AP Statistics Past Papers

How to use these free-response questions

AP Statistics is the exam where students most often lose marks for work they actually did. The free-response section is graded on the argument, not just the number at the end, and an answer that is numerically correct but unexplained can still score low.

The scoring guidelines are the real study material

Most students download the questions and skip the guidelines. That is backwards. The guidelines say, in the examiners' own words, which sentence earns the mark — and they are unusually explicit in this subject. Read them for a question you already answered correctly, and you will often find you would not have scored full marks.

What examiners are looking for

• Conditions before procedures. Naming the test is not enough; the conditions have to be checked against this particular situation.
• Conclusions in context. "Reject the null hypothesis" on its own rarely earns the point. The conclusion has to be stated about the actual variable in the actual study.
• Linkage. The p-value has to be tied to the decision, and the decision to the context. Missing that link is the single most common lost mark.
• An answer to the question asked. A correct calculation of something adjacent scores nothing.

The investigative task at the end

The last free-response question deliberately asks about something you have not been taught directly. It is testing whether you can reason from what you do know, so an unfinished but sensible attempt is worth writing out. Leaving it blank guarantees zero; a partial argument rarely does.

Papers and scoring guidelines are published by the College Board and open on its site. This page indexes what exists by year.