SouthCoast High Schools with the Best AP Scores

As the cost of college skyrockets to astronomical proportions, the popularity of high school Advanced Placement classes is also on the rise.

In the 2022-2023 school year, over 111,000 AP exams were taken by Massachusetts public school students, according to the state's Department of Education.

Why wouldn't AP tests be popular?

AP classes are a great way to bang out some basic, first-year-level college courses on the cheap. While it does cost a little bit of money to take AP tests, the cost is minimal compared to that of a three-credit college course.

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However, to have your AP grades count toward college credit, students generally need to achieve a score of at least a 3 out of 5.

In the interest of fairness, the same exams are given on the same days across the country. The tests are graded by random teachers all over America, ensuring that the person grading the exam does not know the test taker.

So, how well are our SouthCoast high schools doing at preparing students for the AP exams?  We looked through each high school's scores and statistics and ranked the schools by the percentage of students who earned a 3 or above on the exams.

It turns out the very best Massachusetts high schools are in Dover/Sherborn and Lincoln/Sudbury. Both districts scored a whopping 94.9% for students getting a 3-5 on their AP exams. Stunning.

As expected, the bigger schools on the SouthCoast were the ones that administered the most AP exams. Taunton led the SouthCoast high schools with the number of tests taken with 641. Runners-up were Fall River with 614 and New Bedford with 553.

Do you know which SouthCoast school district had the highest percentage of AP students pass?  Find out in the list below.