AP mock exams: how to use practice tests before the May 2027 exams

These daily papers are short timed practice tests, not full AP exams: 8 original free-response questions worth 25 to 35 marks. Each one is a topic paper, so it lines up with its AP course well in some places and less well in others. The list further down says exactly how each one fits.

When do AP mock exams happen?

There is no official AP mock exam week. Whether you sit a full practice exam, and when, is up to your teacher. Work back from your real exam date. These are the 2027 dates and lengths for the math, science and computer science exams, from College Board's schedule. Session 1 is usually the morning and Session 2 the afternoon.

Do AP mock exams count?

Not toward your AP score. That comes from the exam you take in May, and in a few courses from work submitted before it. In AP Computer Science Principles, for example, the Create performance task is 30% of the score and must be submitted by April 30, 2027. Your teacher may still count a practice exam toward your class grade, so ask how they will use it.

Are AP practice exams harder than the real thing?

It depends who wrote them. Practice built from College Board's own released questions is the same standard as the real exam. Practice tests from other companies are their own work, so some run harder and some easier.

Be careful turning a practice score into an AP score. College Board turns each exam's composite score into a 1 to 5 using cut points set from studies that compare AP students with college students in similar courses. No percentage on a practice test maps exactly onto a 5, so look at which units cost you marks rather than at the total alone.

Where to get official AP practice exams

• AP Classroom: your teacher can unlock progress checks with multiple-choice and free-response questions, and assign practice or released exam questions from the AP Question Bank. AP Daily videos are there too.
• AP Central: each course's exam page links to free-response questions from past exams, with scoring guidelines and sample student answers.
• Bluebook test previews: download College Board's Bluebook app to see how the digital exam works. College Board says previews for most AP subjects are available now, with more coming in early 2027.

How to run your own AP mock exam

1. Use your course's real timing and section order from its College Board exam page. AP Physics 1, for example, is 42 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour 25 minutes, then 4 free-response questions in 1 hour 35 minutes.
2. Use the calculator you will be allowed. Two rules change in 2027: handheld graphing calculators are not allowed on AP Biology, and non-graphing calculators are not allowed on AP Statistics.
3. Sit it in one go, with a short break between sections, at the time of day your real exam starts.
4. Mark the free-response answers with College Board's scoring guidelines, then list every lost point by unit.
5. Spend the next week on the two units that cost you most, then try a fresh set of questions on them.

Daily papers as short timed AP practice tests

This is how each paper lines up with its AP course, so you know which questions to treat as practice and which to skip:

• AP Physics 1: kinematics, forces, torque, energy and momentum match. Circuits, waves and the photoelectric effect are AP Physics 2, and particle physics and materials go beyond AP.
• AP Physics 2: thermal physics, electric and magnetic fields, induction, capacitors and radioactivity match. Gravitation, circular motion and simple harmonic motion are AP Physics 1 topics.
• AP Physics C: Mechanics: kinematics, Newton's laws, friction and torque match, including motion with calculus. Energy, momentum, rotation and oscillations are not in this paper.
• AP Chemistry: acids and bases, kinetics, equilibrium, entropy and electrochemistry match. The organic chemistry, NMR and transition metals go beyond AP.
• AP Biology: cellular energetics, gene expression, heredity, natural selection and ecology match. Kidney and muscle physiology go beyond AP.
• AP Calculus AB: differentiation rules, tangents, rates of change, stationary points, integration and differential equations match. Parametric equations and integration by parts are BC only.
• AP Calculus BC: series, polar curves and volumes match, but complex numbers, matrices and proof by induction are not in AP Calculus. Use the AB paper too.
• AP Statistics: data, probability, the binomial and normal distributions, sampling, regression and significance tests match.
• AP Precalculus: polynomial, exponential, logarithmic and trigonometric functions, transformations and sequences match. Binomial expansion, partial fractions and proof go beyond it.
• AP Computer Science Principles: data, binary, algorithms, the internet and safe computing match. CPU detail goes beyond CSP, and nothing here replaces the Create task.
• AP Computer Science A: classes, recursion, searching and sorting match in idea, but AP CSA is all written in Java and the paper covers far more computer science.

After a mock: what to revise

A practice exam is only worth the fixing you do afterward. Redo every free-response part you lost points on with the scoring guideline next to you, until your answer would earn each point. Then use a daily paper the next day as a short check on the same topic. For calculus, the Calculus course and Derivative Calculator help you fill gaps fast.

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United States · APAP Physics 1 Practice Test: Free Questions and 2027 GuideFree AP Physics 1 practice test questions with worked answers, plus the 2027 exam format, units, date and scores, and a short timed practice paper daily.