AP Exam Playbook

The AP Calculus AB exam is on Monday, May 10, 2027, in the morning session. At most schools in the U.S. it starts at 8 a.m. local time. Some places, including some schools outside the U.S., use a different time, so check with your AP coordinator. AP Calculus BC is given at the same time, and you can't take both AB and BC in the same year.

The exam takes 3 hours and 10 minutes and has 48 questions: 42 multiple-choice and 6 free-response. The two sections count equally. Multiple choice is half your score, and free response is the other half.

That's a little over 2 minutes per question in multiple-choice Part A, a little under 3 minutes per question in Part B, and about 15 minutes per free-response question.

Screen for multiple choice, paper for free response

The exam is hybrid digital. Here's what that means in practice:

• You answer the multiple-choice questions in the Bluebook app. Each one has four answer choices, A to D.
• The free-response questions appear in Bluebook, but you write your answers by hand in a paper booklet, in pencil or in black or dark-blue pen. Only what's in that booklet is scored. Scratch paper isn't.
• Each part has its own time limit. Within a part, you can move between its questions until time runs out.
• The on-screen clock turns red when 5 minutes are left. Nobody announces it, so glance at the clock now and then.
• There's no formula sheet. The derivatives, integrals and theorems you need have to come from memory.

Expect every kind of function you've studied: algebraic, exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric, and functions known only by a name like f or g. They come as formulas, graphs, tables and descriptions in words. In multiple-choice Part B, not every question needs the calculator. Of the six free-response questions, at least two are set in a real-world situation, and about half of the work is carrying out procedures while the other half is explaining and reasoning.

What to bring

• Up to two graphing calculators from the College Board's approved list, with fresh batteries or a full charge. (Bluebook's built-in Desmos calculator is there too; see Calculator skills below.)
• Pencils, or black or dark-blue pens, for the free-response booklet.
• Anything else your AP coordinator asks for. They confirm the start time, the room and how Bluebook is set up at your school.

Before May, try a Bluebook test preview so the app and its calculator feel familiar. The College Board plans to post full-length sample free-response booklets for 2027 in early 2027.

Each of the 6 free-response questions is worth 9 points, 54 points in all, and together they're half your score. A question usually has 3 or 4 lettered parts worth 1 to 3 points each.

The graders (the College Board calls them readers) score each point on its own. Since 2025, the scoring guidelines number the points in every question, P1 to P9, and give each one a short name for what it rewards: a setup, an answer, a reason. That's good news for you. A question you can't finish can still earn most of its points, as long as you write down every piece you can.

The kinds of points

Points are often linked. A reason point usually needs the correct answer it supports, and some points are only available if an earlier one was earned. In a separation-of-variables part, for example, the points usually build on each other: if you never separate the variables, none of them can be earned, and leaving out the constant of integration limits how many you can get. One bad first step can cost a whole part, so slow down at the start.

Show the work: no bald answers

A bald answer is a value with nothing behind it. On a no-calculator part it usually earns the answer point at most, and sometimes nothing at all: an unsupported Riemann-sum value, or "yes, by the IVT" with no values, can score zero. If a part says justify, explain or show the work, the work is what's being scored.

You don't have to simplify. Once you've written a correct numerical expression you can usually stop, and a later arithmetic slip often won't cost the answer point. But a few parts do count errors made while simplifying, and an expression a reader can't read one way only (unmatched parentheses, for instance) earns nothing. Write the clean expression, then simplify only if it's easy.

Justify with calculus, and check the conditions

A justification is a reason built from the information you're given: the sign of a derivative, the values of a function, a theorem whose conditions you've checked. Name the function every time. "It", "the function", "the graph" or "the slope" with no name attached don't earn reason points. A sign chart on its own doesn't either: say in words or symbols what the sign is, on which interval, and what that tells you.

That last one trips up a lot of students. On two 2025 AB questions, only about 7% and 15% of students earned the point for justifying an absolute extremum (College Board, 2025 Chief Reader Report).

You don't have to name a theorem if its conditions and conclusion are clear. But if you name one, it has to be the right one. Mixing up the Intermediate Value Theorem (about values of f) and the Mean Value Theorem (about values of f′) is a classic way to lose a point.

Notation and linkage

• Use = only between things that are equal. A chain like f′(x) = 2x = 6 claims that 2x is always 6; write f′(3) = 2(3) = 6 instead. Errors like this come up every year.
• Write a definite integral in full: the integrand in parentheses, the limits, and dx (or dt). Never put ∫ in front of an antiderivative you've already found.
• Use ≈ for estimates, such as Riemann sums and tangent-line approximations.
• Keep dy/dx and dy/dt straight, and don't write a bare dy.
• Write lim in front of every expression in a chain of limits, including the one after you use L'Hospital's Rule.
• Use the names you're given. ∫₁⁴ (f(x) − g(x)) dx is enough, and it's safer than substituting long formulas, where parentheses get dropped.
• Label each part (a), (b) and so on, and label any function, graph or table you use.
• Copy given functions carefully. Re-read the formula before you differentiate it.
• Answer exactly what's asked. If the question asks for x-values, give x-values, not points. An extra wrong answer, like one inflection point too many, can cost both the answer and the reason.
• Extra work has to be right too. A wrong value you didn't need can still cost a point.

Decimals: three places, and no early rounding

• Give decimal answers correct to three places after the decimal point, unless the question asks for something else (like the nearest whole number). Rounding and truncating both work: 1.29583… can be written 1.296 or 1.295. 1.3 and 1.30 aren't accurate enough.
• Within one question you lose at most one point for rounding. It's still a point, so don't give it away.
• Don't round in the middle. Store intermediate values in your calculator and use the stored value in the next step.
• Any intermediate value you write down, like the place where two curves cross, has to be correct to three decimal places itself.

Units and "interpret" answers

When a question asks for units, they're a point of their own, and you can earn it even with a wrong number. A derivative's units are output units per input unit. An integral of a rate is an amount: rate units times time units. So if R(t) is in liters per minute and t is in minutes, R′(t) is in liters per minute per minute, and ∫₀¹⁰ R(t) dt is in liters.

An interpretation needs three things: what the value measures in the situation, its units, and when (at a specific time, or over a specific interval). Answer exactly what was asked: "the rate is increasing" and "the amount is increasing" are different claims.

When something goes wrong

• Use your earlier answers, even ones you doubt. If part (b) needs your value from part (a), use it: work that's consistent with a wrong earlier answer can still earn the later points.
• Stuck on a part? Move on. Later parts often stand on their own, and you can start fresh from the information in the question.
• Short on time? Write the setup. A correct integral or equation can earn its point even without the value.
• Cross out work you don't want graded with a single line instead of spending time erasing. Crossed-out work isn't scored.
• Commit to one answer. If two different answers to the same part are left standing, the reader won't pick the better one for you.

Before you leave a question

1. 1Did I answer what was asked, in the form it asked for: a value, an x-value, an interval, a sentence?
2. 2Is every number backed by work, and every calculator result by its setup?
3. 3Does every reason name its function, and check the conditions of any theorem I used?
4. 4Three decimal places? Units, if the question asked for them?
5. 5Is there a stray extra answer, or an = that isn't true?

You need a graphing calculator in two parts only: multiple-choice Part B and free-response Part A. In those parts Bluebook has a built-in Desmos graphing calculator, and you can also bring up to two approved handheld graphing calculators. The rest of the exam is calculator-free.

Every approved calculator can do four things, and these four are the only calculator results you can use without showing the steps. Practice them until they're automatic:

1. 1Graph a function in a window you choose.
2. 2Solve an equation numerically, which includes finding where a function equals zero.
3. 3Find the value of a derivative at a point.
4. 4Find the value of a definite integral.

What to write when you use it

On a free-response question, write the setup in ordinary math notation (the equation you solved, the derivative you evaluated, or the integral you computed), then the result. Calculator commands aren't math notation and don't earn the setup point. Anything beyond the four skills, such as a built-in maximum finder, a regression, a table search or a program, doesn't count as a reason: show the calculus instead.

Desmos in Bluebook (multiple choice, Part B)

• Try the built-in Desmos in a Bluebook test preview before exam day. The Desmos website and app aren't allowed during the exam, but you can practice the same skills there.
• Define a function once, like f(x) = …, and reuse it: type f'(2) for the derivative's value at 2, and type int to start a definite integral.
• To solve an equation, graph each side as its own curve and tap the point where they cross. For zeros, tap where the graph crosses the x-axis.
• Set the window with the zoom buttons or the graph settings, then zoom out once to make sure you haven't missed a crossing.
• A point's label can show only a few decimal places. If two answer choices are close, zoom in on the point to see more digits.
• Desmos works in radians unless its settings are switched to degrees. Leave it in radians.
• Not every Part B question needs the calculator. If you can see the answer, take it and save the time.

Your handheld (free response, Part A)

In free-response Part A you can use the built-in Desmos or a handheld calculator. If you use a handheld:

• Set radian mode before the exam, and check it again when Part A starts.
• Enter each given function once, in the calculator's function list, and evaluate from there instead of retyping a long formula.
• Store intermediate results in a memory variable (A, B, and so on) instead of copying a rounded number, and use the stored value in the next step.
• Learn where your model keeps each of the four tools, and practice until you reach them without hunting through menus.
• Write the setup in the booklet first, then compute. If the calculator gives something odd, the setup shows what you meant.
• Bring fresh batteries or a full charge. A second approved calculator is allowed as a backup.

Which calculators are allowed

A handheld has to be on the College Board's list of approved graphing calculators for AP Calculus. The list marks the models that have the four required capabilities. Examples include the TI-84 Plus CE, TI-89, TI-Nspire CX and CX CAS, HP Prime and NumWorks; check your exact model on the official list.

These can't be used as your calculator: phones, watches, laptops and tablets, devices with a QWERTY keyboard or pen or stylus input, anything with a wireless, Bluetooth, cellular or internet connection, and touch-screen models that aren't on the list. You don't have to clear your calculator's memory, but you can't share a calculator with anyone.

A calculator with a computer algebra system (CAS) is allowed if its model is approved, but you don't need one: nothing in this course needs it.

AP scores run from 1 to 5. The College Board describes each score like this:

Each college sets its own policy. Many give credit or placement for a 3 or higher, and some require a 4 or 5, so check the policy of every college you're considering.

Recent results

Source: the College Board's AP Students website. The 2026 figures are listed in whole percents so far and may be updated. About 286,000 students took AP Calculus AB in 2025.

How the score is worked out

Your multiple-choice and free-response results are combined into one composite score, each section worth half. The College Board then decides how many composite points each AP score takes. Those cut points are set every year, they change from year to year, and the College Board doesn't publish them for recent exams. Old released exams printed conversion tables, but those exams had a different design.

The traditional estimate gave each multiple-choice question 1.2 points, so 45 questions made 54. With 42 questions, keeping the same 50/50 split means multiplying the number you got right by 54/42 (about 1.286) and adding your free-response points, for 108 points in all. It's an estimate, not an official formula.

The plan below counts down to the exam on Monday, May 10, 2027. It shares out the weeks you have left among the units you still need to study, in course order, and gives more time to the units that carry more weight on the exam. The last weeks are kept for review and a full practice exam.

When you're signed in, the plan skips the units you've already finished and gives their time to the rest. Treat it as a guide: if you're ahead, start the next unit; if you fall behind, keep going in order and protect the review weeks.

• Study a little on most days rather than a lot on one day.
• Finish each unit with its review and timed unit test, then go back to the topics still marked Practicing on the course page.
• Write your free-response practice by hand, on paper, the way you'll write it in May.
• Practice the four calculator skills on the calculator you'll bring, and try the built-in Desmos in a Bluebook test preview.
• In the review weeks, take the full practice exam in one sitting with real timing, then redo every question you missed.