Score calculator
AP® Biology Score Calculator
Put in how many multiple choice questions you got right (or think you would) and your points on each free-response question. You'll see your weighted composite, an estimated 1 to 5 for the May 2027 exam, and what it would take to reach a 3, 4 or 5.
The 1 to 5 here is a rough estimate. College Board doesn't publish the cutoffs, and there's no released conversion chart for this exam in its current form, so treat the score as a ballpark and the composite as the solid number. How we estimate
Your estimate
- Weighted composite
- 56 / 100
- Rough AP score
- 3
Most likely a 3, but the cutoffs for this exam are a rough guess.
An estimate, not a prediction. College Board sets the real cutoffs each year and doesn't publish them. See how we estimate below.
What you'd need
Based on our estimated cutoffs. Aim a few points higher to be safe.
| For a | Multiple choice right, with your free response | Free-response points, with your multiple choice |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 23 of 60 | About 30% of the points (11 of 34) |
| 4 | 44 of 60 | About 66% of the points (23 of 34) |
| 5 | Out of reach with your free response | About 96% of the points (33 of 34) |
How the Biology exam is scored
Your multiple choice score is the number you get right, with nothing taken off for wrong answers. Each free-response question is scored with a rubric, point by point. College Board weights each part and adds them into one composite score, then turns that into a 1 to 5. Multiple choice is 50% of the Biology composite, and free response is 50%.
| Part | Most you can earn | Share of your score | Each question or point adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple choice (60 questions) | 60 questions | 50% | 0.83 of 100 |
| Question 1: Interpreting experimental results | 9 points | 13.2% | 1.5 of 100 |
| Question 2: Experimental results with graphing | 9 points | 13.2% | 1.5 of 100 |
| Question 3: Scientific investigation | 4 points | 5.9% | 1.5 of 100 |
| Question 4: Conceptual analysis | 4 points | 5.9% | 1.5 of 100 |
| Question 5: Analyze a model or visual | 4 points | 5.9% | 1.5 of 100 |
| Question 6: Analyze data | 4 points | 5.9% | 1.5 of 100 |
College Board gives multiple choice 50% and the six free-response questions 50%: two long ones out of 9 points and four short ones out of 4, 34 points in all. It doesn't list separate weights for the questions, so we count every free-response point the same.
One multiple choice question adds 0.83 to your composite out of 100. Every free-response point adds 1.5. So one free-response point is worth about 1.8 multiple choice questions, and every point you can get on a written answer counts.
How we estimate your score
First we add up your composite score out of 100. Each part of the exam gets the share of your score that College Board gives it for the 2027 exam, and within a part, each point counts the same unless College Board weights the questions differently.
Then we turn the composite into a 1 to 5. College Board sets the real cutoffs each year after the exams are scored, and it doesn't publish them. The only official cutoffs anyone can see are in conversion charts College Board printed with some older exams it released in full. Each chart shows where the cutoffs fell on that exam, in that year. We turn each chart's cutoffs into a share of its total and average them.
For Biology, College Board printed a chart with its 2013 practice exam, from the same version of the course and with the same 50/50 split. It had grid-in math questions and eight free-response questions instead of six, so the match isn't exact. Charts from the 2002 and 2008 released exams are for the older course, which weighted multiple choice at 60%, so we don't use them. College Board also reset the Biology score standards in 2022, after this chart.
Because of that, the 1 to 5 here is a rough estimate. Your weighted composite is the more solid number: it uses College Board's own weights for the 2027 exam.
| Chart | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 practice exam | 78%93 of 120 | 63%75 of 120 | 45%54 of 120 | 25%30 of 120 |
| Our cutoff | 78 | 63 | 45 | 25 |
Within 6 points of a cutoff, the calculator shows a range instead of one score, because the real cutoff could fall on either side of you.