College Board’s 2026-27 key dates put the final fall AP exam ordering deadline at November 13, 2026, 11:59 p.m. ET, with an additional $40 per exam late order fee after that. For families in Irvine the significance is not the fee. It is that the question of which AP exams a student will actually sit in May has to be settled in mid-November, while most families do not think seriously about it until winter break.
Three dates to keep
| Item | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fall final ordering deadline | November 13, 2026, 11:59 p.m. ET | Full-year and fall-semester courses; $40 per exam late fee after |
| Spring course ordering deadline | March 12, 2027, 11:59 p.m. ET | Spring-semester, trimester, and block-schedule courses, no late fee |
| 2027 exam administration | May 3–7 and May 10–14, 2027 | Late testing May 17–21, 2027 |
These are the deadlines College Board sets for schools. Individual high schools usually set an internal confirmation date one to two weeks earlier so the AP coordinator can compile the order. Confirm the exact date with your school; the AP offerings and entry grades at each Irvine Unified School District high school are in the IUSD high school guides.
Why a November decision matters
The exam is in May and the order is in November. That six-month gap produces two recurring problems.
The first is over-ordering. A student feeling confident in the fall signs up for five or six exams, then discovers in March that school GPA, standardized testing, and competitions all land in the same weeks. Exams already ordered are not automatically refunded when a student does not sit them; whether any refund applies depends on how the school handles it.
The second is missing the order entirely. This happens most often to students studying a subject outside school that their own high school does not offer. No order is generated for them automatically. The student has to contact their school’s AP coordinator, or arrange another test center, before the November deadline. Every year some students discover in March that they are not on any order, at which point only late ordering remains.
The hidden portfolio deadlines
Four groups of AP subjects award part of the score for work submitted online rather than for the May exam. These deadlines fall earlier than exam week and cannot be made up.
| Subject | Submission deadline | What is submitted |
|---|---|---|
| AP Art and Design | May 7, 2027, 11:59 p.m. ET | Final portfolio |
| AP Computer Science Principles | April 30, 2027, 11:59 p.m. ET | Create performance task |
| AP Seminar and AP Research | April 30, 2027, 11:59 p.m. ET | Performance tasks |
| AP World Languages and Cultures | April 30, 2027, 11:59 p.m. ET | Personalized Project Reference |
Part of the grade in these courses is locked in by the end of April. Students taking AP Computer Science Principles should note that College Board requires at least nine class hours for the Create task; starting it near the deadline does not work.
Three decisions to make now
Confirm the subject list. Two criteria: how closely each subject connects to the intended major, and the total workload for the year. Do not stack several writing-heavy subjects in the same year. The full list of subjects and how school and outside courses fit together is in the AP course overview.
Confirm what the school offers. For subjects the school does not offer, settle the test center and the order before November. School-by-school offerings are in the IUSD high school guides.
Work backward from the portfolio deadlines. An April 30 submission means a March finalization, and March is already crowded with spring testing and school midterms.
What EDUBUS suggests
The number of AP exams is not the variable worth optimizing. What matters is whether each subject gets enough preparation time during the March-to-May peak. Put the portfolio deadlines on the calendar first, then decide whether another subject still fits.
For subjects a school does not offer, the EDUBUS AP courses run 32 weeks a year in small groups or one-on-one, and schedules are built backward from exam week once the subject list is confirmed in the fall.
Sources
- College Board AP Central: AP 2026-27 Key Dates and Deadlines: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/school-year-timeline (accessed September 26, 2026)
- College Board AP Students: 2027 AP Exam Dates and Deadlines: https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/exam-calendar (accessed September 26, 2026)
- Irvine APAAS in 2026-27: Eligibility, the Four Criteria, and the TimelineIUSD's GATE screening and the APAAS application are separate processes. This guide covers eligibility, the four criteria, host schools, and the next timeline.
- ISEE Policy Changes Every Irvine Family Should KnowERB has merged with EMA to form E3n, and the ISEE still allows one test per season in 2026-27. This guide covers the seasons, test site types, and score-sending rules.
- Why Reading Is the Foundation of Every Test ScoreThe ISEE verbal sections and SAT Reading and Writing test one skill set, built by daily reading. This guide uses 2024 NAEP data and gives a plan for grades 2 to 12.
