1. Tips for taking the Exam and making the grader give you the Maximum Score! 
Plus: Exam Scoring How is it done? How many questions are there? Do they all count the same? What score will I make?

2. Overall Exam Format The AP Statistics Exam is three hours long.
(1) 90-minute multiple-choice section consisting of 40 questions, then
(2) 90-minute free-response section consisting of 5 Free Response questions (#1 through #5) and 1 Investigative Task (#6) involving more “extended reasoning”
Each section is 50% of your overall grade.

3. 1st section - Multiple Choice
AP Exam Scoring – MC
1st section - Multiple Choice
40 questions
Raw Score = total correct
1.25 * Raw Score → possible 50 points
Blanks count as incorrect. Everything is either right or wrong – no “deciding which ones to skip”

4. AP Exam Scoring – FR 2nd Section - Free Response
All six questions are scored 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4
Questions #1 through #5
1.875 x Score → possible 7.5 points each
5 questions x 7.5→ possible 37.5 points
Question #6 – The Investigative Task
3.125 x Score → possible 12.5 points
** #6 counts a lot more than #1-5! **
Total points possible = 50

5. A Scoring Example: You get 50% of the MC’s correct:
20/40 x 1.25 = 25 points so far
Amazingly, you score 2’s on all 6 of the FR’s:
2 x x = more points,
For a total of points.
What AP Exam Score would this be?
> Based on last year’s scale, a high 3! (37 to 48)

6. Another Scoring Example:
You get 60% of the MC’s correct:
24/40 x 1.25 = 30 points so far
You average 2.5 on your 6 the FR’s:
2.5 x x = 26.6 more points,
For a total of 56.6 points.
What AP Exam Score would this be?
> Based on last year’s scale, a 4! (49 to 62)

7. One Last Scoring Example:
You get 67% of the MC’s correct:
27/40 x 1.25 = points so far
You average 2.75 on your 6 of the FR’s:
2.5 x x = 29.2 more points,
For a total of 63 points.
What AP Exam Score would this be?
> Based on last year’s scale, a 5! (63 and up)

8. Free Response Timing
Students are expected to spend about 12 minutes (on average) on problems #1 through #5 and about 25 minutes on #6, “The Investigative Task.”
(5 times 12 plus 25 = 85 minutes!)
Be sure to allow sufficient time for problem #6.
One strategy is to first work on #1 – it’s usually the easiest – and then select them based on your familiarity with the question. DEFINITELY work on #6!
If you run out of time, it would be much better to omit one of the five regular free response questions, since they count less than #6.

9. Free Response #6
Almost always, the initial parts of The Investigative Task will look much like other free response questions and will not involve “more extended reasoning.”
Be sure to take the time to do these parts well.
Other students may leave all of #6 blank - if you have some parts correct, you will be ahead of the others.
BE SURE TO DO AT LEAST PART OF #6 !!!

10. Expect the Unexpected
Do not panic when you see something that you have not covered in your class.
Look for hints in the problem.
Read the problem carefully so that you do not overlook the guidance you are provided.
If the problem tells you to use “Part A,” be sure to use it. This instruction can help you know what to do.

11. Other Exam Hints
Try to do something on every problem, even if you are not sure your answers are correct.
If you are stuck on one part of a problem, move on to other parts. For example part (c) might be “do-able” even though you couldn’t do part (b).
Leave a problem when you have done all that you can – do not spend forever on one problem. Return to the other free response questions and work on those that you skipped.

12. My Top Five Exam Tips!
(5) Put ALL conclusions and interpretations IN THE CONTEXT of the problem. (That is, if the problem is about the true population proportion of students who have a tattoo, then be sure your writing talks about it! (4) It’s all about COMMUNICATION. Tell the grader what and why you are doing it. (e.g. If you are checking conditions to see if you can use the normal distribution, then tell the grader what it is that you are doing.)

13. My Top Five Exam Tips!
(3) Just because you can’t figure out part A or part B of a problem, doesn’t mean that you can’t do part C! > Try all parts of a problem. If part C clearly depends on a value from part A – and you didn’t get part A – then make up a value, tell the grader that you’re doing, and use it. (2) When all else fails – write something that is correct! (e.g. “randomly sampled,” why you’re using the t-distribution, a correct Confidence Interval interpretation, something!)

14. The Last One…..
(1) Compared to the rest of the nation and the 175,000 Stats Exams that will be taken on May 11, YOU ARE SMARTER THAN YOU THINK!
Check these out!
Sad -- but completely real -- Student Responses from Real AP Stats Exams that I have graded for College Board in past years…..
* “I am 100% confident that I will score between a 1 and a 1 on this exam. Sorry.”

15. “Say ‘eenie, meenie, minie, moe’ randomly 2000 times.”
“I’m sorry for wasting your time with this pitiful exam. I am, however, providing job security for you.”
* (When asked to describe a sampling method where two thousand items are to be chosen)
“Say ‘eenie, meenie, minie, moe’ randomly 2000 times.”
* (On a paper that was otherwise left blank)
“See my scratch paper for the correct answers”

16. “I can’t figure out how to do this problem at all
“I can’t figure out how to do this problem at all. I hope you’re having a nice day. I would like to point out, in my defense, that my Stats teacher selfishly stayed in Europe after Spring Break for an extra week and a half and didn’t prepare us properly for this exam. But hey, what’s that compared to you having to grade a jillion of these pathetic exams?”
………And my personal favorite………
(This was a problem where the students were instructed to give a correct interpretation of a 95% confidence interval in a question about the proportion of people who own dogs)
“Everyone has a dog. After all, is it not man’s best friend? Having a dog gives people a big confidence boost – sometimes as high as 95%.”

17. The Point?
There are lots of “other” students out there!

18. BE THE TAIL!
2.5%

19. Good Luck!