Score calculator
AP® Physics C: Mechanics 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
- 5
You're close to a cutoff, so this could be a 4 to 5.
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 | 6 of 42 | About 13% of the points (5 of 40) |
| 4 | 13 of 42 | About 31% of the points (13 of 40) |
| 5 | 24 of 42 | About 57% of the points (23 of 40) |
How the Physics C: Mechanics 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 Physics C: Mechanics composite, and free response is 50%.
| Part | Most you can earn | Share of your score | Each question or point adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple choice (42 questions) | 42 questions | 50% | 1.2 of 100 |
| Question 1: Mathematical routines | 10 points | 12.5% | 1.3 of 100 |
| Question 2: Translation between representations | 12 points | 15% | 1.3 of 100 |
| Question 3: Experimental design and analysis | 10 points | 12.5% | 1.3 of 100 |
| Question 4: Qualitative/quantitative translation | 8 points | 10% | 1.3 of 100 |
College Board gives multiple choice 50% and the four free-response questions 50%, scored out of 40 points in all (10, 12, 10 and 8). It doesn't list separate weights for the questions, so we count every free-response point the same.
One multiple choice question adds 1.2 to your composite out of 100. Every free-response point adds 1.3. So one free-response point is worth about 1.1 multiple choice questions.
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 Physics C: Mechanics, College Board printed charts with its 2012 practice exam and its 1998 and 2009 released exams. Those exams had 34 or 35 multiple choice questions and three 15-point problems, so the free-response questions were longer and fewer than the four you'll get now (the exam was redesigned in 2025). The cutoffs were low on all three: a 5 started at 56% to 60% of the total.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 practice exam | 60%54 of 90 | 47%42 of 90 | 37%33 of 90 | 28%25 of 90 |
| 2009 released exam | 56%50 of 90 | 43%39 of 90 | 34%31 of 90 | 26%23 of 90 |
| 1998 released exam | 59%53 of 90 | 44%40 of 90 | 36%32 of 90 | 23%21 of 90 |
| Our cutoff (the average) | 58 | 45 | 36 | 26 |
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.