On the AP Micro exam, you'll be faced with two main parts: the multiple-choice section (MCQs) and the free-response section (FRQs). The multiple-choice section is the most significant section of the test, making up 66% of your score. On the exam, you'll be given 70 minutes (1h10m) to answer 60 questions from all 6 units of the course, everything from supply and demand to imperfect competition to market failures.

❓ What Kind Of Questions Can You Expect?

While there are no set types of questions, there are many different recurring themes throughout the multiple-choice section. We'll go over some super common types of questions and then give you some general tips for how to tackle the MCQ.

The first and most obvious type of questions are recall questions, which are simple definitions or rules. For example, a recall question might ask, "which of the following best describes GDP?" These questions may seem simple, but they can also trip you up if you don't know your material. You might get stuck between two very similar answers or second guess yourself, but with solid preparation and a little self-confidence, you can tackle recall questions with ease!

For this question, there really is nothing you can do besides simply 

 what an oligopoly is. However, let's suppose you saw this question and went "oh no! I've completely forgotten about oligopolies, I'm absolutely getting this question wrong". Fear not! While these questions do require simple recall, there are strategies you can use to help your chances. These typically are your run of the mill MCQ tips - cross out distractors/blatantly wrong answers, narrow it down, and take your best guess.

For example, in this question, you can pretty quickly cross out (A) and (B) if you understand how imperfect competition works. In imperfect competition, the only market structure marked by a high number of sellers is monopolistic competition. Therefore, we can confidently cross out (A) and (B). This process can be repeated until you narrow it down.

The correct answer to this question is choice 

. An oligopoly is an imperfect market structure marked by few competing sellers that are interdependent on each others' actions (hence why when dealing with oligopolies game theory is such an important topic). As you can see, this question is just a simple definition.

The second type of AP Micro MCQs is "table questions". While these questions require a bit of straight knowledge, they also involve tables of typically two different indicators. These can be solved in your head, by graphing, or by any means that help you solve the problem. With these questions, in particular, there is no "best" way to approach them. If you have strategies that work for you, go for it! The most common form of this question typically involves a policy action followed by its 

This question presents you with a scenario - 

a per-unit tax has been placed on pollution produced by a firm

. These questions can be particularly tricky not only in the economics of the question but also in the wording. You 

 make sure that you read the question carefully and know exactly what it's asking. If it had asked about a lump-sum tax rather than a per-unit tax, the answer could be completely different. 

A solid strategy for these questions is to look at one column before addressing the next. This often allows you to knock out half of the answer choices. For example, let's suppose you knew exactly what'd happen to output, but not entirely sure what'd happen to pollution. In this instance, you can look at the answers for "output" and knock out two to three choices.

The correct answer for that column is that output will decrease because a per-unit tax will cause the supply curve to shift to the left, leading to a decrease in output. Even if you knew nothing about what happens to consumption, you've narrowed down your guesses to either (C) or (D), from a 20% chance to a 50% chance. We're not economists, but we'd take those odds over the old ones 😉.

From this point, you can either take a blind guess, or you can think a little deeper. Even if you don't have an exact rule on real interest rates' effect on spending, we can think realistically. If production goes down, logically thinking, pollution would decrease as well - production is simply lower. This isn't an economic realization, it is simply a logical following from our conclusion that output will decrease. Thus the correct answer is (

Graphing is often a  🔑 trick to help answer MCQs on the AP Micro exam. Even though graphing is not required outside of the Free Response section, knowing how to quickly slap together a graph to see the impacts of policy/scenarios can save you. You don't have to make it pretty or label everything because it's just for you, but make sure you are drawing the right graph and understand the impacts of shifting curves.

Here's a question in which a graph would be helpful:

Step 1: A constant-cost, perfectly competitive gadget industry is in long-run equilibrium

This is a simple perfect competition graph. To draw this graph, we need two things: a graph of the market and a graph of the firm. Remember, we are in 

A nice, beautiful perfectly competitive firm. NOTE: Despite being slightly above, ATC is meant to touch the marginal revenue curve, just hard to draw 🙂 

Above is the correct and fully labeled graph. This includes the market with supply and demand and the firm with MC, ATC, and MR=D=P. While things are missing like the profit-maximizing quantity and the equilibrium price and quantity, we can add those things in the next step. Note that in MCQ, your graphs don't have to be pretty like this! They can be scraggly and unlabeled as long as 

 know what you're doing and what each curve means.

Step 2: An increase in the number of consumers of gadgets

Next we see that there is an increase in the number of consumers of gadgets. This will translate on our graph as a rightward shift in the demand curve like so:

From this graph, the question becomes pretty simple. We see that in shifting demand right, the equilibrium price and quantity both increase for the market. Thus, because of the increase in equilibrium price, MR=D=P shifts up as well due to the fact that perfectly competitive markets are price 

. Thus, price increases in the short run and quantity in both the firm and market increase, thus the answer is (

We've laid out a bunch of information about the multiple-choice section on the AP Micro 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 MCQs is 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!! You've got this, happy studying!🎉

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AP Microeconomics Multiple Choice Help (MCQ)

The AP Microeconomics Exam consists of two sections: (1) Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs) and (2) Free-Response Questions (FRQs). The multiple-choice section consists of 60 questions, each with 5 answer choices. You have 70 minutes for the multiple-choice section which gives you a little over a minute per question. The Free-Response section consists of three questions: one long question and two short questions. 📚

A couple of important rules for the test:

No colored pencils/pens (Blue or black pens only)

Below is the breakdown of each section of the exam including the types of questions, how many questions, weighting and timing. ⏳

The AP Micro exam assesses content from the following four ideas for the course. Every question whether it be multiple-choice or free-response will involve content from these four areas. 📖

The College Board has given us a basic breakdown of how much each concept will be covered on the exam 📊: 

Section 1: Multiple-Choice Questions 🤓

In this section, you will have a total of 60 questions in which you will be tested on your ability to (1) define economic principles and models, (2) explain given economic outcomes, (3) determine outcomes of specific economic situations, and (4) answer questions based on a graph or visual representation that is provided. There will be about 20 - 30% of the multiple-choice questions that ask you to analyze number or perform calculations.

Read the question carefully. Pay close attention to specific wording, like the word "NOT", used in the stem of the question.

Try to answer the question yourself before reading the answer choices.

Guess if you can eliminate one or more answer choices.

If you are really lost on where to begin, try looking for answer choices that mean the same thing but are worded differently; these can be eliminated right off the bat!

Remember that drawing a picture/graph can help.

Don't spend too much time on any one question! Move on and come back to a tricky question later.

All of these questions can be found in the 

AP Microeconomics Course and Exam Description

. Try the next few questions out! All the answers are at the bottom of this section.

1. B; This is basically the application of the definition of scarcity. Limited resources vs. unlimited wants.

2. (Yes, there were two questions that were number two LOL.) C; When applying the economics concept of marginal analysis, we maximize our time and resources by participating in an activity where marginal benefit equals marginal cost.  In the graph above marginal benefit and marginal cost meet at S2.

4. C; Economic surplus is maximized where quantity demanded equals quantity supplied which, in the graph above, is P2 and Q2.

6. C; When we calculate cross-price elasticity, we always divide the percent change in quantity demanded of Good A by the percent change in price for Good B. For cross-price elasticity, we also keep the positive and negative signs intact.  So for this problem, we will divide -5 (quantity demanded change for cheese) by a +2 (price change for bologna).  The answer is a negative (-) 2.5, which means that the goods are complements.

12. E; Profit-maximizing quantity is where MR=MC, which in this graph is Q1. Revenue-maximizing quantity is where Total Revenue (TR) is highest, which means that MR=0. In this graph, that is at Q3.

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