College Board, AP Exam Terms and Conditions
AP Exam Score Declined, Withheld, or Cancelled
An AP score lands in the middle of college credit, placement, and sometimes an admission offer already in hand. College Board's AP terms state plainly that it cannot and will not issue scores it determines to be invalid, and they give you a written notice and an appeal on a short clock.
The two situations look alike and are not
A score cancelled as a disciplinary measure comes with notice and an appeal. A score lost to a testing irregularity is treated differently: the AP terms provide that College Board may decline to issue or may cancel the score, and that at its sole discretion you may receive a refund, which is the only remedy available in those cases. Knowing which paragraph your notice is written under tells you whether you have an appeal to file or a different argument to make.
The deadlines, before anything else
Every process on this page can be lost on a date rather than on the evidence. Put these in a calendar before you start drafting anything.
Notice of intent to appeal
20 business days
From your receipt of the notice email, under the AP Exam Terms and Conditions.
Appeal before arbitration
Required first
A challenge filed without a timely appeal and a decision on it is dismissed.
Voluntary score cancellation
June 15
A separate, elective process. Cancellation is permanent and is not a way to resolve a security review.
Testing rules are revised regularly, and the version in force on your test date is the one that governs your case. The notice you received controls. Read it against the rules as they stood when you tested.
What triggers a review on the AP Exams
- •Alleged violation of AP exam security or administration policy
- •Disclosing exam content through any means, which cancels the score automatically
- •Testing irregularities at the school or test site
- •Scores College Board determines to be invalid
- •Identification discrepancies
How the process actually runs
Taken from College Board’s own published rules. Stages shown in grey are past the point where we assist, and are included so you can see the whole route rather than only our part of it.
Written notice
Where College Board declines to score an exam or withholds or cancels a score as a disciplinary measure, the AP terms provide that it will notify you in writing, by email where you supplied an address in Bluebook for that exam. That notice starts the clock, so the date you received it matters as much as what it says.
Send notice of intent to appeal within 20 business days
The AP terms give you an appeal and require notice of intent to appeal within 20 business days of your receipt of the email. This is the step that preserves everything after it. Send it in writing even if your evidence is not assembled yet; the deadline is for the notice, not for the complete submission.
College Board reviews and decides, bindingly
College Board reviews the appeal and renders a decision the terms describe as binding and final. This is your one opportunity to put evidence in front of someone weighing the substance, which is why the submission should answer the stated basis directly rather than argue in general terms about your character or your coursework.
Arbitration, and only after a timely appealWe stop before this
After a decision on the appeal you may challenge it through binding individual arbitration. The terms require that you appeal on time and receive a decision first, and provide that a case filed before that is dismissed. The scope of review is whether College Board acted in good faith and followed the procedures in its own terms.
What we do, and where we stop
We assist with the notice and the appeal: working out which provision your notice is written under, what it actually alleges, and building the written submission. We do not handle arbitration. We also cannot help where a score was cancelled automatically for disclosing exam content, because the AP policies provide that no retest is permitted in that situation and treat the cancellation as automatic rather than reviewable.
AdvocatED is an education advising practice, not a law firm. We do not provide legal representation or legal advice. When you need an attorney instead.
How AdvocatED Helps With a AP Exams Score Review
AP notices arrive in the summer, often while a student is deciding between offers or counting on credit for a course they have already registered for.
Where guidance pays off most:Send the notice of intent to appeal before your evidence is ready. The deadline governs the notice; the submission can follow.
- Identify which provision the notice is written under, because that decides whether you have an appeal or a different argument
- Protect the 20-business-day window with a written notice of intent to appeal
- Separate the exam-security allegation from anything the school did, which is a different conversation with a different body
- Gather the classroom record: coursework, teacher statements, and the arc of the year, framed against the specific concern raised
- Draft the appeal so it answers the stated basis point by point
- Tell you where the AP policies leave no route, rather than billing you to write into a closed door
Mistakes that cost people the case
- ×Treating the 20-business-day clock as starting when you finish gathering evidence. It starts when the email arrives.
- ×Voluntarily cancelling the score to make the problem disappear. Cancellation is permanent and does not resolve a security matter.
- ×Arguing the student is a good student. The appeal has to answer the specific allegation.
- ×Assuming the school can fix it. An AP exam security matter sits with College Board, not with the AP coordinator.
- ×Mistaking a score-report request for an appeal. Asking for a copy of free responses is not a challenge to a cancellation.
Questions we get about AP Exams score reviews
Can I appeal a cancelled AP Exam score?
Where the score was declined, withheld, or cancelled as a disciplinary measure, the AP Exam Terms and Conditions provide for written notice and an appeal, with notice of intent to appeal due within 20 business days of your receipt of that email. Where the score was cancelled automatically for disclosing exam content, the AP policies state that no retest is permitted and describe the cancellation as automatic.
How long do I have to appeal an AP score cancellation?
Twenty business days from your receipt of the notice email, under the AP Exam Terms and Conditions as published. That is the deadline for notice of intent to appeal, not for the full submission, so send the notice first and assemble evidence after. A challenge filed without a timely appeal and a decision on it is dismissed.
What happens if my AP score was lost to a testing irregularity rather than misconduct?
The AP terms handle that separately. They provide that College Board may choose not to issue official scores or to cancel them where there was a testing irregularity, and that at College Board's sole discretion you may receive a refund, which is the only remedy available in those cases. For registration and record errors the terms describe different possibilities, including a retest, a projected score, or a refund. Which paragraph applies to you is the first thing to establish.
Will an AP cancellation show up on my college applications?
The cancellation itself is between you and College Board, and a cancelled score is simply not reported. The exposure usually comes from elsewhere: a credit or placement decision that assumed the score, an offer conditioned on it, or a school disciplinary matter running in parallel over the same conduct. That parallel school process is often the more consequential of the two and is worth addressing on its own terms.
Where this comes from
Every stage, deadline and standard on this page was read against College Board’s own published rules in October 2026. We link them so you can check us, and so you can compare them against the version in force on your test date.
- AP Exam Terms and Conditions
Score validity, notice, the appeal, and the arbitration provision.
- AP Exam security policies
Automatic cancellation for disclosing content, and bans.
Other exams we handle
Got a letter about your AP Exams score?
Send us the notice. The case review is free, and the first thing we will tell you is which deadline you are working against.