Entering an AP CSA practice exam
Put your correct multiple-choice answers in the first box, out of 42. For the four Java questions, College Board’s scoring guidelines list specific points (for example, a correct loop over all elements, or a correct return value) plus one or two “algorithm” points that need the whole solution in a sensible order. Some slips don’t cost a point, such as a missing semicolon where the structure is clear or = written for ==; the guidelines list which. So score your code against those rules, not by whether it would compile.
For a realistic practice set, use College Board’s 2026 free-response questions, which match today’s four question types, and the full-length practice exams in the Bluebook app, since the real exam is taken there with the Java Quick Reference on screen. Older released questions still make good Java practice; score them with their own guidelines and scale each to the current question’s maximum before entering it.
Inside the wide 4 band
Thirty multiple-choice answers with 5, 5, 3 and 4 on the free response land at about 70%: a 4, more than seven points below the 5 line at 77.5%. On CSA the “For a 5” line under your result matters more than the score itself, because it counts the answers or points still missing. Below the band the steps are short, a 3 from 47 and a 2 from 37 on Fiveable’s chart. For the other computer science exam, see the CS Principles calculator.
AP Computer Science A exam format, May 2027
| Part | Scored out of | Share of score |
|---|---|---|
| Section I: Multiple choice · 1 h 30 min · 55% | ||
| Multiple-choice questions correct | 42 | 55% |
| Section II: Free response · 1 h 30 min · 45% | ||
| Question 1 · Methods and control structures, 0–7 | 7 | 12.6% |
| Question 2 · Class design, 0–7 | 7 | 12.6% |
| Question 3 · Data analysis with ArrayList, 0–5 | 5 | 9% |
| Question 4 · 2D array, 0–6 | 6 | 10.8% |
Estimated cutoffs
Estimated cutoffs from Fiveable's published chart (2027), not College Board — we found no official College Board chart for this exam. Source: Fiveable's AP Computer Science A score calculator (2027), which uses the May 2027 format, on a 100-point composite with College Board's weights. The calculator reads your weighted score against that chart's 0–100 scale.
| AP score | Fiveable composite | Weighted score from |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 78–100 | 77.5% |
| 4 | 58–77 | 57.5% |
| 3 | 47–57 | 46.5% |
| 2 | 37–46 | 36.5% |
| 1 | 0–36 | 0% |
AP Computer Science A score distributions
| Year | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | 25% | 26% | 15% | 11% | 23% |
| May 2025 | 25.6% | 21.8% | 19.8% | 10.9% | 22.0% |
Share of students earning each score, from College Board's AP Computer Science A score distributions. 93,217 students took the exam in May 2025. The May 2026 figures are College Board's rounded whole percentages.