Are you preparing for the AP Microeconomics Exam? If so, you’ve come to the right place! Marks Education prides itself in our expert tutors and their top-notch AP prep services. This blog, like our How to Prepare for the Macroeconomics blog, was written based on an interview with Marks Education’s own Ryan Blodgett. Ryan is an expert at meeting students where they are, and alongside tutoring more subjects than any other Marks tutor, he also has experience coaching students scoring in the top and bottom 1% to success.
Whether you’re reading this months, weeks, or days before the exam, this blog is written so that everyone can take something away from it. AP Microeconomics is a challenging class, but one that, if done well, provides benefits that last a lifetime. To do well on this exam means potentially gaining college credit, increasing scholarship opportunities, and gaining relevant career knowledge, but some students just need that extra sense of direction to do their best. We hope you enjoy this blog and learn something new.
Test Day
Exam Structure
Section I: Multiple Choice
60 questions | 1 hour and 10 minutes | 66% of exam score
Section II: Free Response
3 questions | 1 hour (includes a 10-minute reading period) | 33% of score
Unit 1: Basic Economic Concepts: Weighted 12-15%
- Scarcity, resource allocation, and economic systems
- The Production Possibilities Curve
- Comparative advantage and gains from trade
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Marginal analysis and consumer choice
Unit 2: Supply and Demand: Weighted 20-25%
- Supply and Demand
- Elasticity
- Market Equilibrium, disequilibrium, and changes in equilibrium
- The effects of government intervention in markets
- International trade and public policy
Unit 3: Production, Cost, and the Perfect Competition Model: Weighted 22-25%
- The production function
- Short and long-term production costs
- Types of profit
- Profit maximization
- Perfect competition
Unit 4: Imperfect Competition: Weighted 15-22%
- Monopoly
- Price discrimination
- Monopolistic competition
- Oligopoly and game theory
Unit 5: Factor Markets: Weighted 10-13%
- Introduction to factor markets
- Changes in factor demand and factor supply
- Profit-maximizing behavior in perfectly competitive factor markets
- Monopsonistic markets
Unit 6: Market Failure and the Role of Government Weighted: 8-13%
- Socially efficient and inefficient market outcomes
- Public and private goods
- Externalities
- The effects of government intervention in different market structures
- Income and wealth inequality
Tips from our team
Timing
Like the AP Macro exam, on the AP Microeconomics exam, students often don’t realize how much time they actually have for the multiple-choice section of the test. With 1 hour and 10 minutes for 60 questions, you’re getting over a minute per question– and most questions don’t even require intensive calculations. This means that you have time to carefully answer what is being asked and possibly even double-check your work afterwards.
The free response section is equally forgiving on the time front, with a full hour for just three questions. You’re given more time than you might expect to think through these complex scenarios and, most importantly, to draw detailed, well-labeled graphs. Our biggest tip? Don’t rush! Use this extra time to your advantage and make sure that your graphs are clear, neat, and well labeled. Label every line and axis on every graph, at a minimum, but we recommend labeling everything relevant you can think of. You won’t be penalized for correctly over-labeling, but you will be penalized for leaving things out. Not only might this help you answer the questions correctly, but it also potentially wins points in your explanations.
The Importance of Drawing it Out
Another critical mistake students often make is that they don’t take the time to draw everything out. They try to work through these complex economic situations in their heads, and while this might seem like a time saver, it actually isn’t. There is a reason why the Microeconomics exam is so graph-heavy– it isn’t just some additional hurdle or headache the test makers are throwing at you– the graphs are actually visual representations of economic relationships that wouldn’t be clear otherwise. They aren’t as naturally intuitive as most students believe, and this actually ends up costing them what would otherwise be obvious or easy points.
When you encounter a question about market structures, economic behavior, etc., we recommend that you always draw the relevant graphs. Seeing supply and demand curves, cost curves, or market equilibrium points on paper helps you spot relationships and changes that you might miss if you’re just thinking through the problem. The graphs help show you what is happening in a way that makes the economics of it all much more obvious, so do yourself a favor– draw the graphs.
When to Start Your Exam Prep
The timing as to when you start your prep depends mostly on when you took the course and how well you performed in it. However, generally, we recommend starting 1-2 months before your exam.
If you earned good grades and felt confident with the material during the course, you may be fine with just a solid month of review. However, if you struggled with concepts during the class or if your course wasn’t specifically AP-focused, you might want to consider starting earlier to give yourself time for deeper content review.
Course timing also matters significantly. Some students take Microeconomics as a semester course rather than a full-year class, so depending on your situation, the answer to this question is different. If you took AP Micro as a fall semester course, you’ll likely need extra time to refresh concepts that may not be as clear in your memory. Don’t underestimate how much you might have forgotten– build in time to relearn, not just review.
For students taking Microeconomics as a spring semester or year-long course, your timing becomes a bit trickier. You’re trying to balance learning new content while preparing for the exam itself. It’s especially important to pay close attention to whether or not your class is on track to finish the material before the test day. If not, you might need to do some independent learning or consider working with a tutor to make sure that you’re on track.
Resources
When it comes to preparing for the AP Microeconomics exam, practicing with real exam questions is undoubtedly the best way to go. The College Board has released decades of free-response questions that you can access free of charge. These questions give you a sense of what you can expect on the exam, how it’s formatted, and scored, allowing you to walk into the test with a better understanding of what earns you points.
There are many excellent test prep books out there. Your Marks Education tutor is happy to recommend some. One free online review source we recommend is Khan Academy, which offers detailed Microeconomics modules with review questions.
Another one of our personal favorites is a YouTube channel run by Jacob Clifford. He has excellent 30-minute AP review videos, specifically one for the AP Microeconomics exam that is perfect for right before the test. His videos synthesize everything you’ve learned into key takeaways that are great for brushing up your skills.
Interested to learn more about what Marks Education could do for your test prep experience?