AP MACROECONOMICSThe Exam

Exam Overview

Exam questions assess the course concepts and skills outlined in the course framework. For more information on exam weighting, refer to the Exam Overview section in the AP Macroeconomics Course and Exam Description (CED). Scoring guidelines for each of the sample free-response questions in the CED are also available.

Encourage your students to visit the AP Macroeconomics student page for exam information and exam practice.

Exam Format

The overall format of the AP Macroeconomics Exam – including the weighting, timing and number of questions – isn’t changing, so you and your students know what to expect on exam day. However, beginning with the 2020 exam, rather than having a variable number of points on the free-response section of the exam, the total number of possible points for the free-response section will be set at 20: 10 points for the long question and 5 points for each short question. Also, the skills defined in the CED will be assessed in the same proportions on all versions of the AP Macroeconomics Exam. (Currently, because there aren't any defined course skills, the assessed skills vary.) And, starting in the 2019-20 school year, students will be required to show their work when prompted to perform a calculation in the free-response section of the exam. (This is already required on the AP Microeconomics Exam.)

Section I: Multiple Choice

60 Questions | 1 Hour 10 Minutes | 66% of Exam Score

Questions require the use of economics content knowledge and reasoning across the range of course topics and skills in skill categories 1, 2, and 3.

Section II: Free Response

3 Questions | 1 Hour (includes a 10-minute reading period) | 33% of Exam Score

• 1 long free-response question (50% of section score).
• 2 short free-response questions (each worth 25% of section score).
• Students will be asked to:
  • Make assertions about economic concepts, principles, models, outcomes, and/or effects
  • Explain economic concepts, principles, models, outcomes, and/or effects
  • Perform numerical analysis
  • Create graphs or visual representations

Exam Questions and Scoring Information

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 specific concepts and content with which students have struggled the most that year.

New Exam Resources

Beginning in August 2019, you’ll have access to the full range of questions from past exams in AP Classroom. You’ll have access to:

• an online library of AP questions relevant to your course
• personal progress checks with new formative questions                
• a dashboard to display results from progress checks and provide real-time insights