What's on the AP Psychology Exam?

The AP® Psychology exam is one of the advanced placement exams you can take to earn college credit. The exam will test your understanding of the psychological concepts covered in the AP Psychology course units and your ability to analyze behavioral studies. This AP exam is fully digital and is offered to students each spring. In 2025, the regularly scheduled date of the AP Psychology exam is Friday, May 16th 2025. Keep reading to learn more about the AP Psychology exam.

How is the AP Psychology exam structured?

The AP Psychology exam is divided into two sections: multiple-choice section and a free-response section. You will have 2 hours and 40 minutes to complete the whole test.

AP Psych Section	Number of Questions	Time Limit
Multiple-choice	75 multiple-choice (A to D) questions	90 minutes
Free-response	2 questions	70 minutes

What’s tested on the AP Psychology exam?

Below, we break down what’s tested on the AP Psychology exam.

• Science Practices (research methods, data interpretation, scientific argumentation infused throughout the curriculum and test).
• Biological Bases of Behavior (heredity/environment, nervous system, neurons, brain, sleep, sensation) – 15 to 25%
• Cognition (perception, thinking/problem solving, memory (encoding/storing/retrieving), forgetting, intelligence) – 15 to 25%
• Development and Learning (themes and methods, physical development, gender/sexual orientation, cognitive development, language, social-emotional development, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social/cognitive and neuro factors in learning) – 15 to 25%
• Social Psychology and Personality (attribution theory, person perception, attitude formation, social situations, theories of personality [psychodynamic, humanistic, social-cognitive, and trait], motivation, emotion) – 15 to 25%
• Mental and Physical Health (health, positive psychology, categorization and treatment of psychological disorders – 15 to 25%

How is the AP Psychology exam scored?

Your overall AP Psychology score will range from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). This composite score will take into account your performance on the multiple-choice and free-response sections, with the multiple-choice section counting for twice as much. The multiple-choice section is weighted 66.7% on the exam and the free-response section is weighted 33.3%. Each testing year, the exact breakdown of the percentage of people who earn each score differs.

Exam Score	Credit Recommendation	College Grade Equivalent
5	Extremely well qualified	A
4	Well qualified	A-, B+, B
3	Qualified	B-, C+, C
2	Possibly qualified	N/A
1	No recommendation	N/A

Colleges will generally not award credit for any score below a 3, with more selective schools requiring a 4 or 5. Note that some schools will not award college credit regardless of score. Be sure to research schools that you plan to apply to, so you can determine the score you need to aim for on the AP Psychology exam.

No, there is no guessing penalty on the AP Psychology exam. No points will be deducted for questions answered incorrectly or left blank. Since there is no penalty for guessing, you should answer every question on the exam to maximize your score.

The 4 AP Psychology Science Practices

The science practices and skills for AP Psychology describe what a student should be able to do while exploring course concepts.

Science Practice 1: Concept Application

This skill simply refers to your ability to apply the concepts, theories, terms, perspectives, and other ideas in the AP Psychology curriculum.

Science Practice 2: Research Methods and Design

This skill refers to your understanding of how psychological researchers design research studies. You should be able to evaluate research methods (both qualitative and quantitative) and study designs.

Science Practice 3: Data Interpretation

This skill refers to analyzing quantitative data using graphics, charts, figures, and diagrams.

Science Practice 4: Argumentation

This skill is only measured by one of the free-response questions, not the multiple-choice questions. It refers to your ability to develop and justify psychological arguments using evidence.

How to Study for the AP Psychology Exam

Want to earn a “5” on the AP Psychology exam? Here are a few resources we recommend to students as they prepare for test day.

• AP Psychology Review Course: Don’t cram for the AP Psychology exam. Review what you’ve learned in your AP class over the course of eight sessions with an expert instructor.
  
• AP Psychology Premium Prep Book:  Enhance your AP prep with Barron’s AP Psychology Premium book, which includes in‑depth content review and online practice for the NEW 2025 exam. It’s the only book you’ll need to be prepared for exam day.

How would you do on the AP Psychology exam? Take our short quiz.