- AP students in 2025 report high satisfaction with calculus & U.S. government courses — and low satisfaction with Italian language and culture.
- Student participation in AP courses grew 7% from 2024 to 2025.
- Utah high school students reflect the nationwide enthusiasm for enrolling in AP courses to secure college credit.
Italian is the native tongue of Dante, Petrarca and Machiavelli — and a linguistic gateway to the world of opera, literature, history and cuisine.
Some even call Italian the “language of love.”
But Italian apparently isn’t feeling much “amore” from high school students.
According to College Board, the not-for-profit organization that coordinates the popular Advanced Placement tests for college credit-seeking high schoolers, AP Italian language and culture is ranked the “least satisfying” course in the AP lineup.
AP offers 40 academic subjects, ranging from STEM and humanities subjects to a variety of world languages.
At the end of the 2024-2025 school year, AP students were asked to report their course satisfaction on a 1-10 scale.
The world language courses took the largest hits. Italian language and culture topped the “least satisfying” list with an average rating of 3.68, according to College Board.
Italian was followed on the dissatisfied list by Japanese language and culture (4.07), German language and culture (5.68), French language and culture (5.92) and, finally, Latin (5.98).
It’s estimated that almost a third of American students battle math anxiety. But angst for all things computation and calculation is apparently not shared by AP math students worldwide.
AP calculus BC — which covers advanced math topics such as sequences, differential equations and parametric functions — topped the “most satisfying” list with an average participant score of 8.
Calculus BC was followed on the “most satisfying” chart by United States government and politics (7.91), AP calculus AB (7.77), European history (7.76) and United States history (7.68).
Spikes in AP participation
Overall, student participation in AP courses and exams grew by 7% from 2024 to 2025 — increasing in 36 AP courses, while declining in four, according to College Board.
The five AP courses with the largest growth this year were AP precalculus, U.S. government and politics, AP seminar, AP world history and AP biology.
Meanwhile, student AP participation declined in AP art history, AP computer science A (Java), AP computer science principles and AP music theory.
It was a historic school year for College Board, which has operated the AP program since 1955. The 2025 AP exam administration was the first in which students took AP end-of-course exams in most subjects solely on Bluebook — the College Board’s digital testing platform.
The transition to digital testing was designed to prevent theft and disclosure of paper exam questions — a growing problem in recent years.
“This year, not a single digital exam was compromised before exam day,” College Board reported. “Digital exams are only accessible within a secure, proctored testing environment. And students cannot access their test materials until they log in on test day, eliminating the risk of early exposure.”
Cellphones were prohibited in AP exam rooms — but College Board reports that some students were caught cheating.
“A number of proctors this year detected students attempting to use cellphones to look up answers to test questions or to photograph exam questions. These students’ scores were canceled.”
So how did AP students perform in 2025?
The AP program is designed to provide high school students with college-level course work — and most American colleges award credit for qualifying AP scores.
AP exams are graded on a familiar 1-5 scale — with an exam score of “3” considered to be a passing mark.
In 2025, the AP exam subjects with the highest percentage rates — a 3+ score — included Chinese language and culture (89%), AP research (88%), AP seminar (86%) and Spanish language and culture (85%).
Of note: Despite reported high levels of course dissatisfaction, 75% of students who took the Italian language and culture AP test received scores of 3 or higher.
This year’s AP exams with the lowest “passing” rates included Latin (59%), statistics (60%), music theory (60%), art history (65%) and human geography (65%).
Utah kids enjoying AP success
Utah reflects the upward trend of high school students enrolling in AP courses.
According to College Board’s 2023-2024 report, over 113,000 11th and 12th grade students were enrolled in Utah public schools. Of that demographic, in 2024, approximately 34,000 Utah students were enrolled in at least one AP course — and over 72% received exam scores of 3 or above.
Utah’s higher education institutions generally grant college credit for AP exams — although each school has their own credit policy.