On the AP Macro exam, you'll be faced with two main parts: the multiple-choice section (MCQs) and the free-response section (FRQs). The free-response section takes up 33% of your AP exam. On the exam, you'll be given 60 minutes (including a 10 minute reading period) to answer 3 questions, one long question and two short questions asking you to calculate values, draw graphs, predict the effects of different economic policies, and make policy actions based on whether the economy is in a recessionary gap or inflationary gap. 

A huge part of the AP Macro FRQ section is the graphs! In many instances, you'll be drawing 1-2 graphs per question, and these graphs are a 

 different than the ones you may draw in the multiple-choice section. In the MCQ section, nobody sees your graphs. This means that you can be as sloppy and unlabeled as you want as long as 

However, in the FRQ section, they often ask explicitly, "draw a 

 of ____". This means that your graphs must be both accurate 

 correctly labeled. Because of this and the fact that knowing these graphs will simply make your life infinitely easier, it is integral to your success in AP Macro that you memorize and 

 these graphs completely. Let's take a look at an example. 

First things first, looking at the information in the top part of the question, we're told that Canada is an 

 information right there folks, especially as we head into part (a) for this question. Part (a) asks us to draw LRAS, SRAS, and AD and label certain indicators on the graph. For this, we need to know three things: the axes, the curves, and the data points. 

For ADAS, the axes are price level on the y-axis and real GDP on the x-axis. Typically, standard abbreviations like GDP are ok, but if you ever doubt things like that, just write it out!

When drawing our curves, we need to remember two key things: what SRAS, LRAS, and AD 

 like (ie. upward sloping, downward sloping, or vertical) and where they should be placed based on the economic conditions. In this problem, we're told that Canada is in a recessionary gap, meaning that the short-run equilibrium (where AD meets SRAS) should be to the 

Finally, the question asks us to find the current equilibrium output (Y1 and PL1) and full employment output (Yf). This means using dotted lines to show these points on the graph, giving us: 

Many times, a question or multiple questions will ask you to make calculations based on the numbers they give you. These will be calculations you learn in class such as a bank balance sheet or a calculation involving the simple spending multiplier and tax multiplier. However, you aren't given a calculator on the test so the CollegeBoard gives you nice numbers. When making calculations, it is crucial that you show each step including writing out a formula in variable form. Let's take a look at an example from 2019: 

This question is asking us to calculate the change in government needed to raise GDP by $40 billion ($540 - $500). To do this, we must use the 

. To solve for this change. From the information in the problem, we know that the MPC = 0.8, and since MPC + MPS = 1, MPS = 0.2. From here, we can find the simple spending multiplier by using the formula SSM = 1/1-MPC = 1/MPS = 1/0.2 = 5. Now, because we know that ΔGDP = SSM * ΔSpending, we can plug in our numbers and find 

. Here's what that may look like on your actual FRQ: 

As we can see, all work is shown, including finding the gap, showing that the spending multiplier is five (they probably could have shown more work here, but they clearly indicate it), and finding $8 billion dollars as the correct answer. When in doubt, write out the work! 

In doing your practice for the FRQ section, you might notice a couple of repetitive types of questions. For example, across most years, FRQ question 1 typically follows the same couple parts:

An economy is in either a recessionary gap, an inflationary gap, or full employment

Draw ADAS to show this economic condition

Analyze policy positions and draw more graphs related to either fiscal or monetary policy, typically this is also shown on the ADAS graph you drew prior

Other questions like FOREX or long run adjustments to show further impacts of this policy

If you're aware of this pattern, not only are you better equipped walking into the exam with less of an element of surprise, but you can also hone your practice and studying towards these exact skills, making sure you look at question 1 and understanding what to expect. 

For questions two and three, they tend to be more wildcard questions. In saying this, we mean that they typically don't follow any one pattern. However, there are question "types" that are pretty typical for questions two and three. Some notable types of common question patterns are questions about bank balance sheets and money creation, the loanable funds market, and the Philips Curve.

We've laid out a bunch of information about the FRQ section on the AP Macro exam. These tips, along with knowing the content and formatting of the exam/questions, can help you immensely on your journey to a 5. However, there is one thing I have yet to mention that, if not done, makes these tips near useless.

Practicing FRQs are the surefire way to gain content knowledge, know the questions, and be confident in yourself! If there is one thing that I want you to take away from this, it's that practice makes perfect. You're going to destroy the exam and do absolutely amazing!! Good luck!

AP Macroeconomics Exam

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AP Macroeconomics

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Welcome to AP Macroeconomics! This course is, for many, the first taste of economics that you get in high school, and the course teaches you

 misconceptions about what exactly economics is and what exactly you're going to learn in AP Macroeconomics.

The first and foremost answer to the question "what is economics" is "the study of money." While this is a clear logical answer, economists also talk about banking, stocks, and bonds related to money. The "study" of money is closer to the field of finance.

 the study of money, then what is it? Well, a simple Google search tells us that economics is defined as "the branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth". That wasn't super helpful.

We have a definition for economics, but what exactly does it mean? The most important part of this definition is not necessarily "transfer of wealth," but rather "production [and] consumption."

Economics is the study of choices. Economics answers questions like "how much should we produce?" and "how much should we consume?" These choices are brought upon by scarcity. Everything in economics comes back to 

. How we allocate resources to make choices and produce goods is what economics studies.

There are two broad fields of economics, those being 

. While it may seem that these fields are complete opposites, they interconnect and intersect at many points. Let's start by focusing on their differences.

As you may notice in the above chart, microeconomics focuses primarily on the small scale of economics, exploring topics like supply and demand, market structures, labor markets, price determination, and other more small scale topics.

On the other side, macroeconomics takes a broad scale larger look at the economy, focusing on the economies of countries and even the entire world by the end. You'll learn about topics like aggregate supply and demand, productivity, and fiscal and monetary policy. Instead of studying quantities and prices like in microeconomics, you'll study GDP and inflation—measures of quantity and price.

Specifically, the content in AP Macro breaks down into two broad categories: how to 

 the economy. The former of the two will explore macro measures like GDP, unemployment, and inflation and the relationship between these 3 and the business cycle. The latter will explore policies to change these measures to a healthy economic state.

AP Macroeconomics ranks as an easier than average AP subject.

 found that on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the easiest and 10 being the hardest, veterans of AP Macro rate it a 4.4, whereas the average is a 5.4 💪

The hardest part of AP Macro is that the material is not something you typically have learned before. Compared to classes like AP Calculus or AP Lang, in which you've taken math and English classes in the past, the majority of students have never taken economics before. However, this isn't the end of the world! Despite the new material, the course builds on itself and starts with the basics.

For example, the CollegeBoard knows most students haven't learned economics, so the first unit in both AP Macro and AP Micro is titled "Basic Economic Concepts" that introduces the idea of economics 🤔

, 75% of AP Macroeconomics students would recommend the course, with one advising that you should take the course "only if you have a decent teacher or can self-study if you do not."

There are a few reasons that AP Macroeconomics might not be the class for you. Do not take AP Macro expecting to learn business, how to buy stocks and bonds, and how to get rich 😂While the course has topics related to this, economics, as we previously discussed, is not the study of money and will not focus on such topics. While this isn't to discourage you from taking AP Macro or pursuing studies such as business, you should expect to spend the majority of your time learning things that aren't business-related in AP Macro.

Furthermore, AP Macroeconomics, despite being called an "easy AP," is still an AP class. Do not take AP Macro if you're looking simply for a GPA boost. The content in AP Macro will be, for the most part, brand new to you. Because of this, if you don't care about the class, you're bound not to enjoy it.

You may see something like this in a business class, but hardly in economics as it relates to revenue and profit. Source: 

Alright, so why should you take AP Macro? Well, first and foremost, economics is awesome! Many people associate learning economics with a slew of math and graphs and while this is a lot of the content, you will be able to understand how the world works and how an event affects everyone. Coming out of AP Macro, you'll understand when people say "well in this economy" and will make accurate policy suggestions from analyzing economic conditions. Although these skills may not directly relate to your career, they will help you have a better view of what your future looks like and assist you in predicting what decisions to make in the future.

AP Macroeconomics is a course that doesn't only teach you about economics, but also about how to think and problem-solve contrary to most classes. You gain useful knowledge that will follow you throughout your life. You got this 🎉

Is AP Macroeconomics Hard? Is AP Macroeconomics Worth Taking?

Welcome to AP® Macroeconomics! If you're reading this, you are most likely either self-studying the course, are homeschooled, or in a situation where you might not have a formal teacher. Lucky for you, AP Macro is one of the easier AP subjects to self-study. While teaching yourself an entire AP class won't be easy, it is entirely doable.

You are about to embark on a difficult journey in learning economics, but one that will be entirely worth it. Learning economics teaches you not only how the economy works, but gives you a new skill set in analyzing how people make decisions affect people like us. Economics isn't just about how the money circulates, but it also explains why you hit snooze in the morning, why you choose to have cereal instead of pancakes in the morning, etc.

Economics helps explain why you may choose one cereal over the other. Image Courtesy of 

Many believe that self-studying an AP is inferior to being able to be in a class. Not having a teacher to rely on is certainly one of the challenges of self-studying. However, if you have an AP Macro teacher at your school, you can get help from or talk to him/her/them about the material you're learning from an expert.

Furthermore, self-studying AP Macro has awesome positives. Most notably, when you're teaching yourself the course, you call the shots. By that, we mean you choose how long to spend on which topics and you choose how to learn. You need to ask yourself these two questions: how do I learn? & what do I need to succeed?

To give a more personal example, over the 2019-2020 school year, I self-studied AP Microeconomics. Because my school doesn't offer AP Micro, I was completely in the dark and frankly, pretty much alone in my learning. At first glance, this sucked. No teacher, no knowledge of the subject, what was I going to do? I learn best through videos and tons of practice, ultimately earning a 5 on the exam. By doing what worked for me and taking the course at a pace that I enjoyed, I was able to do well, and the same can apply for you in AP Macro.

📅 Scheduling and Planning Your Self Study

A crucial part of successfully self-studying AP Macro is to set a pace and plan out how you are going to cover a year's worth of content on your own. While this may sound like a daunting task, an easy way to go about this is by starting broad, focusing on long term goals like understanding entire units or parts of the exam, and then slowly but surely getting more specific and short term.

In AP Macro, there are 6 units that will be covered on the exam. These are:

When you start your planning, make sure you cover these 6 units, but also include time to rest. You need time to rest because self-studying a course is 

 daunting. Thus, giving yourself days to put econ aside will help you in the long-run (pun intended).

We suggest taking at least 2 weeks to learn the content of each unit. Take another week for AP style practice, solidifying the material, and reviewing topics that confused you. However, the best part of self-studying is that you can read the last two sentences and 

 throw that out the window. Do what works for you!

An incredibly useful tool when setting up more specific parts of your studying is the AP Macro 

 (Course and Exam Description). The CED basically lays out not only all of the units, but the sub-units, skills required on the exam, and pretty much anything and everything that is fair game for testing.

A sample of unit 1 at a glance. These 6 topics form the basis for what will be expected of you as far as unit 1 goes. Image Courtesy of 

If you plan your studying around these key topics, you won't be caught off guard come exam day.

With these tools at your side, you are going to ace AP Macroeconomics this year! With some productive planning, AP Macroeconomics is CERTAINLY manageable. Good luck 🎉

AP Macroeconomics Self-Study and Homeschool

One of the most popular study sites used by AP students is Quizlet and for good reason! Quizlet combines the classic flashcard studying method with unique, fun games to learn vocabulary. However, the number of resources provided by Quizlet

can make it challenging to find the best decks for each AP Macroeconomics Unit. For that reason, here are the most comprehensive Quizlet decks for effective studying! Vocabulary is critical for understanding different concepts, laws, and theories.

Unit 1 is unique in AP Econ because it is the same among both AP Macroeconomics and AP Microeconomics (except for a few topics, but for the most part they’re the same). Unit 1 covers just what it says it does - basic economic concepts. In AP Macro, you’ll be introduced to the ideas of opportunity cost, comparative and absolute advantage, and supply and demand before delving into the macroeconomy!

Unit 2 is your first official jump into macroeconomics! I always call this unit “Macro Measures”, since the primary goal of this unit is to understand how we measure the economy and what these different indicators of economic health mean. You’ll focus on three main indicators: Gross Domestic Product (GDP), inflation, and unemployment. With these tools, you’ll be able to understand the cycle of the economy from recessionary periods into growth periods and in between.

Unit 3 covers three primary topics: the aggregate demand-aggregate supply model of the economy (commonly known as ADAS), Keynesian economics and the multiplier effect, and fiscal policy. These graphs and mathematical models help explain how the economy reacts to certain stimuli and how it adjusts both in the short run and in the long run.

From fiscal policy in unit 3, we move into monetary policy in unit 4. The financial sector of the economy deals with banks run by a country’s central bank. In the United States, this is the Federal Reserve. Unit 4 covers everything you need to know about how the banking system works, such as what money is, how loans and deposits work, fractional reserve banking, and markets for money and loanable funds.

Unit 5: Long-Run Consequences of Stabilization Policies 

By this point in the course, you’ll have learned both fiscal policy and monetary policy, the two primary ways that the government/the Fed acts to affect the economy whether through expansionary or contractionary policy. In unit 5, you’ll look at how these stabilization policies work in the long run, examining trade-offs between unemployment and inflation and economic growth.

Unit 6: Open Economy — International Trade and Finance

Unit 6 is all about one thing: trade. You’ll learn how trade between countries is facilitated and return once again back to unit 1 with the law of comparative advantage. Along with this, you’ll learn about how different currencies interact in the foreign exchange (FOREX) market and its interactions with interest rates and prices.

 (Note: What is now Unit 6 was once Unit 7 in AP Macro! Units 5 and 6 in the old curriculum were combined)

Best Quizlet Decks for AP Macroeconomic

GDP, aggregate supply and demand, monetary policy - these are just a few of the terms that you will fully understand by the time you finish AP Macroeconomics. Whether you're about to take your exam or getting ready to take AP Economics for the first time, AP Macro may seem super intimidating. There are a ton of terms, graphs, models, theories, and so much more you will be required to recall in a relatively short test. 

However, it is definitely doable. In fact, in 2019, 57.9% of students received a 3 or above on the exam, with 40.5% earning a 4 or a 5, and almost definitely getting college credit. 

This serves as a general tip for most AP classes, but it’s super important in AP Macro. The amount of concepts in the class – as opposed to pure information – makes this piece of advice essential. For example, in AP Calculus, you may have to know how to apply specific math to situations. But, in AP Macro, you’ll have to synthesize 6 units of information to analyze economic stability, health, and policy.

Following that, you’d have to apply that to models, graphs, and situations. This is why in AP Macro especially, it is so important to be able to apply your knowledge, rather than simply memorizing things. For example, something you may memorize is “Expansionary fiscal policy shifts aggregate demand to the right”. Instead of memorizing this fact, understand WHY expansionary fiscal policy shifts aggregate demand to the right (something you will learn in AP Macro, don’t worry!).

Topics in AP Macro are inherently interconnected. By learning not only 

 you need to know but how it works and how they work together to form the full content of the course, you'll be able to write for effective explanations in FRQs and be better equipped to answer multiple choice questions. Even if you don't have a specific fact memorized, if you understand how each concept functions both alone and as a unit with other concepts, you can often derive answers simply by using existing knowledge, a skill that proves extremely useful when you're stuck.

If you understand the ins-and-outs of the content, you’ll not only be better at applying your knowledge, but you may even be able to deduce the answers to questions you haven’t encountered. Using your newfound economic reasoning skills would provide you with this capability.

#2 - Understand and Memorize Your Graphs!

Okay, okay, okay, I know what you're thinking - "But Dylan! You just told us not to memorize things!" - and you would be right, except for your graphs. There are 6 primary graphs in AP Macro:

These big 6 are instrumental in your understanding of economics. Being able to not only draw these graphs (the memorization part) but understand the curves, how they work, and how they impact OTHER graphs (for those of you studying for AP Macro right now, 

 by Jacob Clifford is great!). Like #1, you should understand the ins-and-outs of each graph and know how to APPLY them rather than just know "demand is downward sloping". This will come in handy on the free response questions - problems where you will be required to not draw these graphs and apply them to situations. Not only this, but graphing can come in super handy on tricky multiple choice questions. Being able to draw a quick AD-AS graph on the side like it's second nature can help you visualize scenarios and understand the question better.

When walking into that exam at 12PM, the last thing you want to be thinking is “oh jeez, what will the questions look like?” or “How much time do we have for the free response?” If you know the exam, these fears will go away. More importantly, however, is knowing what the questions on the exam will look like. In order to accomplish this, you need to do 

! For example, after a while, you’ll realize that FRQ #1 follows a similar structure and know what to expect. If you consistently practice this and know what to expect walking into the exam, it can relieve exam stress and help you with time management along with answering the questions. 

#4 - Stay Up To Date With Modern Economics

In AP Macro, you’ll be learning about all sorts of models, theories, and policies that have varying effects on the economy. A really simple way to keep your skills sharp and see how your knowledge can actually be applied is by staying up to date with modern economics. For example, see what the Federal Reserve and the government are doing to respond to real life economic issues!

While you don’t have to become super political or know everything, just reading or watching the news every so often can help you see how the material in AP Macro is applied in the real world. For example, if you read in the news that a recession is coming, you can keep track and see what the Federal Reserve actually does to respond to economic problems. This will allow you to see the impact that the material in AP Macro has, and how different topics relate to each other in the broader economy.

If you keep up with this, not only will you become a more informed citizen, but you will also become better at AP Macro.

A huge tip for AP Macro that cannot go unnoticed is that if you don’t understand something, you need to get help as soon as you can. This is because all of the material in AP Macro is additive and builds on each other. If you have trouble with Supply and Demand in unit one and don’t get help quickly, you will have a hard time understanding aggregate supply and demand in unit 3 and then trouble with questions regarding policy in units 3, 4, and 5.

As you can probably tell, this chain of events can prove detrimental to success in AP Macro. In order to make sure you don’t fall down this spiral. Get help IMMEDIATELY when you’re confused with something, whether that is early in unit 1 with comparative advantage, or later in the year with foreign exchange or monetary policy.

With these 5 tips, and a little bit of work on your part, getting a 5 on AP Macro should be a piece of cake!

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Unit 1: Basic Economic Concepts

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Unit 1: Basic Economic Concepts﻿

Unit 2: Economic Indicators and the Business Cycle﻿

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Unit 1: Basic Economic Concepts

Unit 2: Economic Indicators and the Business Cycle

Unit 3: National Income and Price Determination

Unit 4: Financial Sector

Unit 5: Long-Run Consequences of Stabilization Policies

Unit 6: Open Economy-International Trade and Finance

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