The people who evaluate the portfolios (known as "faculty consultants") are all either AP Studio Art teachers or teachers of first-year college courses. When they arrive at the Reading, the portfolios have already been checked in and the sections separated. Each section is scored separately, and an intensive standard-setting session is held before the scoring of each section is begun. Standard-setting is the process of developing a common understanding of the scoring rubric for each section. Actual scoring does not begin until the Chief Faculty Consultant is satisfied that the faculty consultants as a group share such an understanding and can apply the rubric with a high degree of consistency.

Once the actual scoring begins, faculty consultants work independently and do not see the scores that anyone else has given to the same work. Section I (Quality) is graded by three faculty consultants; Sections II and III are each scored by two faculty consultants. If there is a wide divergence in the scores assigned by two faculty consultants to the same section of a portfolio, the section is pulled out and is forwarded to two experienced faculty consultants for review and resolution of the scores. Because of this structure, a minimum of three and maximum of seven faculty consultants score the various parts of an individual's portfolio. (As the group of faculty consultants has grown over the years — to 62 in 2001 — the number of faculty consultants is much more likely to be at the high end than the low end of that range.)

Once the Reading is completed, the scores assigned to a portfolio are converted to a composite raw score. The Chief Faculty Consultant, in consultation with technical staff from ETS and the College Board, and in light of a detailed debriefing session with the whole group of faculty consultants, determines the composite scores for each of the AP grades.

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