AP Macroeconomics

Advanced Placement 'Macroeconomics' is an Advanced Placement macroeconomics course for high school students that culminates in an exam offered by the College Board.
Study begins with fundamental economic concepts such as scarcity, opportunity costs, production possibilities, specialization, comparative advantage, demand, supply, and price determination.
Major topics include measurement of economic performance, national income and price determination, fiscal and monetary policy, and international economics and growth. AP Macroeconomics is frequently taught in conjunction with AP Microeconomics as part of a comprehensive AP Economics curriculum, although more students take the former.

Topic outline

Source:

Basic Economic Concepts (5–10%)

Scarcity, choice, and opportunity costs
Production possibilities curve
Comparative advantage, absolute advantage, specialization, and exchange
Demand, supply, and market equilibrium
Macroeconomic issues: business cycle, unemployment, inflation, growth

Economic Indicators and the Business Cycle (12–17%)

National income accounts
*Circular flow
*Gross domestic product
*Components of gross domestic product
*Real versus nominal gross domestic product
Unemployment
*Definition and measurement
*Types of unemployment
*Natural rate of unemployment
Inflation measurement and adjustment
*Price indices
*Costs of inflation
*Nominal vs real values
Business cycles
*Recession and expansion
*Output gap

National Income and Price Determination">Price determination">Price Determination (17–27%)

Aggregate demand
*Determinants of aggregate demand
*Multiplier and crowding-out effects
Aggregate supply
*Short-run and long-run analyses
*Sticky versus flexible wages and prices
*Determinants of aggregate supply
Macroeconomic Equilibrium
*Real output and price level
*Short and long run
*Actual versus full-employment output
*Economic fluctuations
Fiscal Policy
*Expansionary and contractionary
*Lag time
*Automatic stabilizers

Exam

Multiple Choice (2/3 of Score)

60 questions in 70 minutes
Reflects topic outline above
Example: 3-6 questions on economic growth

Free Response (1/3 of Score)

3 questions in 60 minutes

Score distribution

The exam was first held in 1989, along with Microeconomics. Grade distributions since 2015 are as follows:

Score	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
5	15.2%	17.4%	17.4%	19.7%	19.1%	19.7%	18.0%	16.4%	17.1%	16%
4	22.2%	23.4%	23.3%	22.6%	23.0%	25.0%	19.6%	20.0%	22.9%	21%
3	17.1%	16.1%	16.9%	16.2%	16.9%	18.5%	13.7%	15.4%	24.7%	25%
2	17.0%	17.0%	15.8%	16.8%	14.9%	16.2%	15.7%	15.1%	21.6%	23%
1	28.4%	26.0%	26.6%	24.7%	26.2%	20.5%	32.9%	33.1%	13.7%	15%
% of scores 3 or higher	54.6%	57.0%	57.6%	58.5%	58.9%	63.2%	51.3%	51.8%	64.7%	62%
Mean	2.79	2.89	2.89	2.96	2.94	3.07	2.74	2.71	3.08	3.00
Standard deviation	1.45	1.46	1.46	1.47	1.48	1.42	1.52	1.50	1.29	1.30
Number of Students	126,267	134,638	141,649	146,673	146,091	122,639	124,436	134,413	164,505	160,741

Criticism

Tawni Ferrarini, James Gwartney, and John Morton have written that the examination does not adequately cover recent advances in the field: "The AP macroeconomics exam and resources largely reflect the simplistic Keynesian view from the 1960s and 1970s." The College Board updates the AP Macroeconomics curriculum with the guidance of college and high school economics instructors. The most recent update was published in 2022.