How to Use the AP Exam Curve to Guarantee a Score of 3

The College Board Secret

In a standard high school classroom, the grading scale is brutal:

90% = A

80% = B

70% = C

Below 60% = F (Failure)

When students take an AP Exam, they carry this high school mentality with them. They hit a question they don't know, they panic, and their confidence collapses because they think they are "failing" the test.

To pass an AP Exam, you must completely unlearn the high school grading scale and embrace the AP Curve.

The 55% Passing Rule

AP Exams are designed to be impossibly difficult. The College Board wants the national average to be low so the tests maintain their prestige.

Because the raw difficulty is so high, the grading curve is massive.

On almost every major AP Exam (Calculus, History, Biology), you only need to get roughly 45% to 55% of the total raw points to earn a passing score of '3' (which grants college credit at most state universities).

To earn a perfect '5' (the equivalent of an A+ in college), you usually only need to earn 70% to 75% of the raw points.

The Strategic Skipping Method

Once you understand the math of the curve, your entire test-taking strategy changes.

If you are taking the AP Calculus exam, and your goal is simply to pass and earn a '3', you have the mathematical luxury of completely ignoring the hardest questions on the test.

If there is a brutal, multi-part Free Response Question about related rates that you know will take you 15 minutes to solve (and you might still get it wrong), skip it entirely.

Leave it blank. Protect your time and energy, and use those 15 minutes to perfectly execute the easier derivative questions that you know how to solve.

By strategically abandoning the top 30% of the hardest material on the test, you guarantee that you secure the easy 55% of the points required to pass. Do not try to get a 100% on an AP Exam. Try to get a 60%.