Overview
The Prueba de Aptitud Académica (PAA) is the College Board's university admission test in Spanish for Puerto Rico. College Board's Questions and Answers booklet says the revised PAA was offered from October 2017 to secondary school students in Puerto Rico, and from August 2018 in Latin America, including to foreign students who want to study in Puerto Rico. The test structure below comes from that 2017 booklet. College Board's current PAA page lists the same three parts and says its study guide covers the test first used in 2017. That page says the PAA is available on paper and, in some regions, online. Each institution sets its own admission policy and decides which scores it uses.
Exam pattern
The PAA has three parts, each taken in a separate timed section.
| Part | Time | Exercises | Subparts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and Writing (Lectura y redacción) | 75 minutes | 70 | Reading, literary texts, non-literary texts, vocabulary in context, analysis, interpretation and inference, and writing |
| Mathematics (Matemáticas) | 60 minutes | 55 | Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis and probability |
| English (Inglés) | 50 minutes | 50 | Language and vocabulary, reading, and writing |
All three parts take 3 hours 5 minutes; the first two together take 2 hours 15 minutes. The exercises are multiple choice with four options, and some mathematics exercises ask the student to supply the answer. Calculators are not used in mathematics, except for students with an approved accommodation.
Important dates
College Board's PAA page for Puerto Rico lists these administrations in 2026 and early 2027:
21 October 2026: PAA for Grade 12 (listed as DEPR).
29 October 2026: PAA at your school.
7 November 2026: Saturday administration (Sabatina).
20 February 2027: Saturday administration. Registration opens 16 November 2026, regular registration closes 11 December 2026 and late registration closes 18 December 2026.
Dates and registration steps can change, so check the page before registering. Fees are not listed there.
Syllabus
Reading uses literary and non-literary texts and covers comprehension, vocabulary in context, inference and quantitative information in graphs. Writing tests how well sentences form a coherent text. Mathematics covers arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis and probability, with emphasis on problems from everyday life, work and home.
Marking and results
Each of the three parts is scored from 200 to 800, and the report gives a percentile from 1 to 99 under each score. Subparts are scored from 10 to 40. College Board advises reading each part's score separately rather than only the total. Institutions have usually considered the highest score if a student sits the test more than once, but students should confirm with each institution.
Preparation tips
Practise in the 4-option format and in the section times above.
Use College Board's PAA study guide, which has sample exercises for each part.
What is the score range on the PAA?
Each part is reported from 200 to 800, with a percentile from 1 to 99.