Entering an AP Precalculus practice exam
Two multiple-choice boxes: correct answers out of 29 for the no-calculator Part A, out of 13 for the calculator Part B. Each free-response question gets 0 to 6 from its scoring guidelines, and those guidelines are strict about presentation: a decimal answer must be accurate to three places, and the first decimal presentation error on a question costs its point. Apply that rule to your own work, or the estimate will run high.
Every free-response set since the first exam in 2024 uses the same four question types: function concepts, modeling a non-periodic context, modeling a periodic context and symbolic manipulations. Question 2 changes for May 2027 (one part dropped, another widened), so practise it with the 2026 guidelines.
How far you are from the next score
Twenty Part A answers, 8 Part B answers and 3 points on each free-response question add up to about 60%, between Fiveable’s 4 line (53.5%) and its 5 line (66.5%). Results so far have been kind, with 29% earning a 5 last May (2026), but the exam has only three years of results behind it, so Fiveable’s lines (a 5 from 67 of 100) have little history to lean on. If you go on to calculus, the Calculus AB calculator has the same two-part multiple choice on an official College Board chart.
AP Precalculus exam format, May 2027
| Part | Scored out of | Share of score |
|---|---|---|
| Section I: Multiple choice · 1 h 45 min · 62.5% | ||
| Part A correct · No calculator, 65 minutes | 29 | 43.8% |
| Part B correct · Graphing calculator, 40 minutes | 13 | 18.8% |
| Section II: Free response · 1 h 10 min · 37.5% | ||
| Question 1 · Function concepts, calculator, 0–6 | 6 | 9.4% |
| Question 2 · Modeling a non-periodic context, calculator, 0–6 | 6 | 9.4% |
| Question 3 · Modeling a periodic context, no calculator, 0–6 | 6 | 9.4% |
| Question 4 · Symbolic manipulations, no calculator, 0–6 | 6 | 9.4% |
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 Precalculus 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 | 67–100 | 66.5% |
| 4 | 54–66 | 53.5% |
| 3 | 42–53 | 41.5% |
| 2 | 31–41 | 30.5% |
| 1 | 0–30 | 0% |
AP Precalculus score distributions
| Year | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | 29% | 29% | 24% | 11% | 7% |
| May 2025 | 28.1% | 25.8% | 26.8% | 11.2% | 8.0% |
Share of students earning each score, from College Board's AP Precalculus score distributions. 253,596 students took the exam in May 2025. The May 2026 figures are College Board's rounded whole percentages.