AP CALCULUS BCThe Exam

Exam Overview

Exam questions assess the course concepts and skills outlined in the course framework. For more information, download the AP Calculus AB and BC Course and Exam Description (CED).

Encourage your students to visit the AP Calculus BC student page for exam information.

Digital Practice and Testing Information

Updated April 8

Digital Practice Now Available

Starting April 8, students can try out the test-day experience by answering example questions in the digital testing application. See the Digital Practice page for general information about practice options.

AP Calculus BC students will have two options to answer example questions in the digital testing application. Both provide approximately the same time limit per question as the full exam.

• Digital Practice has shortened sections, as follows:
  • Multiple choice, calculator not required: 10 questions, 20 minutes
  • Multiple choice, graphing calculator required: 4 questions, 12 minutes
  • Free response, graphing calculator required: 2 questions, 30 minutes
  • Free response, calculator not required: 1 question, 15 minutes
• The App Demo is an even shorter subset of the questions in Digital Practice–5 multiple-choice questions, a 2-minute break, and 1 free-response question.

We highly recommend all students take the Digital Practice, and strongly advise that if they can’t take the Digital Practice, they at least take the App Demo. Both can be taken multiple times, and can be accessed directly in the digital testing application. Students can access their answers and solution materials (MCQ answer key, FRQ scoring guidelines) for the Digital Practice. Note: Taking the App Demo after completing Digital Practice may override student answers from Digital Practice. Teachers can also access digital practice from the teacher dashboard, available beginning April 22.

Taking the Digital Exam

Students should be aware of some aspects of testing digitally that they’ll encounter—in the Digital Practice and on exam day:

• As a reminder, students will answer all multiple-choice questions and type all free-response answers directly in the digital exam application. Scratch paper is permitted for notes or planning, but students cannot handwrite or otherwise upload responses.
  • The free-response questions won’t require students to draw diagrams, charts, or complicated mathematical expressions. All responses can be typed on a regular computer keyboard, along with a selection of additional characters that can be accessed by clicking the Omega button on the toolbar:

    

• However, to accommodate the digital exam format, tasks on free-response questions on the digital exam may be slightly different than students are used to seeing on FRQs. These will include some tasks that resemble multiple-choice questions and/or provide labels for expressions or equations students can refer to in their answers rather than writing them out. Digital Practice questions in the digital testing application will have examples of these tasks.
• Some free-response question prompts reference a specific question part. Students can click on the » symbol shown in the prompt to automatically scroll to the referenced location.
• A graphing calculator is required for the digital exam. However, students will need to bring their own calculator because the digital testing application does not include one.
• As a reminder, students cannot go back to questions they’ve already answered, and cannot skip ahead.
• However, free-response questions will each be presented in multiple parts, and students will answer each part on a separate screen. They may move among the parts of the question currently being answered, with the Back and Next buttons. Once they’ve entered their response to the last part of a question, they won’t be able to go back to any part of that question.
• Exam directions and section-specific directions will not be read by a proctor–they’ll appear entirely in the application. Students will see them at the beginning of each section, and can access them at any time during the exam. Please note that the exam timer starts when the directions appear. While students should read the directions, they should be aware that the timer will be running while they do so. Teachers and students can view the full text of the exam and section directions in advance of the exam.

More information about taking digital exams is available in the Digital Testing Guide.

Digital Exam Readiness Dashboard

Beginning April 22, AP teachers and AP coordinators will have access to a new digital exam readiness dashboard. Teachers and coordinators will access the dashboard from their personalized AP login page (after signing in through AP Central or through myap.collegeboard.org). The dashboard can be used to monitor students’ progress in taking the steps necessary before and on exam day to enable them to take a digital exam. See details in the “Preparing for Digital AP Exams” section of the AP Digital Testing Guide.

Exam Format

The AP Calculus BC Exam has consistent question types, weighting, and scoring guidelines every year, so you and your students know what to expect on exam day.

Note on 2021 exams: There are differences between the paper and digital versions of some 2021 AP Exams, and those variations differ by course. The information below applies to AP Calculus BC only. View a summary of all 2021 AP Exam formats.

The AP Calculus BC digital exam will include:

• The same number of multiple-choice questions as the paper exam
• 6 adapted free-response questions, the same number as on the paper exam

Free-response questions on the digital exam will be adapted to be answered entirely on a regular computer keyboard in the digital testing application, which will include a selection of special characters students may use. They will consist of familiar tasks that could appear on a traditional AP Exam, but may also include some tasks that resemble multiple-choice questions and/or provide labels for expressions or equations students can refer to in their answers. Students will not need to draw diagrams, charts, or complicated mathematical expressions. Students will see examples of these adapted FRQs when they answer example questions in the digital testing application.

On the paper exam, calculators are not allowed in Section I Part A and Section II Part B, per the AP Exam Calculator Policy. On the digital exam, calculators will be permitted on all sections.

Educators and students will be able to practice answering multiple-choice questions as well as these adapted free-response questions within the 2021 digital exam app, available in early April.

Section I: Multiple Choice
45 Questions | 1 Hour 45 minutes | 50% of Exam Score

• Part A: 30 questions; 60 minutes (calculator not permitted on paper and pencil exam).
• Part B: 15 questions; 45 minutes (graphing calculator required).
• Questions include algebraic, exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric, and general types of functions.
• Questions include analytical, graphical, tabular, and verbal types of representations.

Section II: Free Response
6 Questions | 1 Hour 30 Minutes | 50% of Exam Score

• Part A: 2 questions; 30 minutes (graphing calculator required).
• Part B: 4 questions; 60 minutes (calculator not permitted on paper and pencil exam).
• Questions include various types of functions and function representations and a roughly equal mix of procedural and conceptual tasks.
• Questions include at least two questions that incorporate a real-world context or scenario into the question.

Exam Questions and Scoring Information

2020 (Last Year’s) Free-Response Questions

Last year’s free-response questions are available in the AP Classroom question bank for teachers to assign to students as homework or in class, and do not require secure assessment using the LockDown Browser. Since the 2020 exams had to be designed for highly unusual circumstances, these questions were updated, where possible, to best match the format of free-response questions in the course and exam description and on traditional AP Exams.

Sign in to AP Classroom to access resources including personal progress checks and a question bank with topic questions and practice exams aligned to the current course and exam.

To preserve the large number of new FRQs for teacher use, only teachers have access to the 2020 FRQs.If you are a higher education faculty member interested in seeing questions, please fill out this request form.

2019 Free-Response Questions

For free-response questions (FRQs) from the 2019 exam, along with scoring information, check out the table below.

Be sure to review the Chief Reader Report. In this invaluable resource, the chief reader of the AP Exam compiles feedback from members of the AP Reading leadership to explain how students performed on the FRQs, summarize typical student errors, and address the specific concepts and content that were most challenging for students.