The 2025 AP US History Exam scores:
5: 14%; 4: 36%; 3: 23%; 2: 19%; 1: 8%.
Congrats to this year’s cohort of AP US History teachers and students; common item equating shows that this year’s students developed stronger content knowledge and skills than last year’s, raising the percentage of 4s and 5s by 4%. In parallel, APUSH teachers provided 25,000 more students than in 2024 with this opportunity to learn at an advanced level, making AP US History the course with the largest increase in performance and participation of any subject so far this year.
Multiple-Choice Questions:
AP US History students, as is often the case, developed a strong understanding of Period 2, 1607-1754; 36% of students answered all questions about this historical period accurately.
The lowest mean score in the multiple-choice section was on Period 9 questions (1980 to present). 10% of students answered each such question correctly.
Short Answer Questions:
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This commentary will focus on the Set 1 questions, since that was the version taken by most students.
The most challenging of all this year’s AP US History free-response questions was the first short answer question, the comparison of secondary sources about early American democracy. 15% of students earned all points possible on it.
Students scored highest on the third short answer question, about British North America and the Seven Years’ War. 33% of students earned all points possible here.
Document-Based Question:
The DBQ on the US economy from 1932 to 1980: 79% of students earned the thesis point; 62% earned the contextualization point; 39% earned 1 evidence point and 47% earned 2 evidence points; 47% earned the evidence-beyond-the-documents point; 39% earned the analysis and reasoning: sourcing point, and 15% earned the analysis and reasoning: complex understanding point.
Long Essay Questions:
Q2: Native American societies’ adaptations from 1500-1754. 10% of students earned all 6 points possible.
Q3: Reform movements’ responses to industrialization from 1820-1900. 12% of students earned all 6 points possible.
Q4: US foreign policy from 1890-1930. 22% of students earned all 6 points possible.
All subjects’ AP score distributions for 2025 will be posted here when available:
spr.ly/60114byXB