Entering a Calculus AB practice exam
The Calculus AB exam has two halves of equal weight. Section I is multiple choice: Part A, 29 questions in 62 minutes without a calculator, and Part B, 13 questions in 38 minutes that need a graphing calculator. Section II is free response: two questions with a calculator, then four without, each scored 0 to 9 on College Board’s scoring guidelines.
Count the multiple-choice questions you got right in each part and enter them separately. For the free-response questions, score each part of your answer against the official scoring guidelines for that year, which list what earns each of the 9 points. The points are spread over the parts of a question, so a setup written down still earns credit when you can’t finish the last step.
Why the Calculus AB estimate holds up fairly well
Calculus AB is one of the better-matched subjects on this calculator. The 2012 practice exam behind the cutoffs had 45 multiple-choice questions where today’s has 42, but the same 50/50 split between sections and the same six 9-point free-response questions, so its composite scale carries over with little stretching. What changed since is mostly the 2027 trim of three multiple-choice questions and five minutes.
Each Part A question is worth about 1.21 percentage points and each free-response point about 0.93. That’s why the next-step line often finds the shortest way up in multiple choice: two or three more correct answers can be worth more than a whole extra free-response part. Even so, a result marked “close to” the next score could land either side on exam day.
Taking BC as well? The Calculus BC calculator uses BC’s own 2012 chart, which sits a little higher.
AP Calculus AB exam format, May 2027
| Part | Scored out of | Share of score |
|---|---|---|
| Section I: Multiple choice · 1 h 40 min · 50% | ||
| Part A correct · No calculator, 62 minutes | 29 | 35% |
| Part B correct · Graphing calculator, 38 minutes | 13 | 15% |
| Section II: Free response · 1 h 30 min · 50% | ||
| Question 1 · Part A, calculator | 9 | 8.3% |
| Question 2 · Part A, calculator | 9 | 8.3% |
| Question 3 · Part B, no calculator | 9 | 8.3% |
| Question 4 · Part B, no calculator | 9 | 8.3% |
| Question 5 · Part B, no calculator | 9 | 8.3% |
| Question 6 · Part B, no calculator | 9 | 8.3% |
Estimated cutoffs
From the 2012 AP Calculus AB Practice Exam, scoring worksheet, College Board's newest published conversion chart for this subject (2012 exam: 45 multiple-choice questions (50%) and 6 free-response questions of 9 points (50%)). The calculator puts your weighted score on that chart's 0–108 scale.
| AP score | 2012 composite | Weighted score from |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 67–108 | 61.6% |
| 4 | 54–66 | 49.5% |
| 3 | 41–53 | 37.5% |
| 2 | 33–40 | 30.1% |
| 1 | 0–32 | 0% |
AP Calculus AB score distributions
| Year | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | 20% | 28% | 17% | 24% | 11% |
| May 2025 | 20.3% | 28.9% | 15.0% | 22.8% | 13.0% |
Share of students earning each score, from College Board's AP Calculus AB score distributions. 285,891 students took the exam in May 2025. The May 2026 figures are College Board's rounded whole percentages.