Score calculator
AP® United States Government and Politics 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
- 59 / 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 | 26 of 55 | About 44% of the points (8 of 17) |
| 4 | 41 of 55 | About 72% of the points (13 of 17) |
| 5 | 53 of 55 | About 94% of the points (16 of 17) |
How the US Government 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 US Government composite, and free response is 50%.
| Part | Most you can earn | Share of your score | Each question or point adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple choice (55 questions) | 55 questions | 50% | 0.91 of 100 |
| Question 1: Concept application | 3 points | 12.5% | 4.2 of 100 |
| Question 2: Quantitative analysis | 4 points | 12.5% | 3.1 of 100 |
| Question 3: SCOTUS comparison | 4 points | 12.5% | 3.1 of 100 |
| Question 4: Argument essay | 6 points | 12.5% | 2.1 of 100 |
College Board gives multiple choice 50% and each of the four free-response questions 12.5%, even though they're scored out of different totals. So a point on the 3-point concept question counts twice as much as a point on the 6-point argument essay.
One multiple choice question adds 0.91 to your composite out of 100. A free-response point adds between 2.1 and 4.2, depending on the question. So one point on Question 1 is worth about 4.6 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 US Government, College Board printed charts with its 1999, 2002 and 2009 released exams. Those exams were also half multiple choice with four equally weighted free-response questions, but the questions were different kinds, and the course has been redesigned since. In 2024 College Board reset the US Government score standards, and more students have earned a 3 or higher since, so the real cutoffs may be lower than these.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 released exam | 74%89 of 120 | 62%74 of 120 | 46%55 of 120 | 32%38 of 120 |
| 2002 released exam | 80%96 of 120 | 68%82 of 120 | 55%66 of 120 | 35%42 of 120 |
| 2009 released exam | 78%93 of 120 | 68%82 of 120 | 55%66 of 120 | 40%48 of 120 |
| Our cutoff (the average) | 77 | 66 | 52 | 36 |
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.