Exam guide
The AP® Environmental Science 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 2 (usually afternoon). Your AP coordinator sets the exact start time.
- Length
- 2 hours 40 minutes
- How you take it
- Fully digital: you answer everything in the Bluebook testing app.
- Calculator
- A four-function (with square root) or scientific calculator. Graphing calculators aren't allowed in 2027. Bluebook has a built-in scientific calculator.
See every exam on one page in the 2027 exam calendar.
What's new for the May 2027 exam
College Board changed 2 things about the Environmental Science exam. Open one to see what it means for you.
Free-response questions 2 and 3 have new namesExam format
Question 1 is still Design an Investigation. Question 2 is now Analyze and Interpret Quantitative Data, and Question 3 is Analyze an Environmental Problem Doing Calculations.
See College Board's announcement (opens in a new tab) (apcentral.collegeboard.org · CED clarifications, p. 3)
Some learning goals are rewordedWhat's tested
College Board refined the wording of one learning objective and some knowledge statements. The content you need to know doesn't change.
See College Board's announcement (opens in a new tab) (apcentral.collegeboard.org · Clarifications for 2026-27 notice)
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 choice | 80 questions | 1 hour 30 minutes | 60% |
| Free responseQuestion 1: Design an investigation. Question 2: Analyze and interpret quantitative data. Question 3: Analyze an environmental problem doing calculations. | 3 questions | 1 hour 10 minutes | 40% |
What's on the exam
College Board says roughly how much of the exam comes from each unit. The biggest is Unit 9, Global Change (15–20%).
- Unit 1The Living World: Ecosystems6–8%
- Unit 2The Living World: Biodiversity6–8%
- Unit 3Populations10–15%
- Unit 4Earth Systems and Resources10–15%
- Unit 5Land and Water Use10–15%
- Unit 6Energy Resources and Consumption10–15%
- Unit 7Atmospheric Pollution7–10%
- Unit 8Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution7–10%
- Unit 9Global Change15–20%
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 Environmental Science 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
- 13%
- Score of 4
- 29%
- Score of 3
- 27%
- Score of 2
- 15%
- Score of 1
- 16%
Scores of 3 or higher (69% of students) have green bars; 2s and 1s have gray ones. A 3 is where many colleges start to give credit.
In 2026, 69% of students scored 3 or higher, and 13% got a 5. The most common score was a 4.
In 2025, 245,371 students took the exam. 69.2% scored 3 or higher, 12.6% got a 5, and the average score was 3.06. College Board hasn't published the 2026 number of students or average score yet.
Source: College Board's AP Environmental Science score distributions. Percentages are College Board's, rounded, so they may not add to exactly 100. Compare every course.
Is AP® Environmental Science hard?
Judging by pass rates alone, Environmental Science is about in the middle. In 2026, 69% of students scored 3 or higher: the 17th highest pass rate of the 27 exams on this site. 13% got a 5, the 2nd lowest share of 5s.
Environmental Science covers a lot of ground, from ecosystems and populations to energy and pollution, and it draws on biology, chemistry and earth science.
Don't skip the math. One free-response question has you do calculations about an environmental problem, and you can use only a basic or scientific calculator.
Another free-response question asks you to design an investigation, so know how experiments are set up.
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: 80 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 Environmental Science exam page (College Board)
- 2027 AP Exam Dates (College Board)
- Past AP Environmental Science Score Distributions (College Board)