AP test scores range from 5 (highest)
to 1 (lowest). Depending upon your school, 3 is
usually considered the cut-off for college credit. AP tests are graded on a curve, so there is
no way to determine exactly how many points you need for a 5, for a 4, for a 3,
etc. In general, the grade curve on an
AP test is not as high as on a regular test (rather than needing 90%-100% for a
5, you might need only 75% or above).
The AP test is 3 hours, 5 minutes long and is divided into two
sections. There is a short break between the two sections of the test, you CANNOT start on the essays if you finish the
multiple-choice questions early.
Section I consists of 80 multiple-choice questions and lasts 55
minutes. This section counts for
one-half of your exam score.
Section
II includes one
document-based question (DBQ) and two additional essay questions
(continuity/change over-time essay and comparative essay). Students get a total
of 130 minutes for this section (10 minute reading period and 120 minute
writing period). This section counts for
one-half of your exam score. This is
further broken down in that the Document-Based Question is 45% of the free
response section grade, and each of the other two essays count as 27.5% of this
score.
There
are 80 multiple-choice questions and a time limit of 55 minutes, which works
out to about 40 seconds per question.
To receive a grade
of 3, you must answer about 60 percent of the questions correctly, in addition
to doing acceptable work on the broader questions in the free-response section.
The AP test covers all of
American history from the European exploration to the present, but most of the
questions deal with the 1800s-1900s. The historical make-up of the questions is
as follows
·
20% -
European exploration - Washington's first term (1789)
·
45% -
Washington's first term (1790) - U.S. entering World War I (1914)
·
35% - U.S.
entering World War I (1914) – Present
The AP test covers the following topics in American history
·
35% - politics institutions, behavior, and public policy
·
40% - social and cultural developments
·
15% - diplomacy and international relations
·
10% - economic developments
60 minutes are allotted to the
document-based question. The first 15 minutes are for reading the question and
documents and planning your essay. The last 45 minutes are for writing the
essay. During 15 minutes, you can (and probably should) take a look at the next
four essay questions and start thinking about which two you would like to
answer. However, you cannot start writing your essay until the 15 minutes are
up.
The D.B.Q.
question consists of a statement and a time period, such as, "To what extent
did the status of Blacks in America change during the period from
1940-1980?" Sometimes the question will include subtopics, as in, "To
what extent did the social, political, and economic status of Blacks in America
change during the period from 1940-1980?"
There are generally nine
documents following the question, all of which date from the time period of the
question. Most of the documents are short written excerpts, about 1-3
paragraphs in length. They may be parts of laws, court case rulings, official
declarations, presidential addresses, editorials, speeches, books, or personal
letters. Not all of the documents will be written excerpts; generally a D.B.Q.
will include at least one or two political cartoons, pictures, charts, graphs, or maps.
There are four additional essay questions
following the document-based question. You must answer one from each pair of
questions (2 or 3 and 4 or 5). This section of the test is 70 minutes long; it
is recommended that you spend 5 minutes planning and 30 minutes writing each
essay.