What's the Deal with AP Test Score Distribution?

Anyone have a good understanding of how the AP Test Score Distribution really works? Like, how do they decide the percentages for1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s?

AP Exam scores are not curved in the traditional sense. While there is some statistical adjustment based on the goal of maintaining consistent standards from year to year, the process does not aim to force a set percentage of scores into each category, as seen in certain types of grading curves.

The creation of an AP Exam begins with a committee of college faculty and AP teachers designing a preliminary scoring standard, or rubric, for that year's exam. Once the exams have been taken by students, they are scored initially by AP readers (typically college professors and AP teachers) according to the established rubric.

Now comes a critical aspect of the score determination process: the equating process. This is where the College Board ensures fair and consistent standards across years. The goal is that, for instance, a score of a 4 this year reflects the same level of achievement as a 4 from any previous year. To do this, they compare how well students do on certain questions that are repeated from year to year. They adjust the scoring rubric based on whether students do better or worse on these questions compared to previous years.

Once the final scoring rubric is established, they apply it to the raw scores to get the final scores of 1-5. The percentages you see released by the College Board—the ones that say X% of test-takers received a 5, Y% received a 4, etc.— are simply the result of these processes and can therefore vary each year. They're not predefined quotas.

So, while there's a complex, rigorous process for standardizing AP Scores across different exams and years, there's no 'curve' in the sense of pre-set score percentages.