On Mar. 14 at 6:07 p.m., the College Board broadcast an announcement that caused a nationwide uproar: beginning from the 2026-7 school year, Advanced Placement (AP) exams will be scored out of six or seven points.
The Musket interviewed the head of the College Board, Señor Seis de la Siete, in order to uncover the reasoning behind this groundbreaking change.
“We wanted to encourage students to explore the universe and contribute to a worthwhile cause. We felt that our previous scoring guide out of five was insufficient to reflect the true value of a student,” Seis de la Siete said.
Six DuSept, a counselor at Lexington High School, played a critical role in designing the new curriculum of both AP Research and AP Seminar for the school.
“In AP Research and AP Seminar, students must submit a portfolio of 67 published articles on arXiv.org. Their research portfolio will receive a score of six if the average citation count of each article exceeds 67,” DuSept explained.
Meanwhile, students are now required to collect fossils and tomb samples if they would like to score a six or seven in AP Environmental Science. Their scores will be calculated logarithmically based on the weights of their fossil samples. For example, a sample of 106 kilograms will earn a six out of seven on this AP exam.
“I’ve traveled to the mountains of Machu Picchu, raided the tombs at the Great Pyramid of Giza, and dived under Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. Astonishingly, the largest fossil I’ve found has yet to surpass 6.67 x 10-11 grams,” Chhah Saatwala, a senior at LHS, said.
To earn a seven on AP Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, or Spanish Language and Culture, students will need to publish a foreign language book of at least 670 pages and amass $67 million in sales.
“I have an Amazon cart of around 6767 book orders … and I’ve sold our estate in Seven Lakes to raise enough money,” Shest Semsky, a parent of an AP Chinese student, said.
AP Precalculus, an important course for aspiring engineers, scientists, and researchers, now requires students to submit a transcript from a semester of a Precalculus course at any U.S. college or university if they wish to earn a seven.
“This requirement is driving me crazy,” Sechs Sieben, a parent of an AP Precalculus student, complained. “I can’t find a single college with that course.”
For certain high-achieving students with a family-backed future of becoming the next big name on Forbes 500, scoring a seven on AP Economics will be strictly necessary. To achieve the score, students must personally raise and donate at least $500,000 to their local Ivy League college, with a complimentary acceptance and full-ride scholarship forthcoming.
“[The policy] adds a deeper focus on personal growth and encourages students to be independent from their parents. I can’t wait for all APs to be out of six or seven points,” Liu Qi, a freshman at LHS, said.