Coach Draghi

The 2026 AP Calculus BC exam scores: 5: 46%; 4: 22%; 3: 14%; 2: 14%; 1: 4% The 2026 AP Calculus BC exam was taken by ~171,000 students — roughly 1% of the U.S. high school population. AP Calculus BC Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ) • AP Calculus BC students scored especially well on questions related to Unit 1: Limits and Continuity (35% earned all points) and Units 4 and 5: Applications of Differentiation, such that students earning AP 3+ scores answered most of these questions correctly. • The most challenging MCQ content area was Unit 10: Infinite Sequences and Series, a unit requiring students to master convergence tests, power series, and error bounds for series approximations, for example. Earning 100% of these points was rare, given how difficult and advanced this unit is; 3% of students achieved a perfect score on this unit. AP Calculus BC Free-Response Questions (FRQ) Each AP exam has multiple versions for different time zones. I'll focus the commentary below on the version taken by most students: apcentral.collegeboard.org/m… Collectively spanning the AP Calculus BC curriculum, the six FRQs included rate modeling with tabular data, polar curve analysis, differential equations, graphical reasoning, area-volume applications, and Maclaurin series. Throughout the FRQs, students must communicate reasoning. For example, they needed to construct arguments, interpret a definite integral in context, evaluate the validity of a slope field, and determine the convergence of a series. Since AP scores are reported on a 5-point scale, the free-response questions deliberately include some very difficult points designed to differentiate AP 5s from AP 4s, points of varying difficulty to differentiate AP 4s, 3s, and 2s, and more foundational points to separate AP 2s from AP 1s. The following commentary will focus on the questions unique to Calculus BC: FRQ #2 — Polar Curve: Area and Tangent Lines Q2, the Polar Curve question, tested students' ability to work with polar functions — finding the area of a polar region using a definite integral, working with the slope of a line tangent to a polar curve, and analyzing curve behavior. The second point in Part C (answer using a derivative test) and both points for Part D were the most difficult points of this FRQ. These served to differentiate students achieving AP 5s, who could typically earn these points, from other students. FRQ #5 — Area, Volume, and Perimeter Q5, the Area-Volume question, asked students to evaluate a definite integral without the use of a calculator, write an integral expression for the volume of a solid of revolution, write an integral for the perimeter of a region (arc length), and evaluate an improper integral. Students receiving AP 1s were not usually able to earn points on this question. Rather, it served especially well to differentiate among AP 3s, 4s, and 5s. For example: • Students earning AP 3s consistently earned points across Parts A and B, as well as the antiderivative point in Part D, whereas students receiving AP 2s did not. • Students earning AP 5s were consistently able to succeed on Part C, the most difficult part of this FRQ, whereas students receiving AP 3s and 4s were more likely to struggle and only earn partial points here. FRQ #6 — Maclaurin Series In this demanding question, which tended to differentiate between AP scores of 4 and 5, students were given a Maclaurin series for a function g and asked to find the sum of g(3) (an alternating geometric series), find a series for the derivative g', justify an error bound, and write a Maclaurin series for a related function. • In Part B, students earning AP 3s could typically write two terms of the series for g', while students earning AP 4s were more likely to proceed and write the remaining two terms. • In Part D (ii), students earning AP 4s were typically able to write two terms of the series for the related function, and students earning AP 5s were typically able to write all three terms. • Part C was the most challenging segment of this FRQ, with these points generally earned only by students achieving AP 5s. All subjects' AP score distributions for 2026 will be posted here when available: apstudents.org/score-distrib…