AP

Introduction

Advanced Placement (AP) courses are offered in the disciplines of arts, English, history and social science, math and computer science, the sciences, and world languages and culture. AP Exams are scored on a scale of 1 to 5 (highest). Many U.S. colleges grant credit and/or advanced placement (i.e. skipping the equivalent course in college) for scores of 3 and above.

The following schools have the AP curriculum:

Popular Subjects

We are surrounded by written language that is often used intentionally to achieve a purpose. In AP English Language and Composition, you’ll read nonfiction texts through the eyes of a writer, exploring the choices writers and speakers make to persuade their audience. By analyzing how writing is composed, you’ll be able to construct your own persuasive pieces.

Course Content

You’ll learn to identify and analyze the claims in a text and determine whether the writer acks up their assertions with reasoning and evidence.

Skills you will practice may include:

  • Identifying the purpose and intended audience of a text
  • Examining how evidence supports a claim
  • Developing paragraphs as part of an effective argument

You’ll learn about how writers organize information and evidence to support a specific argument and appeal to a particular audience.

Skills you will practice may include:

  • Analyzing audience and its relationship to the purpose of an argument
  • Building an argument with relevant and strategic evidence
  • Developing thesis statements
  • Developing structure and integrating evidence to reflect a line of reasoning

You’ll explore the range of perspectives around a topic and how various arguments can relate and respond to each other.

Skills you will practice may include:

  • Identifying and describing different claims or lines of reasoning
  • Identifying and avoiding flawed lines of reasoning
  • Introducing and integrating sources and evidence
  • Using sufficient evidence for an argument
  • Attributing and citing references
  • Developing parts of a text with cause-effect and narrative methods

You’ll examine how a writer makes choices about methods of developing arguments, introductions, and conclusions.

Skills you will practice may include:

  • Developing and connecting thesis statements and lines of reasoning
  • Developing introductions and conclusions
  • Developing parts of a text with comparison–contrast and definition–description methods

You’ll focus on the very specific and minute choices a writer makes to bring all the parts of an argument together.

Skills you will practice may include:

  • Developing commentary throughout paragraphs
  • Maintaining ideas throughout an argument
  • Using modifiers to qualify an argument and convey perspective
  • Using transitions

You’ll work to understand the difference between position and perspective, how to consider bias, and how to integrate and address multiple perspectives in an argument.

Skills you will practice may include:

  • Incorporating multiple perspectives strategically into an argument
  • Recognizing and accounting for bias
  • Adjusting an argument to address new evidence
  • Analyzing tone and shifts in tone

You’ll consider the breadth and complexity of arguments around a topic and what makes each successful or unsuccessful.

Skills you will practice may include:

  • Examining complexities in issues
  • Considering how words, phrases, and clauses can modify and limit an argument
  • Examining how counterargument or alternative perspectives affect an argument
  • Exploring how sentence development affects an argument

You’ll explore the stylistic choices a writer can make and how those choices affect an argument.

Skills you will practice may include:

  • Choosing comparisons based on an audience
  • Considering how sentence development and word choice affect how the writer is perceived by an audience
  • Considering how all choices made in an argument affect the audience
  • Considering how style affects an argument

You’ll consider a wide range of perspectives as you develop a complex argument.

Skills you will practice may include:

  • Strategically conceding, rebutting, or refuting information
  • Crafting an argument through stylistic choices like word choice and description

Exam Components (3hrs 15mins)

45 Questions | 45% of Score

Excerpts from nonfiction texts are accompanied by several multiple-choice questions:

  • 23–25 Reading questions: You’ll be asked to read and analyze nonfiction texts.
  • 20–22 Writing questions: You’ll be asked to read like a writer and consider revisions to the text.

3 Questions | 55% of Score

The 2 hour and 15 minute time limit for this section includes a 15-minute reading period.

In the free-response section, you’ll respond to three questions with written answers. This section tests your skill in composition in three areas:

  • Synthesis: After reading 6 texts about a topic (including visual and quantitative sources), you will compose an argument that combines and cites at least 3 of the sources to support your thesis.
  • Rhetorical analysis: You will read a nonfiction text and analyze how the writer’s language choices contribute to the intended meaning and purpose of the text.
  • Argument: You will create an evidence-based argument that responds to a given topic.

It’s been said that change is the only true constant. Calculus helps make sense of change by grappling with questions that inspire thinkers from around the globe, across time, and in many disciplines. Can change occur in an instant? When is the next solar eclipse or the turning point for an economy? In AP Calculus AB, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of mathematical principles that can help you answer questions such as these.

Course Content

You’ll start to explore how limits will allow you to solve problems involving change and to better understand mathematical reasoning about functions.

Topics may include (10%-12% of exam score): 

  • How limits help us to handle change at an instant
  • Definition and properties of limits in various representations
  • Definitions of continuity of a function at a point and over a domain
  • Asymptotes and limits at infinity
  • Reasoning using the Squeeze theorem and the Intermediate Value Theorem

You’ll apply limits to define the derivative, become skillful at determining derivatives, and continue to develop mathematical reasoning skills.

Topics may include (10%-12% of exam score): 

  • Defining the derivative of a function at a point and as a function
  • Connecting differentiability and continuity
  • Determining derivatives for elementary functions
  • Applying differentiation rules

You’ll master the chain rule, develop new differentiation techniques, and be introduced to higher-order derivatives.

Topics may include (9%–13% of exam score): 

  • The chain rule for differentiating composite functions
  • Implicit differentiation
  • Differentiation of general and particular inverse functions
  • Determining higher-order derivatives of functions

You’ll apply derivatives to set up and solve real-world problems involving instantaneous rates of change and use mathematical reasoning to determine limits of certain indeterminate forms.

Topics may include (10%-15% of exam score): 

  • Identifying relevant mathematical information in verbal representations of real-world problems involving rates of change
  • Applying understandings of differentiation to problems involving motion
  • Generalizing understandings of motion problems to other situations involving rates of change
  • Solving related rates problems
  • Local linearity and approximation
  • L’Hospital’s rule

After exploring relationships among the graphs of a function and its derivatives, you’ll learn to apply calculus to solve optimization problems.

Topics may include (15%–18% of exam score): 

  • Mean Value Theorem and Extreme Value Theorem
  • Derivatives and properties of functions
  • How to use the first derivative test, second derivative test, and candidates test
  • Sketching graphs of functions and their derivatives
  • How to solve optimization problems
  • Behaviors of Implicit relations

You’ll learn to apply limits to define definite integrals and how the Fundamental Theorem connects integration and differentiation. You’ll apply properties of integrals and practice useful integration techniques.

Topics may include (17%–20% of exam score): 

  • Using definite integrals to determine accumulated change over an interval
  • Approximating integrals using Riemann Sums
  • Accumulation functions, the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, and definite integrals
  • Antiderivatives and indefinite integrals
  • Properties of integrals and integration techniques

You’ll learn how to solve certain differential equations and apply that knowledge to deepen your understanding of exponential growth and decay.

Topics may include (6%-12% of exam score): 

  • Interpreting verbal descriptions of change as separable differential equations
  • Sketching slope fields and families of solution curves
  • Solving separable differential equations to find general and particular solutions
  • Deriving and applying a model for exponential growth and decay

You’ll make mathematical connections that will allow you to solve a wide range of problems involving net change over an interval of time and to find areas of regions or volumes of solids defined using functions.

Topics may include (10%-15% of exam score): 

  • Determining the average value of a function using definite integrals
  • Modeling particle motion
  • Solving accumulation problems
  • Finding the area between curves
  • Determining volume with cross-sections, the disc method, and the washer method

Exam Components (3hrs 15mins)

45 Questions | 50% of Score

  • Part A: Graphing calculator not permitted (33.3% of score)
  • Part B: Graphing calculator required for some questions (16.7% of score) 
  • Questions include algebraic, exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric, and general types of functions.
  • Questions include analytical, graphical, tabular, and verbal types of representations.

6 Questions | 50% of Score

  • Part A: 2 problems | Graphing calculator required (16.7% of score) 
  • Part B: 4 problems | Graphing calculator not permitted (33.3% of score)
  • Questions include various types of functions and function representations and a roughly equal mix of procedural and conceptual tasks.
  • Questions include at least 2 questions that incorporate a real-world context or scenario into the question.

Statistics are a part of everyday life. You can see them in AI models, news polls, popular music rankings, and medical research. Discover how the statistics you see every day are developed and learn how to evaluate their credibility for yourself in AP Statistics.

Course Content

You’ll be introduced to how statisticians approach variation and practice representing data, describing distributions of data, and drawing conclusions based on a theoretical distribution.

Topics may include (15%–23% of exam score): 

  • Variation in categorical and quantitative variables
  • Representing data using tables or graphs
  • Calculating and interpreting statistics
  • Describing and comparing distributions of data
  • The normal distribution

You’ll build on what you’ve learned by representing two-variable data, comparing distributions, describing relationships between variables, and using models to make predictions.

Topics may include (5%–7% of exam score): 

  • Comparing representations of 2 categorical variables
  • Calculating statistics for 2 categorical variables
  • Representing bivariate quantitative data using scatter plots
  • Describing associations in bivariate data and interpreting correlation
  • Linear regression models
  • Residuals and residual plots
  • Departures from linearity

You’ll be introduced to study design, including the importance of randomization. You’ll understand how to interpret the results of well-designed studies to draw appropriate conclusions and generalizations.

Topics may include (12%-15% of exam score): 

  • Planning a study
  • Sampling methods
  • Sources of bias in sampling methods
  • Designing an experiment
  • Interpreting the results of an experiment

You’ll learn the fundamentals of probability and be introduced to the probability distributions that are the basis for statistical inference.

Topics may include (10%-20% of exam score): 

  • Using simulation to estimate probabilities
  • Calculating the probability of a random event
  • Random variables and probability distributions
  • The binomial distribution
  • The geometric distribution

As you build understanding of sampling distributions, you’ll lay the foundation for estimating characteristics of a population and quantifying confidence.

Topics may include (7%–12% of exam score): 

  • Variation in statistics for samples collected from the same population
  • The central limit theorem
  • Biased and unbiased point estimates
  • Sampling distributions for sample proportions
  • Sampling distributions for sample means

You’ll learn inference procedures for proportions of a categorical variable, building a foundation of understanding of statistical inference, a concept you’ll continue to explore throughout the course.

Topics may include (12%–15% of exam score): 

  • Constructing and interpreting a confidence interval for a population proportion
  • Setting up and carrying out a test for a population proportion
  • Interpreting a p-value and justifying a claim about a population proportion
  • Type I and Type II errors in significance testing
  • Confidence intervals and tests for the difference of 2 proportions

Building on lessons learned about inference in Unit 6, you’ll learn to analyze quantitative data to make inferences about population means.

Topics may include (10%–18% of exam score): 

  • Constructing and interpreting a confidence interval for a population mean
  • Setting up and carrying out a test for a population mean
  • Interpreting a p-value and justifying a claim about a population mean
  • Confidence intervals and tests for the difference of 2 population means

You’ll learn about chi-square tests, which can be used when there are two or more categorical variables.

Topics may include (2%–5% of exam score): 

  • The chi-square test for goodness of fit
  • The chi-square test for homogeneity
  • The chi-square test for independence
  • Selecting an appropriate inference procedure for categorical data

You’ll understand that the slope of a regression model is not necessarily the true slope but is based on a single sample from a sampling distribution, and you’ll learn how to construct confidence intervals and perform significance tests for this slope.

Topics may include (2%–5% of exam score): 

  • Confidence intervals for the slope of a regression model
  • Setting up and carrying out a test for the slope of a regression model
  • Selecting an appropriate inference procedure

Exam Components (3hrs)

40 Questions | 1 hr 30mins | 50% of Score

The multiple-choice section assesses:

  • Your understanding of content from all 9 units of study
  • Your ability to apply all 4 course skills

The section includes individual questions or sets of questions based on a shared prompt.

6 Questions | 1 hr 30mins | 50% of Score

In the free-response section, you’ll respond to six questions, including one investigative task, with written answers. This section will test your skill in communicating explanations or justifications using evidence from data, definitions, or statistical inference.

Part A:

  • 1 multipart question with a primary focus on collecting data
  • 1 multipart question with a primary focus on exploring data
  • 1 multipart question with a primary focus on probability and sampling distributions
  • 1 question with a primary focus on inference
  • 1 question that combines 2 or more skill categories

Part B:

1 investigative task that assesses multiple skill categories and content areas and asks you to apply your statistical skills to new contexts or in nonroutine ways

Physics 1: Algebra-Based

Have you ever been curious as to why some objects float while others sink? Why it’s easier to balance on a bicycle when it’s moving fast? Or why it may seem like you’re moving backward when a car passes you on the highway? In AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based, you’ll learn about kinematics, dynamics, and energy through hands-on laboratory work to investigate and answer questions such as these.

Exam Components (3hrs)

40 Questions | 1 hr 20mins | 50% of Score

Questions are either discrete questions or question sets, in which you’ll be provided with a stimulus or a set of data and a series of related questions.

4 Questions | 1 hr 40mins | 50% of Score

This section contains 4 free-response questions of the following types:

  • Mathematical routines
  • Translation between representations
  • Experimental design and analysis
  • Qualitative/quantitative translation

Physics 2: Algebra-Based

Have you ever wondered how the interactions of microscopic particles cause observable phenomena like static electricity, thermodynamic processes, nuclear reactions, and atomic emission lines? In AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based, you’ll learn about thermodynamics, electricity and magnetics, and quantum, atomic, and nuclear physics. While learning about the key course concepts, you’ll do hands-on laboratory work to investigate specific phenomena.

Exam Components (3hrs)

40 Questions | 1 hr 20mins | 50% of Score

Questions are either discrete questions or question sets, in which students are provided with a stimulus or a set of data and a series of related questions.

4 Questions | 1 hr 40mins | 50% of Score

This section contains 4 free-response questions, one of each of the following types:  

  • Mathematical routines
  • Translation between representations
  • Experimental design
  • Qualitative/quantitative translation

Have you ever wondered if a diamond really is forever? How batteries create electricity from chemical reactions? Or how we know that atoms exist when they’re too small to be seen? In AP Chemistry, you’ll learn to examine the atomic and molecular interactions that result in all the varied materials and changes that you observe daily, as well as how to properly test and analyze errors in an experiment.

Exam Components (3hrs 15mins)

60 Questions | 1 hr 30mins | 50% of Score

The multiple-choice section includes individual, single questions as well as sets of questions that refer to the same diagram or data presentation.

Questions will test your ability to:

  • Explain, analyze, and interpret models and representations of chemical properties or phenomena
  • Design experiments and procedures to test a prediction or theory
  • Solve problems using mathematical relationships
  • Make or justify a scientific claim and support it with evidence and/or reasoning
  • A scientific or graphing calculator is recommended for use on Section I 

7 Questions | 1 hr 45mins | 50% of Score

The free-response section includes three long, multipart questions (worth 10 points each) and four short-answer, multipart questions (worth 4 points each).

Questions will test your ability to:

  • Explain, analyze, and interpret models and representations of chemical properties or phenomena
  • Design experiments and procedures to test a prediction or theory
  • Represent data and chemical phenomena with graphs and diagrams
  • Solve problems using mathematical relationships
  • Make or justify a scientific claim and support it with evidence and/or reasoning
  • A scientific or graphing calculator is recommended for use on Section II.

From the smallest units of life to how healthy ecosystems can be sustained, AP Biology explores the key principles of biology. While you learn about genetics and how it affects evolution, how energy flows through ecosystems and other fascinating topics, you’ll also learn how to think critically, solve problems, and communicate scientific ideas effectively.

Exam Components (3hrs)

60 Questions | 1 hr 30mins | 50% of Score

The multiple-choice section includes individual, single questions as well as sets of questions that refer to the same diagram or data presentation.

Questions will test your ability to:

  • Explain biological concepts, processes, and models
  • Analyze diagrams, flow charts, and other visual representations
  • Use the scientific method
  • Perform mathematical calculations to analyze data
  • Support scientific claims with evidence

6 Questions | 1 hr 30mins | 50% of Score

The free-response section includes two long questions and four short questions.

Questions will test your ability to:

  • Interpret and evaluate results from an experiment
  • Graph and analyze data
  • Understand the principles and procedures of lab investigations
  • Predict the causes or effects of a change in a biological system
  • Analyze a visual representation of a biological phenomenon

Immerse yourself in AP Human Geography by investigating population trends, exploring diverse cultural landscapes, and identifying spatial patterns across various scales. From bustling cities to rural areas, you’ll embark on a journey of discovery as you examine the diverse interactions that people have with the environment.

Exam Components (2hrs 15mins)

60 Questions | 1 hr | 50% of Score

The multiple-choice section includes individual questions as well as sets of questions. You’ll be asked to:

  • Analyze geographic concepts, processes, patterns, and relationships
  • Analyze geographic data from maps, tables, charts, graphs, satellite images, and infographics.
  • Interpret geographic information represented visually in maps, satellite images, photographs, cartoons, and landscapes.
  • Analyze spatial relationships using geographic scales

3 Questions | 1 hr 15mins | 50% of Score

In the free-response section, you’ll respond to three questions with written answers. All three will present an authentic geographic situation or scenario, and at least two will ask you to explain and analyze spatial relationships across geographic scales.

  • The first question will have text only.
  • The second question will ask you to analyze and/or interpret data, an image, or a map.
  • The third question will feature two stimuli, which will include data, images, and/or maps.

At least one of the free-response questions assesses your ability to analyze across geographic scales to explain spatial relationships.

How did the United States become THE United States? What happened to the American economy when factories went from being powered by water to powered by coal? Or how have definitions of who is, and who is not, a U.S. citizen changed over time? In AP United States History, you’ll explore and try to answer questions like these, while discussing the ways in which Americans have debated their values, practices, and traditions since even before the country’s founding.

Exam Components (3hrs 15mins)

55 Questions | 55mins | 40% of Score

The questions in the multiple-choice section come in sets of usually 3–4 questions based on the same stimulus. The questions will include one or more sources to respond to such as primary and secondary texts, images (for example, artwork, photos, posters, cartoons), charts, and maps.

You’ll be asked to:

  • Analyze the provided sources
  • Analyze the historical developments and processes described in the sources

3 Questions | 40mins | 20% of Score

In the short-answer section, you’ll write answers to questions in the Bluebook testing app. Some questions include texts, images, graphs, or maps.

  • Question 1 is required, includes 1–2 secondary sources, and focuses on historical developments or processes between the years 1754 and 1980.
  • Question 2 is required, includes 1 primary source, and focuses on historical developments or processes between the years 1754 and 1980.
  • You can choose between Question 3 (which focuses on historical developments or processes between the years 1491 and 1877) and Question 4 (which focuses on historical developments or processes between the years 1865 and 2001) for the last question. No sources are included for either Question 3 or Question 4.

You’ll be asked to:

  • Analyze the provided sources
  • Analyze historical developments and processes described in the sources
  • Put those historical developments and processes in context
  • Make connections between those historical developments and processes

2 Questions | 1 hr 40mins | 40% of Score

In the free-response section, you’ll write answers to questions in the Bluebook testing app. There are two questions: one document-based question and one long essay.

Document-Based Question 
Recommended time: 60 Minutes (includes 15-minute reading period) | 25% of Exam Score

The 60-minute recommended time for this section includes a 15-minute reading period.

  • You’ll be presented with seven documents that give various perspectives on a historical development or process.
  • You’ll be asked to develop and support an argument based on these documents and other evidence from your own knowledge.
  • The topic of the document-based question will include historical developments or processes between the years 1754 and 1980.

Long Essay 
1 Question | 40 Minutes | 15% of Exam Score

  • You’ll have a choice of three questions; you’ll pick one to answer.
  • Each tests the same skills and reasoning process (e.g., comparison, causation, or continuity and change) but the questions focus on historical developments and processes from different time periods (either the period from 1491 to 1800, from 1800 to 1898, or from 1890 to 2001).
  • You’ll be asked to develop and support an argument based on evidence.

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