Fairfax County and Alexandria students are taking and passing more Advanced Placement exams, a benchmark of college readiness, according to data released by the school systems Wednesday.

More than 16,000 Fairfax County high school students took 35,759 of these college-level tests last spring, a 5 percent increase over 2011. The percentage of exams receiving a passing score increased from 69 percent in 2011 to 72 percent in 2012, with gains made by every racial subgroup.