When will my request to withhold an AP score be processed? - AP Students (2024)

FAQs

When will my request to withhold an AP score be processed? - AP Students? ›

Your withhold request will be processed within 15 business days of receipt. Please allow for delays, especially if you are mailing from overseas. Once processed, you will see the withhold reflected on your online AP score report.

Scores can be canceled at any time, but for scores not to be sent to the college, university, or scholarship program that you indicated as your free score report recipient at cb.org/apfreescoresend, the AP Program must receive your request by June 15 of the year you took the AP Exam.

Unlike withholding, canceling an AP score is permanent and cannot be reversed. Students typically choose cancellation over withholding if they don't want a school to know they ever took that AP exam.

Your official AP score report normally includes all test scores, but you can pay extra to withhold particular scores if you don't want the college to see those.

Some scores may take longer to process because of later testing dates or other circ*mstances (e.g., late arrival of testing materials or extra time needed to match records). We'll email you when your score is added to your score report.

If you have consistently high grades but low test scores, this can indicate to colleges that there's grade inflation at your high school. However, because you're probably going to self-report your AP scores anyway, there's nothing wrong with simply not reporting one or two scores you're not satisfied with.

Download and fill out the AP Score Withholding Form.

Fill out the form with your information, including which exam scores you want to withhold and from which recipients, and sign it.

Not submitting AP scores for AP courses students take at their high school can raise red flags. But there are no hard and fast rules, such as not submitting 4s or 3s, as some suggest because, in some cases, students should submit those lower scores since admissions officers will assume even worse if they withhold them.

It is more important for you to get recognition for taking that AP in the first place than it is to earn your target score. If you earned a 3, 2, or a 1, consider withholding your score. These scores are not as strong and you may not want to include them in your application.

As far as reporting your score to Ivy League schools, each school may have a slightly different preference, but generally, a 4 is considered a 'well-qualified' score and should not necessarily hurt your chances. In fact, many colleges and universities even offer credit or advanced placement for scores of 4.

Should I report a 3 on an AP exam to Ivy League? ›

An AP Score of 3 or 4 will likely not get you any college credit or respect at a top school like Stanford/Ivies/MIT. A score of 5 may not either — top colleges like to think that their courses are more rigorous than APs and thus should not be passed out of, and earning a 5 is simply expected for top admits.

The first thing that you should do is check the AP Score credit policy for the colleges that you are applying to. If they will give you credit for the 3, then by all means report it! On the other hand, if they only give credit for a 5 on that exam (not even for a 4), you may want to hold off.

Colleges will not look at your score

You will not be required to send your AP score to your colleges unless you want to earn college credit.

AP scores have very, very little impact on college admissions, especially if the exam has nothing to do with your major. If you don't report, they probably won't really notice. They can't assume you failed, as maybe you never took the exam in the first place. They care more about your grade in the class.

Whether you decide to send in your scores or not won't affect your chances at getting accepted into your top schools. Colleges will look at your transcript and see the classes you took. It's really not about what you score that colleges are looking for, it's more about what courses you are taking.

Standard: Your scores will be delivered to your designated score recipient in 7–14 days. The exact number of days depends on when you submit your request and the location of your score recipient. The fee is $15 per report.

When will the request be processed? Your withhold request will be processed within 15 business days of receipt.

It is more important for you to get recognition for taking that AP in the first place than it is to earn your target score. If you earned a 3, 2, or a 1, consider withholding your score. These scores are not as strong and you may not want to include them in your application.

What if I miss the October deadline to submit fees? A penalty fee of $50 per exam will automatically be applied to any payments submitted between November 20, 2023 and March 1, 2024. No new exam orders will be accepted after March 1, 2024. How do I submit the exam fees?

AP scores have very, very little impact on college admissions, especially if the exam has nothing to do with your major. If you don't report, they probably won't really notice. They can't assume you failed, as maybe you never took the exam in the first place. They care more about your grade in the class.