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AP exams guide

What are AP exams? A guide to AP scoring, format, and preparation

AP exams let high school students show college-level mastery of a subject. Here is how they work, how scores and college credit work, and what the five AP exams covered on CollegePrepRoom look like.

By CollegePrepRoom Publication Series · Updated

What are AP exams?

Advanced Placement is a College Board program of college-level courses taught in high schools. Each AP course ends with a standardized AP exam in May. Exams are written and scored to the same standards everywhere, so a score means the same thing whichever school you attend. Colleges use AP scores for credit and placement, and admissions officers see AP coursework as a sign that a student has taken on challenging classes.

AP exams test specific course content: the causes of the Civil War, how a bill becomes law, how a writer builds an argument. Each course has an official course framework that lists the units, skills, and content the exam can test. The College Board revises these frameworks from time to time, so check the course page on AP Central for the current version.

How AP scores and college credit work

AP scoreCollege Board description
5Extremely well qualified
4Very well qualified
3Qualified
2Possibly qualified
1No recommendation

Your multiple-choice and free-response results are weighted and combined into a composite, which is converted to the 1–5 scale. The cutoffs are set each year for each exam and are not published in advance, so any score calculator you find online, including ones based on past exams, gives an approximate, unofficial estimate only.

College credit depends entirely on the college. Some award credit for a 3, many require a 4 or 5 in some subjects, and some use AP scores only for placement into higher-level courses. Policies also differ between departments within the same college. The College Board’s AP Credit Policy Search and each college’s registrar page are the places to check.

When AP exams happen and how they are given

AP exams run over two weeks in May, usually the first two full weeks of the month, with morning and afternoon sessions and a later window for approved late testing. Each subject has one fixed date and time, so two of your exams can fall on the same day. Students register through their school’s AP coordinator, normally in the fall, and scores are released in early July. Fees and deadlines are set by the College Board and your school. Check the College Board’s AP exam calendar for this year’s dates.

Since 2025, many AP exams have moved into Bluebook, the College Board’s testing app. Exams are either fully digital, with multiple choice and free response both answered in the app and essays typed, or hybrid, with multiple choice in the app and free responses handwritten in a paper booklet. Hybrid is used mainly for math and science exams. All five exams on this page are fully digital, and all are taken at school under a proctor. Students with approved accommodations may test on paper. Bluebook includes a timer, a highlighter, annotation tools, and a question flag, and it saves your work as you go.

How to prepare for AP exams

  1. Keep up with the course. AP exams sample the whole framework, so steady review through the year is the most reliable preparation.
  2. Learn the task as well as the content. Each free-response type has a rubric. Know exactly what earns each point, such as a defensible thesis, contextualization, or a specific piece of evidence.
  3. Write under time. Practice each essay type with the real time limit, typed if your exam is digital. Then score it against the rubric.
  4. Practice stimulus-based multiple choice. Most questions on these exams come in sets built around a passage, a primary source, a chart, or a map. Read the source before the question.
  5. Take a full practice exam in March or April, under timed conditions, and use the results to plan your final weeks.
  6. Use the Bluebook practice. Try the College Board’s Bluebook practice for your exam so the tools feel familiar.

The five AP exams on CollegePrepRoom

CollegePrepRoom offers full courses for five AP exams, from the CollegePrepRoom Publication Series. Together they contain 3,503 course questions: multiple-choice sets with explanations, free-response prompts with rubric-based self-scoring, and full-length practice exams. Each course is $3.99 a month, and free practice questions in all subjects stay free. Exam structures below follow the College Board’s current published formats. Section timings and weights can change, so confirm them on AP Central.

AP English Language and Composition

SectionQuestionsTimeWeight
I: Multiple choice45 (reading and writing sets)1 hour45%
II: Free response3 essays: synthesis, rhetorical analysis, argument2 hours 15 minutes, including a 15-minute reading period55%

AP Lang is a course in rhetoric and nonfiction writing. Multiple-choice questions ask you to analyze how published passages make their arguments, and to revise draft passages as a writer would. Each essay is scored on a 6-point rubric: 1 point for thesis, up to 4 for evidence and commentary, and 1 for sophistication. The synthesis essay asks you to build an argument from a packet of sources. The rhetorical analysis essay asks how a writer’s choices serve their purpose. The argument essay asks you to defend a position with your own evidence.

Inside the AP English Language course

The course moves from the rhetorical situation and the scoring rubric through each multiple-choice skill, then gives each essay its own sequence of units, from assigning source roles in synthesis to qualifying a claim in argument. It closes with Bluebook tools, free-response time management, and 2 full practice exams.

See all 41 AP English Language units

Lessons and skill units (37)

  1. Know the exam before you start practicingLearn the exam on one page: Section I, Section II, timing, scoring weights, the five multiple-choice sets, and the Bluebook tools.12 questions
  2. Read the situation before you judge the choiceIdentify the writer, audience, purpose, exigence, and context of a passage, and connect that situation to specific rhetorical choices.15 questions
  3. Make evidence do work in the argumentSeparate claim from support, turn "this shows" into real commentary, and track what each paragraph does in a line of reasoning.17 questions
  4. Read the rubric the way a scorer uses itLearn what each point of the six-point essay rubric requires: the thesis, the four levels of evidence and commentary, and sophistication.18 questions
  5. Find what the writer is trying to accomplishSeparate purpose from topic, tone, and message, and test purpose statements against the whole passage so you can reject answers that are true but too broad.30 questions
  6. Separate the main claim from its supportFind the central claim, tell evidence from argument, read concessions and qualifiers, and reject answers that stretch a claim further than the passage does.28 questions
  7. See what each paragraph is doingName each paragraph’s job, trace how claims depend on one another, read transitions as logical relationships, and tell function from summary.35 questions
  8. How a passage develops an ideaLearn to name a passage's method of development, then explain the job it does: narration, comparison, cause and effect, definition, and description.30 questions
  9. What style choices changeAnalyze diction, tone, syntax, punctuation, repetition, and comparison by naming the exact word or structure and explaining the specific effect it creates.30 questions
  10. Keep the logic when the prose gets difficultFind the main clause, resolve pronouns, decode unfamiliar words from context, and restate dense or technical sentences without changing their scope.30 questions
  11. Diagnose why a wrong answer failsLearn to name why a wrong answer fails (scope, function, invention, true but unresponsive, or topic without claim) and to find the line that rules it out.29 questions
  12. Revise the sentence to fit the passageRevise a sentence for rhetorical fit: state the sentence's job, use the surrounding sentences as evidence, and reject options that shift the passage's purpose or claim.25 questions
  13. Frame the passage from first sentence to lastChoose openings and conclusions that fit the audience and purpose: give only the background a reader needs, and close on significance the argument has earned, never a new claim.25 questions
  14. Match the claim to the evidenceWriting questions reward claims that say exactly as much as the evidence supports: tighten, qualify, and keep evidence on point.27 questions
  15. Put the argument in the order it needsOrganization questions test dependency, transitions, and paragraph breaks: learn to see what each sentence needs from the ones around it.27 questions
  16. Revise the sentence without changing the meaningSentence-revision questions ask for clearer, tighter wording that keeps meaning and emphasis: cut clutter, fix modifiers, and choose precise words.27 questions
  17. Use punctuation to show the relationshipConventions questions turn on grammatical relationships: find the sentence boundary first, then choose the mark that expresses it.25 questions
  18. When a revision does not fit the passageTwo revisions can both sound fine. Learn to name the one problem a question tests and to choose the option that fixes it without breaking anything else.27 questions
  19. Decide what each source can supportRead the prompt first, give each source a tentative job, separate context from evidence, and find the source that limits the easy claim.14 questions
  20. Write your position before the sources take overIdentify the exact decision, draft a working position, and let the packet test it so that the final thesis is your own synthesized judgment.15 questions
  21. Use a source without letting it run the paragraphPut your claim first, cite sources briefly, choose the smallest useful evidence, and explain it so the paragraph ends on your argument.15 questions
  22. Say only what the graph can supportRead the variable, units, population and time window of a visual source, separate count from rate, and refuse to turn correlation into cause.15 questions
  23. Let complications change the claimWhen a source exposes a limit in your thesis, revise the thesis, weigh the competing consequences, and keep the final position clear.15 questions
  24. Write the synthesis with the clock runningUse about 15 minutes to read, evaluate and plan and about 40 minutes to write, then study a model synthesis response and a targeted revision.1 questions
  25. Rhetorical choices worth analyzingGround the analysis in the writer's situation, name an analytical endpoint, treat structure as a choice, and build a thesis around what the choices accomplish.16 questions
  26. Track how the passage changes as it movesGive the opening a function, notice what changes after it, track shifts in the audience relationship, and organize your analysis around the passage's movement.16 questions
  27. Explain what the evidence is doingChoose evidence that contains a real choice, quote only what you analyze, name the function before the effect, and test whether your commentary could fit any passage.16 questions
  28. Build one interpretation across the passageWrite a thesis that names what the choices accomplish, build paragraphs that deepen one interpretation, and keep complexity inside the reasoning.16 questions
  29. Write the rhetorical analysis with the clock runningUse the opening minutes to decide what the writer is trying to accomplish and how the passage moves, then draft with a few choices you can explain, and study a model response.1 questions
  30. Answer the claim the prompt actually gives youFind the operative word in an argument prompt, fix its scope, and write a defensible thesis before choosing any evidence.13 questions
  31. Choose evidence you can explainPick argument evidence you know well enough to develop: usable detail, honest personal and current-event evidence, and clearly labeled hypotheticals.13 questions
  32. Make the example prove somethingTurn an example into reasoning: state what it establishes, write the warrant, avoid unsupported causation, and end each paragraph with a conclusion the evidence has earned.13 questions
  33. How qualification changes a claimUse conditions, fair concessions, and honest rebuttals to narrow a claim without losing your position, and let complexity grow from the argument itself.13 questions
  34. Write the argument with the clock runningPlan a timed argument essay in five to seven minutes, study a full model response with row-by-row scoring, and see how one targeted revision strengthens a sentence.6 questions
  35. Using Bluebook tools under timeUse the timer, flags, option eliminator, highlights, and question menu only when they save time, and recover calmly when one item runs long.14 questions
  36. Managing the full free-response sectionPlan Section II as one clock for three separately scored essays: use the reading period, choose an essay order, and protect time for the third response.10 questions
  37. Final mixed practiceTurn recurring errors into named skills, use the Skill Repair Map to find the right chapters, and test each repair in a short mixed set before the practice exams.11 questions

Full practice tests (4 parts)

  1. Practice Exam 1: Section I, Multiple ChoiceFull-length Practice Exam 1, Section I: 45 multiple-choice questions in five sets, 60 minutes, with explanations for each answer choice.45 questions
  2. Practice Exam 1: Section II, Free ResponsePractice Exam 1, Section II: synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument prompts with sources, 2 hours 15 minutes, and the 6-point rubric.3 questions
  3. Practice Exam 2: Section I, Multiple ChoiceFull-length Practice Exam 2, Section I: 45 multiple-choice questions in five sets, 60 minutes, with explanations for each answer choice.45 questions
  4. Practice Exam 2: Section II, Free ResponsePractice Exam 2, Section II: synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument prompts with sources, 2 hours 15 minutes, and the 6-point rubric.3 questions
Try free AP English Language questionsFull course, $3.99/month

AP English Literature and Composition

SectionQuestionsTimeWeight
I: Multiple choice55, in sets on prose fiction, poetry, and drama passages1 hour45%
II: Free response3 essays: poetry analysis, prose fiction analysis, literary argument2 hours55%

AP Lit tests close reading and literary interpretation. The multiple-choice section asks about character, setting, structure, narration, figurative language, and literary argument in passages you have not seen before. Two essays analyze a poem and a prose passage printed on the exam. The third, the literary argument, asks you to choose a novel or play you know well and argue how it illuminates a theme from the prompt. All three use the same 6-point rubric as AP Lang.

Inside the AP English Literature course

Units follow the skills the exam rewards: reading character from evidence, setting, structure, perspective, close reading, figurative language, complexity, drama, and unfamiliar poems. They are followed by an essay sequence on the six-point rubric, poetry and prose analysis, choosing works for the literary argument, and 2 full practice exams.

See all 25 AP English Literature units

Lessons and skill units (21)

  1. Read character through action and choiceBuild a claim about a character from specific behavior under pressure, relationships, contradiction, and refusal to change, then test it against the whole passage.22 questions
  2. Ask what the setting changesTreat setting as a source of meaning: how physical, social, and historical conditions restrict, expose, or press on characters and shift your interpretation.15 questions
  3. Read how the arrangement shapes the eventsLearn to explain how sequence, delayed information, repetition, shifts, and pacing change meaning, and to map a passage in four short phrases.23 questions
  4. Who is telling it, and what can they see?Judge a narrator or speaker by distance, knowledge, selection, and evidence of gaps, and learn to separate limitation from unreliability without confusing voice and author.22 questions
  5. Slow down at the word and sentence that carry the pressurePractice close reading of connotation, repetition, degree words, syntax, ambiguity, and turn each quotation into commentary that could not fit anywhere else.21 questions
  6. Explain what each figure of speech doesInterpret metaphor, personification, extended comparison, image patterns, symbols, and allusion by naming the quality transferred and connecting it to meaning.20 questions
  7. Hold the tension and explain itQualify interpretations, test genuine ambiguity, and compare competing readings against the whole passage, using Mansfield and Chopin.34 questions
  8. Test your first reading against the whole passageBuild a prose interpretation from evidence across an excerpt, use framing information, and revise claims as the passage shifts, with Dickens and Hardy.25 questions
  9. Read dialogue as action, and stage directions as evidenceAnalyze what dialogue does, how stage directions and silence work as evidence, and how the balance of power turns in drama, using Wilde and Glaspell.26 questions
  10. Why the almost-right answer is wrongProse and drama multiple-choice practice: learn the five ways plausible distractors fail and review misses by scope, function, degree, inference, or precision.38 questions
  11. Read the situation before you interpret the poemEstablish the speaker's situation, recover difficult syntax, and track a poem's movement before you interpret its figurative language.26 questions
  12. Ask what the arrangement doesLearn to explain how line breaks, stanza movement, punctuation, repetition, and sound shape meaning in a poem without relying on a catalog of terms.27 questions
  13. Match your evidence to the scale of the questionFive timed-style poetry clusters on Marvell, Keats, Dickinson, Hardy, Millay, Lowell, and Whitman for practicing local versus whole-poem decisions.38 questions
  14. Know exactly where each of the six points comes fromLearn how the thesis, evidence and commentary, and sophistication rows of the AP Literature rubric are scored, and how Row B differs between Q1, Q2, and Q3.16 questions
  15. Argue from the poem's movementPlan and write the Poetry Analysis essay: build a thesis from the poem's movement, choose precise evidence, and keep commentary consistent across the line of reasoning.15 questions
  16. Let the thesis survive the whole passagePlan and write the Prose Fiction Analysis essay: use the framing information, draw evidence from across the passage, and turn plot summary into commentary.15 questions
  17. Choose the work that fits the taskDefine the task's concept narrowly, test works against it with specific scenes, and build a flexible Question 3 portfolio before exam day.17 questions
  18. Build the argument from scene to whole workAnchor each body paragraph in a specific scene, turn evidence into commentary, and always finish by connecting the scene to the work as a whole.18 questions
  19. Run the full two-hour free-response sectionComplete a poetry, prose-drama, and Literary Argument essay in one timed two-hour section, then audit where your time went.3 questions
  20. Mix the skills and diagnose the errorPractice drama passages with no skill labels, classify each miss as scope, function, degree, inference, or complexity, and trace repeated errors to their source.28 questions
  21. Turn each missed question into one precise fixName each error with one of six labels, route it to a single correction, retest on fresh material, and rate your readiness before Practice Exam 1.6 questions

Full practice tests (4 parts)

  1. Practice Exam 1: Multiple ChoicePractice Exam 1 Section I: 55 multiple-choice questions on five passage sets, timed at 60 minutes, with rationales.55 questions
  2. Practice Exam 1: Free ResponsePractice Exam 1 Section II: three free-response essays (poetry, prose fiction, literary argument) in 120 minutes, with task-specific scoring guidance.3 questions
  3. Practice Exam 2: Multiple ChoicePractice Exam 2 Section I: 55 multiple-choice questions on five passage sets, timed at 60 minutes, with rationales.55 questions
  4. Practice Exam 2: Free ResponsePractice Exam 2 Section II: three free-response essays (poetry, prose fiction, literary argument) in 120 minutes, with task-specific scoring guidance.3 questions
Try free AP English Literature questionsFull course, $3.99/month

AP U.S. History and AP World History: Modern

The two history exams share the same structure:

SectionQuestionsTimeWeight
I-A: Multiple choice55, in sets of 3 to 4 per source55 minutes40%
I-B: Short answer (SAQ)3: two required, plus one of two options40 minutes20%
II: Document-based question (DBQ)1, with 7 documents60 minutes, including a 15-minute reading period25%
II: Long essay (LEQ)1, chosen from 3 options40 minutes15%

Multiple-choice questions are built around primary and secondary sources, such as speeches, maps, cartoons, charts, and historians’ arguments. Each SAQ is worth 3 points. The DBQ is scored out of 7: thesis, contextualization, evidence from the documents and beyond them, sourcing, and complexity. The LEQ is scored out of 6. Both essays ask you to argue using a historical reasoning skill: causation, comparison, or continuity and change.

AP U.S. History covers nine periods from 1491 to the present. AP World History: Modern covers nine units from c. 1200 to the present, across all regions of the world.

Inside the AP U.S. History course

The course starts with what the exam asks and why good answers lose points. It then works through all nine periods, with a review unit for each, and teaches the SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ in dedicated writing units. There are 268 written prompts across the course and 3 full practice exams.

See all 56 AP US History units

Lessons and skill units (50)

  1. What the AP U.S. History Exam Actually Asks You to DoThe four exam tasks, their timing and weight, what changed in the digital redesign, and why dates control which evidence counts.13 questions
  2. Why Good History Answers Still Lose PointsDates, prompt parts, and the ten recurring errors that cost points even when the history is accurate.11 questions
  3. A Continent Already Full of NationsNorth America in 1491: how geography shaped different Native societies, how surplus and trade built larger political systems, and how to read European sources.10 questions
  4. How 1492 Remade the Atlantic WorldThe Columbian Exchange, epidemics, why conquest was not a one-cause story, Spanish and French/Dutch systems, Native agency, and the expansion of Atlantic slavery.11 questions
  5. Unit 1 Review: The World Europeans Entered, 1491–1607Unit 1 review: key dates, the facts that explain how power shifted after 1492, 15 practice questions, and a source-based SAQ.16 questions
  6. Why England's Colonies Grew So DifferentlyHow the Chesapeake, New England, Middle, and Lower South colonies developed different economies, settlement patterns, and societies inside one empire.10 questions
  7. How Plantation Labor Became Racial SlaveryHow tobacco, indentured servitude, the headright system, hereditary slave law, and Atlantic trade moved Virginia from mixed bound labor toward racial slavery.10 questions
  8. How Colonists Learned to Govern Inside an EmpireLocal self-government, Native diplomacy and resistance, the Great Awakening, the Enlightenment, and salutary neglect before the imperial crisis of the 1760s.10 questions
  9. Unit 2 Review: Why British North America Split Into Distinct Regions, 1607–1754Unit 2 review: key dates, the facts that explain regional difference in British America, 20 practice questions, and a source-based SAQ on Bacon's Rebellion.21 questions
  10. Why Britain's Victory in 1763 Created a Colonial CrisisFrom the Seven Years' War to the First Continental Congress: how debt, western policy, taxation, and punishment turned colonial protest into intercolonial resistance.14 questions
  11. How Protest Became a War for IndependenceCommon Sense, the Declaration, republican fears, Saratoga and the French alliance, and the separate choices of Black Americans, Native nations, and Loyalists.10 questions
  12. How Far Did the Revolution Actually Change American Society?Northern gradual emancipation, republican motherhood, and growing pressure on Native land show a Revolution that changed political language faster than social power.10 questions
  13. How the Constitution Created a New Political FightThe Articles' strengths and limits, the Constitution's compromises, Federalists and Anti-Federalists, Hamilton versus Jefferson, and the rise of the first party system.11 questions
  14. How an Imperial Crisis Produced a New Republic, 1754–1800Unit 3 review: key dates, the facts that explain the new federal system, 25 practice questions, a secondary-source SAQ, and an LEQ on conflicts over political authority.27 questions
  15. What Jeffersonian Government Looked Like in PracticeLouisiana, the Embargo, the War of 1812, Marbury, McCulloch, the Missouri Compromise, and the Monroe Doctrine test how leaders used federal power against their own principles.13 questions
  16. How the Market Revolution Rewired Daily LifeCheaper transportation tied farms, factories, and banks to distant markets and prices, deepening regional specialization and spreading both opportunity and financial panic.10 questions
  17. Who Gained Power in the Age of Jackson?White male suffrage, mass parties, the Bank War, nullification, and Indian removal: why Jackson's use of power depended on the issue.10 questions
  18. Why Reform Exploded Before the Civil WarRevival religion, voluntary associations, abolitionism, enslaved resistance, and women's organizing, from the Second Great Awakening to Seneca Falls.12 questions
  19. What Changed in American Life Before 1848?Unit 4 review: key dates, the facts that explain the Market Revolution, Jacksonian democracy, and reform, and 12 practice questions on 1800–1848.12 questions
  20. Why New Western Land Made Slavery Harder to CompromiseManifest Destiny, the Mexican-American War, the Wilmot Proviso, Free Soil, popular sovereignty, and the Compromise of 1850: each step moved the slavery fight without ending it.10 questions
  21. How the 1850s Destroyed the Old Political SettlementKansas-Nebraska, Bleeding Kansas, the Republican rise, Dred Scott, Harpers Ferry, and the election of 1860 as connected stages of sectional breakdown.10 questions
  22. How the Union Turned a War for Union Into a War Against SlaveryUnion resources, contraband policy, the Emancipation Proclamation, Black soldiers, the home front, and the wartime Republican economic program.10 questions
  23. How Reconstruction Rewrote Citizenship Before Federal Protection CollapsedPresidential and Radical Reconstruction, the 13th-15th Amendments, Black political power, sharecropping, court limits, violence, and the end of federal enforcement in 1877.12 questions
  24. How Expansion Broke the Union, 1844–1877Unit 5 review: key dates, the facts that explain sectional crisis, war, emancipation, and Reconstruction, and 12 practice questions on 1844–1877.12 questions
  25. How Federal Expansion Remade the WestRailroads, land grants, and the Plains wars show how federal policy and private capital remade the West at the expense of Native sovereignty.10 questions
  26. Why Industrial Growth Produced a New Labor StruggleCorporate consolidation, new technology, and concentrated wealth set off a labor struggle in which workers organized and government usually sided with employers.10 questions
  27. How Migration Reshaped Gilded Age AmericaImmigration, urban growth, machine politics, nativism, and the New South's racial order reshaped the Gilded Age United States.10 questions
  28. Why Farmers Turned Economic Pain Into PoliticsFalling prices, debt, and the money question pushed farmers from the Grange to the Populists, shaping the 1896 election and early federal regulation.10 questions
  29. Who Held Power in the Gilded Age, 1865–1898?Unit 6 review: key dates, the facts that explain power in the Gilded Age, 12 practice questions, and LEQ and DBQ planning for 1865–1910.15 questions
  30. How National Power Expanded at the Turn of the CenturyOverseas expansion after 1898 and the Progressive Era both expanded national power, but their reach and fairness were uneven and contested.10 questions
  31. How World War I Changed the Reach of American PowerFrom neutrality to mobilization, repression of dissent, the Great Migration, and the failed peace, World War I expanded federal power at home and abroad.10 questions
  32. What Made the 1920s Feel Like a New America?Mass production, mass media, and consumer credit transformed the 1920s, while immigration restriction, the Klan, and culture wars exposed deep conflicts.11 questions
  33. Why the Great Depression Changed What Americans Expected From WashingtonThe Depression's causes, Hoover's limited response, and the New Deal's lasting but uneven expansion of federal responsibility.11 questions
  34. How World War II Created the Postwar United StatesFrom Lend-Lease to Hiroshima: mobilization, civil liberties and civil rights, the GI Bill, and the postwar order.10 questions
  35. How Crisis Enlarged the Federal Government, 1890–1945Unit 7 review: key dates, the facts that explain the new federal role from 1898 to 1945, and 15 practice questions.15 questions
  36. How containment became a global commitmentTrace containment from Kennan's selective strategy through the Truman Doctrine, NATO, NSC-68, Korea, and the decolonizing world, and see why the policy had limits.14 questions
  37. Why the 1950s were more uneasy than they lookedExplain the postwar boom, suburbanization, the uneven GI Bill, mass consumption, and the Second Red Scare, and see how prosperity and fear existed side by side.10 questions
  38. Why civil rights victory took decades of local organizingRebuild the civil rights movement from the NAACP's legal strategy and the Montgomery boycott to sit-ins, Birmingham, Selma, and the 1964 and 1965 laws, and see why 1965 was not the end.11 questions
  39. How the 1960s broke the postwar consensusConnect the Great Society, Vietnam, the Tet Offensive, 1968, and the new rights movements to explain how the decade's early optimism gave way to distrust and division.10 questions
  40. Why the 1970s changed what Americans expected from governmentFollow Nixon, Watergate, stagflation, the energy crisis, détente, Carter, and the cultural backlash to see how a conservative coalition took shape before 1980.11 questions
  41. Unit 8 review: How the Cold War reached into American lifeReview the four stories of 1945 to 1980: containment, uneven prosperity, the freedom struggle, and the loss of confidence that helped a conservative coalition grow.5 questions
  42. How the Reagan era reshaped policy before the Cold War endedSeparate Reagan's domestic and foreign-policy impact from the many causes of Soviet collapse: supply-side policy, PATCO, deindustrialization, Iran-Contra, Gorbachev, and 1989 to 1991.11 questions
  43. Why the end of the Cold War did not simplify American lifeMap the post-Cold War United States: the Gulf War, NATO and the Balkans, September 11, NAFTA, immigration, welfare reform, the 2008 crisis, health and climate policy, and continued global engagement.11 questions
  44. Unit 9 review: What the conservative turn changed after 1980Review three changes and three continuities from 1980 to the present, with a key-dates sequence, a Reagan continuity-and-change table, and SAQ practice on globalization.1 questions
  45. Earn each SAQ point with economical writingHow the three SAQs work, what each task verb requires, how to read each source type, and the four errors that cost points even when the facts are right.16 questions
  46. Make seven documents prove one argumentThe seven DBQ points, how to sort documents by the job they do, how to build a thesis that can carry them, and what real sourcing and complexity look like.11 questions
  47. Turn a broad LEQ into a focused argumentThe six LEQ points, how to narrow a broad prompt, sort evidence before drafting, make each paragraph prove something, and earn complexity with substance.11 questions
  48. Think historically before you writeComparison, causation, and continuity and change as ways of thinking, with worked drills on shared dimensions, triggers versus conditions, time spans, and combined arguments.14 questions
  49. Retrieve the whole course without notesA final-review plan: rebuild the nine-period chronology from memory, trace the eight themes and six evidence strands, and diagnose your own error patterns.5 questions
  50. Manage the digital exam in real timeBluebook basics, the time budget for each section, the test-day checklist, and habits for reading, typing, and recovering when a section goes wrong.5 questions

Full practice tests (6 parts)

  1. Practice Exam 1: Multiple-Choice SectionTake the 55-question, 55-minute multiple-choice section of AP U.S. History Practice Exam 1, then review the answer key and explanations.55 questions
  2. Practice Exam 1: Short-Answer, DBQ and Long EssayComplete the three short-answer questions, the document-based question, and the long essay of AP U.S. History Practice Exam 1, then score yourself with model answers.5 questions
  3. Practice Exam 2: Multiple-Choice SectionTake the 55-question, 55-minute multiple-choice section of AP U.S. History Practice Exam 2, then review the answer key and explanations.55 questions
  4. Practice Exam 2: Short-Answer, DBQ and Long EssayComplete the three short-answer questions, the document-based question, and the long essay of AP U.S. History Practice Exam 2, then score yourself with model answers.5 questions
  5. Practice Exam 3: Multiple-Choice SectionTake the 55-question, 55-minute multiple-choice section of AP U.S. History Practice Exam 3, then review the answer key and explanations.55 questions
  6. Practice Exam 3: Short-Answer, DBQ and Long EssayComplete the three short-answer questions, the document-based question, and the long essay of AP U.S. History Practice Exam 3, then score yourself with model answers.5 questions
Try free AP US History questionsFull course, $3.99/month

Inside the AP World History: Modern course

Units follow the course chronologically, from state building and trade networks to globalization after 1900. Each unit mixes stimulus-based multiple choice with SAQ and essay prompts. A final writing lab gives timed SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ practice, followed by 2 full practice exams.

See all 17 AP World History units

Lessons and skill units (13)

  1. Know the exam, read the source, use the evidenceThe 2027 digital AP World History exam format, the six historical reasoning skills, how to read sources, and how to turn a fact into evidence that proves a claim.Lesson
  2. State building and belief systems, c. 1200-1450How Song China, Dar al-Islam, South and Southeast Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Europe built states and used belief systems to legitimize power, with a comparison method.40 questions
  3. Afro-Eurasian trade networks, c. 1200-1450Silk Roads, Mongol rule, Indian Ocean and trans-Saharan trade, diffusion of religion and knowledge, and biological exchange, with a method for comparing networks.40 questions
  4. Cumulative review: Units 1-2Mixed retrieval, a cross-unit comparison, and a source sprint that tie together state building and trade networks, c. 1200-1450.12 questions
  5. Land empires, gunpowder, and imperial rule, c. 1450-1750Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, and Qing expansion and rule: gunpowder warfare, religion and legitimacy, elite incorporation, revenue, and how to compare empires.50 questions
  6. Maritime empires, the Columbian Exchange, and coerced laborUnit 4 (c. 1450-1750): maritime technology, the Columbian Exchange, Portuguese and Spanish empire building, silver, coerced labor, resistance, and continuity and change.43 questions
  7. Revolutions, nationalism, and the industrial worldUnit 5 (c. 1750-1900): Enlightenment rights, Atlantic revolutions, nationalism, industrialization in Britain, Japan, and Russia, labor and reform, and uneven social change.41 questions
  8. Industrial imperialism, resistance, and migrationUnit 6 (c. 1750-1900): motives for imperialism, the Scramble for Africa, resistance, export economies, informal empire in China, mass migration, and cumulative review of Units 1-6.43 questions
  9. Unit 7: Global conflict, revolution, and mass violence, c. 1900–1945Imperial collapse, two world wars, the Great Depression, and mass atrocity: the evidence for each, what it proves, and the chronology errors to avoid.41 questions
  10. Unit 8: Cold War rivalry and decolonization, c. 1945–1991Superpower rivalry, proxy wars, communist revolution, and the many paths of decolonization, with the evidence for each claim and the chronology traps to avoid.43 questions
  11. Unit 9: Globalization, technology, and international institutions after 1900Technology, disease, environment, trade institutions, rights movements, and culture: the evidence for how globalization connected the world unevenly, and how states stayed in charge.41 questions
  12. Final writing lab: timed SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ practiceA full 40-minute SAQ set, a seven-document DBQ, and a full LEQ under exam timing, with point-by-point scoring walkthroughs.5 questions
  13. Final review: chronology, comparisons, and evidenceA master timeline from c. 1200 to the present, the comparison dimensions the exam asks for, an evidence bank, and the chronology errors to check before exam day.1 questions

Full practice tests (4 parts)

  1. Practice Exam 1: Multiple ChoiceFull-length AP World History multiple-choice practice: 55 questions in 17 stimulus sets, 55 minutes, with the correct answers and explanations.55 questions
  2. Practice Exam 1: Free ResponseFull-length AP World History free-response practice: three short-answer questions, a DBQ with seven documents, and a long essay, with scoring walkthroughs.5 questions
  3. Practice Exam 2: Multiple ChoiceFull-length AP World History multiple-choice practice with a different regional and source mix: 55 questions, 55 minutes, with explanations.55 questions
  4. Practice Exam 2: Free ResponseFull-length AP World History free-response practice with a different regional and source mix: three short-answer questions, a DBQ, and a long essay, with scoring walkthroughs.5 questions
Try free AP World History questionsFull course, $3.99/month

AP U.S. Government and Politics

SectionQuestionsTimeWeight
I: Multiple choice55, including source-based sets1 hour 20 minutes50%
II: Free response4: concept application, quantitative analysis, SCOTUS comparison, argument essay1 hour 40 minutes50%

AP Gov covers the foundations of American democracy, the three branches and the bureaucracy, civil liberties and civil rights, political ideologies and beliefs, and political participation. The course framework names required foundational documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Federalist No. 10, and required Supreme Court cases, such as Marbury v. Madison and McCulloch v. Maryland, that you are expected to know. The four free-response questions ask you to apply a concept to a scenario, analyze data, compare a new Supreme Court case with a required one, and write an argument essay grounded in a foundational document.

Inside the AP U.S. Government course

The course follows the five framework units, from where authority comes from to how social media changed political information. It then teaches each free-response type step by step and ends with 3 full practice exams. There are 425 written prompts with scoring rubrics across the course.

See all 55 AP US Government units

Lessons and skill units (49)

  1. How the AP U.S. Government exam uses what you knowThe exam's structure, the four free-response tasks, the five skills, and what changes in the digital Bluebook format.8 questions
  2. What a complete AP Government answer must doCheck concept, actor, authority, evidence, and task verb so an accurate fact becomes a complete answer, with worked revision examples.Lesson
  3. Where American government gets its authorityNatural rights, popular sovereignty, limited government, republicanism, the three models of democracy, and how the Declaration differs from the Constitution.12 questions
  4. Why the Articles could not hold the Union togetherSix structural weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the collective-action problem, Shays' Rebellion, and how the Constitution responded.13 questions
  5. How the Constitution distributed power and left disputes openRatification rules, the Great, Three-Fifths, and Electoral College compromises, Article V, separation of powers, and the checks that make limited government enforceable.16 questions
  6. Madison, Brutus, and the argument over a large republicFederalist Nos. 10, 51, and 39 and Brutus No. 1: what problem each addresses and how to match a claim to the document that best supports it.12 questions
  7. Why states still matter in a national systemExclusive, reserved, and concurrent powers, the Supremacy Clause, fiscal federalism (grants and mandates), and federalism's multiple access points.13 questions
  8. Where federal power stopsMcCulloch v. Maryland and United States v. Lopez: the reach and limits of congressional power, conditional spending, Gonzales v. Raich, and the Fourteenth Amendment.19 questions
  9. Unit 1 Review: Where power comes fromA cumulative review and practice set for Unit 1: democratic ideals, the Articles, the Constitution, foundational documents, federalism, McCulloch, and Lopez.19 questions
  10. Why the House and Senate do not work the same wayCompare the House and Senate by terms, constituencies, debate rules, and exclusive powers, and learn to identify which chamber and which power a scenario describes.15 questions
  11. What moves a bill through CongressTrace a bill through committee, floor action, reconciliation, and presentment, and distinguish cloture, veto override, mandatory spending, pork, and logrolling.15 questions
  12. Why members of Congress face competing pressuresUse delegate, trustee, and politico models and the pulls of party, district, interest groups, and electoral timing to explain how members of Congress vote.15 questions
  13. How presidents use formal and informal powerSort presidential tools by constitutional or statutory source, from appointments, vetoes, and treaties to executive orders, signing statements, and persuasion.16 questions
  14. What can stop a presidentMatch each check on the president, from appropriations and oversight to judicial review, confirmation, impeachment, and elections, to the actor and tool that carry it out.17 questions
  15. Why presidents appeal directly to the publicExplain the bully pulpit, going public, and the State of the Union, and how presidential communication shapes congressional bargaining without changing the law.13 questions
  16. How judicial review limits elected branchesLearn how Marbury v. Madison established judicial review, what Federalist No. 78 says about judicial independence, and how standing and case-or-controversy rules limit the courts.16 questions
  17. How precedent shapes Supreme Court decisionmakingUnderstand stare decisis, certiorari, judicial activism and restraint, and how appointments and the other branches can respond to or limit Supreme Court decisions.18 questions
  18. Why agencies make policy after Congress actsFollow a statute from delegation through notice-and-comment rulemaking to judicial review, and learn iron triangles, issue networks, merit systems, and patronage.15 questions
  19. Who keeps the bureaucracy in checkIdentify how Congress, the president, courts, and inspectors general hold agencies accountable at the same time, from appropriations and GAO audits to OMB review.15 questions
  20. How one policy moves through all three branchesFollow a single clean-air policy from statute to agency rule to court challenge and back to Congress, and see why power is shared and accountability is diffuse.14 questions
  21. Unit 2 review: how institutions share powerReview Congress, the presidency, the judiciary, and the bureaucracy together, then test yourself on a stalled nomination and a full Unit 2 practice set.23 questions
  22. Why the Bill of Rights reaches the statesSeparate civil liberties from civil rights and trace how the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause carried the Bill of Rights to state governments through selective incorporation.13 questions
  23. Establishment and Free Exercise: know which clause you are inDistinguish the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses and apply Engel, Yoder, Smith, and Fulton to school and religious-burden scenarios.13 questions
  24. Match the setting to the speech standardApply Schenck, Brandenburg, Tinker, and New York Times Co. v. United States, and sort speech into the right category: symbolic speech, obscenity, defamation, and time-place-manner limits.17 questions
  25. Heller, McDonald, and who the right bindsKeep Heller, McDonald, Bruen, and Rahimi in their lanes: what the Second Amendment right is, which governments it binds, and how courts judge specific regulations.16 questions
  26. Procedure versus substance in due processSeparate procedural from substantive due process and apply Gideon, Miranda, the exclusionary rule, and privacy cases such as Griswold and Dobbs to rights-of-the-accused scenarios.18 questions
  27. How civil rights claims become policyTrace how protest, litigation, and legislation combine to turn rights claims into enforceable policy, from Letter from Birmingham Jail to Brown, the Civil Rights Act, and Title IX.16 questions
  28. When majority rule meets equal protectionUse Brown, Baker v. Carr, Shaw v. Reno, Rucho, strict scrutiny, and the affirmative-action debate to explain how Equal Protection limits what majorities may do.16 questions
  29. Unit 3 review: rights meet government powerReview the whole unit: incorporation, religion, speech, the Second Amendment, due process, social movements, and Equal Protection, anchored by the ten required cases, with a practice set.12 questions
  30. Why shared values do not produce one policy answerPolitical culture values, Adam Smith's four principles, and how to connect a value to a policy conclusion with a clear mechanism.15 questions
  31. Where political beliefs come fromPolitical socialization: family, school, peers, media, organizations and events, plus generational vs. life-cycle effects and group patterns.15 questions
  32. What a poll can and cannot showPopulation, sampling, poll types, question wording, margin of error, and the limits of what poll data can prove.15 questions
  33. How ideology becomes economic and social policyFiscal vs. monetary policy, Keynesian and supply-side approaches, and liberal, conservative and libertarian tendencies on markets and social policy.17 questions
  34. Unit 4 review and practice setReview of values, socialization, polling, and ideology as policy tools, with data, trend, and source analysis plus the book's Unit 4 practice set.16 questions
  35. Who can vote and who votesVoting rights versus voting behavior, franchise amendments, models of voting, and what turnout data and state election rules can show.18 questions
  36. Why the U.S. has a two-party systemParty functions, winner-take-all rules, realignment, candidate-centered campaigns, and how third parties and major parties interact.15 questions
  37. How interest groups influence governmentInterest-group routes to influence, resources, free riders, iron triangles and issue networks, and Federalist No. 10.15 questions
  38. Why presidential and congressional elections produce different strategiesThe Electoral College, primaries and conventions, reapportionment versus redistricting, and how different maps change campaign strategy.17 questions
  39. What campaign money can and cannot doPersuasion versus mobilization, contributions versus independent expenditures, BCRA, Citizens United, and why spending does not guarantee wins.15 questions
  40. How news media shape political attentionAgenda setting, the watchdog function, framing, horse-race coverage, and the limits of claims about media effects.13 questions
  41. How social media changed political informationGatekeeping, direct communication, targeting, selective exposure, fragmentation, credibility, and what 2024 Pew data can and cannot show.16 questions
  42. Unit 5 review and practice setReview of voting, parties, interest groups, elections, campaign money, and media, with a concept application and the book's Unit 5 practice set.20 questions
  43. Read the verb, find the mechanism, then apply the conceptLearn to find the actor, action, and consequence in a scenario, name the concept precisely, and obey each part's task verb in the three-point Concept Application question.13 questions
  44. Read political data without inventing a claimIdentify variables and denominators, describe patterns, draw only supported conclusions, and connect data to a course concept in the four-point Quantitative Analysis question.14 questions
  45. Compare a new Supreme Court case with one you knowRecall the required case accurately, name the shared constitutional basis, compare facts and holdings explicitly, and connect the unfamiliar case to the named concept in SCOTUS Comparison.12 questions
  46. Build an argument from a foundational documentChoose evidence from the prompt's listed documents, explain why it supports your thesis, and answer a genuine alternative perspective to earn all six Argument Essay points.12 questions
  47. Applied civics project: trace one route to government actionA seven-step project: pose a neutral research question, map course concepts, gather four sources, analyze, complete a civic activity, state a finding, and present it.1 questions
  48. What you should know without notesA closed-notes final review: thirteen foundational documents, fourteen required cases, branch powers and checks, the four FRQ jobs, and current cases kept in context.12 questions
  49. Manage the digital exam in real timePlan your three hours: pace 55 multiple-choice questions and four free-response tasks, use Bluebook features well, and recover from hard items.10 questions

Full practice tests (6 parts)

  1. Practice Exam 1: Section I, Multiple ChoiceFull-length Section I practice: 55 multiple-choice questions in 80 minutes, with the answer key and rationales.55 questions
  2. Practice Exam 1: Section II, Free ResponseFull-length Section II practice: concept application, quantitative analysis, SCOTUS comparison, and an argument essay, with scoring notes and model responses.4 questions
  3. Practice Exam 2: Section I, Multiple ChoiceFull-length Section I practice: 55 multiple-choice questions in 80 minutes, with the answer key and rationales.55 questions
  4. Practice Exam 2: Section II, Free ResponseFull-length Section II practice: concept application, quantitative analysis, SCOTUS comparison, and an argument essay, with scoring notes and model responses.4 questions
  5. Practice Exam 3: Section I, Multiple ChoiceFull-length Section I practice: 55 multiple-choice questions in 80 minutes, with the answer key and rationales.55 questions
  6. Practice Exam 3: Section II, Free ResponseFull-length Section II practice: concept application, quantitative analysis, SCOTUS comparison, and an argument essay, with scoring notes and model responses.4 questions
Try free AP US Government questionsFull course, $3.99/month

Planning for the SAT or ACT as well? See the SAT guide, the ACT guide, or our SAT vs ACT comparison.

AP exam questions, answered

What is a passing score on an AP exam?

AP exams are scored from 1 to 5. The College Board describes a 3 as “qualified,” and many colleges treat 3 as the minimum for credit or placement. Many selective colleges set the bar at 4 or 5, and some give placement but no credit. Each college sets its own policy.

When are AP exams?

AP exams are given over two weeks in May, usually the first two full weeks of the month, with a late-testing window shortly after. Each exam has a fixed date and time. Check the College Board’s AP exam calendar for this year’s schedule.

Are AP exams digital?

Many are. AP English Language, AP English Literature, AP U.S. History, AP World History: Modern, and AP U.S. Government are given fully digitally in the Bluebook app, with essays typed in the app. Students with approved accommodations may test on paper. Check the College Board for your exam’s current format.

Do I need to take the AP class to take the AP exam?

No. Any student can take an AP exam, though most take it after a year-long AP course. Students who self-study need to arrange registration with a school that offers the exam, through its AP coordinator.

How do I register for AP exams?

Through your school’s AP coordinator, usually in the fall, using your My AP account. Late registration typically costs extra. Ask your coordinator for your school’s deadlines and fees.

When do AP scores come out?

AP scores are usually released in early July and are available in your College Board account. You can choose a college to receive your scores, and send more later.

How should I prepare for an AP exam?

Learn the course content through the year, then shift to exam practice in the spring. Do timed multiple-choice sets, write free-response answers under time, and score them against the official rubric categories. Take at least one full practice exam before May.