The AP ® Physics 1 Exam is a college-level exam administered every year in May upon the completion of an Advanced Placement Physics 1 course taken at your high school. If you score high enough, your AP Physics score could earn you college credit !
Check out our AP Physics 1 Guide for the essential info you need about the exam:
The College Board is very detailed in what they require your AP teacher to cover in your AP Physics 1 course. They explain that you should be familiar with the following topics:
For a comprehensive content review, check out our book, AP Physics 1
The AP Physics 1 exam is three hours long and consists of two sections: a multiple-choice section and a free-response section.
AP Physics 1 Section |
Timing |
Number of Questions |
Multiple Choice |
90 minutes |
|
Free Response |
90 minutes |
|
TOTAL: | 3 hours | 55 questions |
Single-select questions are each followed by four possible responses, only one of which is correct. Multi-select questions require two of the listed answer choices to be selected to answer the question correctly.
The free response section consists of five multi-part questions, which require you to write out your solutions, showing your work. Unlike the multiple-choice section, which is scored by a computer, the free-response section is graded by high school and college teachers. They have guidelines for awarding partial credit, so you may still receive partial points should you not correctly respond to every part of the question.
You are allowed to use a calculator on the entire AP Physics 1 Exam—including both the multiple-choice and free-response sections. Scientific or graphing calculators may be used, provided that they don’t have any unapproved features or capabilities (a list of approved graphing calculators is available on the College Board’s website).
A table of equations commonly used in physics will be provided to you at the exam site. Check out what the AP Physics 1 formula sheet looks like here .
AP scores are reported from 1 to 5. Colleges are generally looking for a 4 or 5 on the AP Physics I exam, but some may grant credit for a 3. Here’s how students scored on the May 2022 test:
AP Physics 1 Score |
Meaning |
Percentage of Test Takers |
5 |
Extremely qualified |
7.9% |
4 |
Well qualified |
17.0% |
3 |
Qualified |
18.3% |
2 |
Possibly qualified |
27.1% |
1 |
No recommendation |
29.6% |
Source: College Board
Each test is curved so scores vary from year to year, but as we see above, in May 2022 around 50% of test takers earned scores of 1 or 2. You’ll want to study hard and prepare for this tough exam .
AP classes are great, but for many students they’re not enough! For a thorough review of AP Physics 1 content and strategy, pick the AP prep option that works best for your goals and learning style.
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