The AP Chemistry Exam covers a full-year introductory college course in chemistry with laboratory. The multiple-choice questions in Section I cover the breadth of the curriculum. Section II, the free-response part of the exam, includes three quantitative problems, one question on writing chemical reactions and predicting products, and two essays. One of the questions in Section II is based on laboratory; this question can either be a quantitative problem in Part A or an essay in Part B. There is no choice among the questions; all students must answer all six questions.
Calculators Policy:
Calculators are allowed on the free-response section for the first 55 minutes. During that time, students will work on three required problems. For the last 40 minutes, calculators must be put away as students work on the remaining free-response questions.
For the first 55 minutes, any programmable or graphing calculator may be used, with a few exceptions, and students are not required to erase their calculator memories before and after the exam. Although most calculators are permitted on the free-response section, calculators may not be shared with other students and those with typewriter-style (qwerty) keyboards will not be permitted on any part of the exam.
The free-response section emphasizes solving in-depth problems and writing essays where knowledge of which principles to apply and how to apply them is the most important aspect of the solution to these problems.