AP CS Principles and AP CS A Exam and Pass Rates (2021)

The AP Exam metrics for 2021 originally described in the post AP CS Principles: A Cultural shift in K12 CS Education are re-VISIONed using Tableau below. All of these statistics are based on the data on the 2021 AP CS exams from Barbara Ericson’s Computing for Everyone blog.

Note that the metrics previously published on the 2020-21 school year in the blog post above used combined AP CS exam data from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years. However, as AP data for 2020-21 became available in Fall 2022, these re-VISIONS use this cleaner and better synchronized data.  

This blog post focuses on the following metrics:

Metric	National	Interpretation
Exams Taken	181,075	Total of 181,075 AP CS Exams taken in 2021
P-Ratio	62.6%	The ratio of AP CS Principles exams taken out of all AP CS exams taken.  67,632 AP CS A taken; 113,443 AP CS Principles.  (P / (A+ P)) = 62.6%
AP CS P Pass Rate	66.2%	113,443 AP CS Principles exams taken; 75,047 scored 3 or higher
AP CS A Pass Rate	64.1%	67,632 AP CS A exams taken; 43,327 scored 3 or higher
AP CS All Pass Rate	65.4%	181,075 AP CS exams taken (A + P); 118,374 scored 3 or higher

 

P-Ratio per Demographic (2021)

 

AP CS Principles Pass Rate vs. AP CS A Pass Rate (2021)

In the chart below, the size of the dot represents the number of students taking an AP CS Exam. The color of the dot represents the P-ratio ranging from dark red (41%) to dark green (93%)

 

AP Pass Rates By Demographic (2021)