For Advanced Placement (AP) exams, 25,486 public school students took a total of 40,015 exams in 2013-14. In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the number of South Carolina public school students taking AP exams, the number of exams taken, and the number of students receiving a grade of three, four or five. Since 2010, the number of public school students in South Carolina taking AP exams has increased by approximately 7,000, the number of exams taken has increased by nearly 10,000, and the number of exams with a grade of three, four, or five has increased by approximately 6,000. Last year, the number of AP exams taken by public school students in the state increased by 7.6 percent, the number of students earning scores of 3 or higher increased by 7% and the number of African American students participating in the AP program increased by 7 percent, and the number of African American students participating in the AP program increased by 13 percent. Additionally, virtually every subgroup of students in South Carolina achieved increases in the number of AP exams taken and scores of 3 or higher.