The AP Precalculus exam leans heavily on multiple choice. Section I gives you 2 hours for 40 questions — 28 without a calculator, then 12 that require a graphing calculator — and counts for 62.5% of your score. Section II gives you 1 hour for four free-response questions worth 6 rubric points each: FRQ 1-2 allow a graphing calculator, FRQ 3-4 do not.
Your raw points never go to colleges. The College Board combines your weighted section results into a composite score, then converts that composite to the 1-to-5 scale using a process called equating. Equating adjusts the cutoffs for each year's exam so that a 4 in 2026 represents the same level of mastery as a 4 in 2025, even if one version was slightly harder.
No calculator — including this one — can tell you your exact score in advance, and AP Precalculus cutoffs are less settled than most because the exam has only existed since May 2024. One quirk worth knowing: with 40 MCQs worth 62.5% and 24 rubric points worth 37.5%, every scored point on this exam — each MCQ and each FRQ point — is worth an identical 1.6% of your composite. There is no cheap section to write off.
Estimated cutoffs for AP Precalc sit higher than most AP sciences — roughly the mid-60s percent for a 5 versus around 60% for AP Bio — because the exam is unusually predictable: only Units 1-3 (polynomial and rational, exponential and logarithmic, trigonometric and polar functions) are tested, Unit 4 never appears, and the four FRQs follow the exact same task models every single year.
