exams can begin. Every exam typically takes no more than a few minutes to grade, allowing all tests to be graded efficiently. By the third or fourth day some readers experience swaying, a form of mental fatigue that affects scoring accuracy. To maintain consistency, readers partake in another scoring calibration where each table member will grade a sample essay with a partner to ensure everyone is accurate. 

The process of the exam grading is also highly secure. Readers follow strict confidentiality agreements including not being able to use their phones or computers in the grading rooms, never seeing any students’ names or schools, and they can not copy any student responses. Also, suspected cheating from students is flagged and reviewed by different levels of over-sight. 

“Every year we catch a multitude of kids cheating,” Feldman stated. “They teach us how to detect students who cheat with AI and other methods.” If a student is caught, they, and possibly their school, will face repercussions such as having their exam voided and possibly, for more significant cheating, other submitted tests as well. These measures are taken to protect the integrity of the exam and preserve AP credibility. 

In 2025 there were over five million scored exams. As the exam continues to grow and evolve with technology, the original goal of readers remains the same: ensure fair, consistent, accurate scores for all student exams all over the world.

Tips for students for AP exams

• On multiple choice, spend 80 percent of the time reading the stem and understanding what it is saying and then 20 percent answering the question.
• One of the worst myths in education is to go with your first answer on multiple choice. There have been 63 studies on this and every one indicated this is invalid. The reason for this myth is if you change your answer from a wrong one to a correct one you do not remember this, if you change from a right one to a wrong one you remember doing so.

The different types of AP grading positions:

• Readers: score the exams
• Table leaders: Also score exams but, train and monitor readers as well
• Question leaders: evaluate the performance of table leaders
• Chief reader:An accomplished scholar at a four year university who is in charge of the entire reading. They invite all the readers and are responsible for approving the rubric.