AP Calculus AB

Digital Practice and Testing Information

Updated April 8

Digital Practice Now Available

Starting April 8, you can try out the test-day experience, by answering example questions in the digital testing application. See the Digital Practice page for general information about practice options.

AP Calculus AB students will have two options to answer example questions in the digital testing application. Both provide approximately the same time limit per question as the full exam.

• Digital Practice has shortened sections, as follows:
  • Multiple choice, calculator not required: 10 questions, 20 minutes
  • Multiple choice, graphing calculator required: 4 questions, 12 minutes
  • Free response, graphing calculator required: 2 questions, 30 minutes
  • Free response, calculator not required: 1 question, 15 minutes
• The App Demo is an even shorter subset of the questions in Digital Practice–5 multiple-choice questions, a 2-minute break, and 1 free-response question.

We highly recommend you take the Digital Practice, and strongly advise that if you can’t take the Digital Practice, at least take the App Demo. Both can be taken multiple times, and can be accessed directly in the digital testing application. You can access your answers and solution materials (MCQ answer key, FRQ scoring guidelines) for the Digital Practice. Note: Taking the App Demo after completing Digital Practice may override your answers from Digital Practice.

Taking the Digital Exam

You should be aware of some aspects of testing digitally that you’ll encounter–in the Digital Practice and on exam day:

• As a reminder, you will answer all multiple-choice questions and type all free-response answers directly in the digital exam application. Scratch paper is permitted for notes or planning, but you cannot handwrite or otherwise upload responses. 
  • The free-response questions won’t require you to draw diagrams, charts or complicated mathematical expressions.  All responses can be typed on a regular computer keyboard, along with a selection of additional characters that can be accessed by clicking the Omega button on the toolbar:

     

    

• However, to accommodate the digital exam format, tasks on free-response questions on the digital exam may be slightly different than you’re used to seeing on FRQs. These will include some tasks that resemble multiple-choice questions, and/or provide labels for expressions or equations you can refer to in your answers rather than writing them out. Example questions in Digital Practice will have examples of these tasks.
• Some free-response question prompts reference a specific question part. You can click on the » symbol shown in the prompt to automatically scroll to the referenced location.
• A graphing calculator is required for the digital exam. However, you’ll need to bring your own calculator because the digital testing application does not include one.
• As a reminder, you cannot go back to questions you’ve already answered, and cannot skip ahead. 
• However, free-response questions will each be presented in multiple parts, and you’ll answer each part on a separate screen. You may move among the parts of the question currently being answered, with the Back and Next buttons. Once you’ve entered your response to the last part of a question and moved ahead to the next, you won’t be able to go back to any part of that question you finished.
• Exam directions and section-specific directions will not be read by a proctor–they’ll appear entirely in the application. You’ll see them at the beginning of each section, and can access them at any time during the exam. Please note that the exam timer starts when the directions appear. While you should read the directions, be aware that the timer will be running while you do so. You can view the full text of the exam and section directions in advance of the exam.