Exam guide
The AP® Calculus AB exam
When it is, how it's set up, what's on it, how students have scored, and a straight answer on how hard it is.
Your exam:
Checked against College Board's website in October 2026.
When is the 2027 exam?
- Date
- , session 1 (usually morning). Your AP coordinator sets the exact start time.
- Length
- 3 hours 10 minutes
- How you take it
- Hybrid digital: multiple choice in the Bluebook testing app, free response handwritten in a paper booklet.
- Calculator
- A graphing calculator is required for some parts and not allowed in others. Bluebook has one built in for the parts that need it.
See every exam on one page in the 2027 exam calendar.
What's new for the May 2027 exam
College Board changed one thing about the Calculus AB exam. Open one to see what it means for you.
Multiple choice has 42 questions in 1 hour 40 minutesTiming
Part A (no calculator) goes from 30 questions in 60 minutes to 29 in 62, and Part B (graphing calculator) from 15 questions in 45 minutes to 13 in 38. That's 42 questions in 100 minutes, down from 45 in 105.
See College Board's announcement (opens in a new tab) (apcentral.collegeboard.org · CED clarifications, p. 2 (Exam Overview))
Updated October 3, 2026 from College Board's pages. All 2027 exam changes
How the exam is set up
| Section | Questions | Time | Share of score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple choicePart A: 29 questions, no calculator. Part B: 13 questions, graphing calculator needed for some. | 42 questions | 1 hour 40 minutes | 50% |
| Free responsePart A: 2 questions with a graphing calculator. Part B: 4 questions without one. | 6 questions | 1 hour 30 minutes | 50% |
What's on the exam
College Board says roughly how much of the exam comes from each unit. The biggest are Unit 5, Analytical Applications of Differentiation (15–20%) and Unit 6, Integration and Accumulation of Change (15–20%).
- Unit 1Limits and Continuity10–15%
- Unit 2Differentiation: Definition and Fundamental Properties10–15%
- Unit 3Differentiation: Composite, Implicit, and Inverse Functions5–10%
- Unit 4Contextual Applications of Differentiation10–15%
- Unit 5Analytical Applications of Differentiation15–20%
- Unit 6Integration and Accumulation of Change15–20%
- Unit 7Differential Equations5–10%
- Unit 8Applications of Integration10–15%
How it's scored
Multiple choice is scored by computer, and a wrong answer costs you nothing, so answer every question. The free-response answers are scored in June by AP teachers and college professors, using a rubric.
Each section's points are weighted by its share of the score, added up, and turned into a score from 1 to 5. College Board doesn't publish exactly how many points each score needs, and the cutoffs can change a little from year to year.
Want a rough idea of where you stand? Try the Calculus AB score calculator with your practice test results. For the 1 to 5 scale and college credit, see how AP scores work.
How students scored in 2026
- Score of 5
- 20%
- Score of 4
- 28%
- Score of 3
- 17%
- Score of 2
- 24%
- Score of 1
- 11%
Scores of 3 or higher (65% of students) have green bars; 2s and 1s have gray ones. A 3 is where many colleges start to give credit.
In 2026, 65% of students scored 3 or higher, and 20% got a 5. The most common score was a 4.
In 2025, 285,891 students took the exam. 64.2% scored 3 or higher, 20.3% got a 5, and the average score was 3.21. College Board hasn't published the 2026 number of students or average score yet.
The 2027 exam has some changes (see what's new above), so these scores came from a slightly different exam.
Source: College Board's AP Calculus AB score distributions. Percentages are College Board's, rounded, so they may not add to exactly 100. Compare every course.
Is AP® Calculus AB hard?
Judging by pass rates alone, Calculus AB is one of the harder exams to pass. In 2026, 65% of students scored 3 or higher: the 3rd lowest pass rate of the 27 exams on this site. 20% got a 5, tied for the 7th highest share of 5s.
Calculus AB covers limits, derivatives and integrals, and you use algebra all the way through.
Most of the questions are without a calculator: 29 of the 42 multiple choice and 4 of the 6 free response.
The free response asks you to explain and justify your answers, which takes practice.
Pass rates show how students did, not exactly how hard the material is. They also depend on who takes each exam and how much they prepared. See every course's pass rate.
Get ready on this site
- Practice examA full, timed multiple choice section: 42 questions, weighted by unit like the real one.
- Score calculatorPut in your practice results to see roughly what score they'd earn.
- Practice by unitExam-style multiple choice for each unit, with every answer explained.
- Free-response practiceQuestions like the ones on the exam, with a rubric and a model answer.
- Must-know sheetYour one-page cram sheet: the facts and terms to know cold on exam day.
- FlashcardsThe terms and ideas for every unit.
Where these facts come from
College Board runs the exams and can change the rules. If something here doesn't match their site, trust their site.
- AP Calculus AB exam page (College Board)
- 2027 AP Exam Dates (College Board)
- Past AP Calculus AB Score Distributions (College Board)