AP Microeconomics · 39 questions
Past multiple-choice questions
Public sample multiple-choice questions from College Board for AP Microeconomics, sorted by the unit and topic each one tests in the current course. Each one opens College Board's own page beside its answer choices, and tells you right away whether your pick matches College Board's answer key.
College Board printed these questions as samples in the AP Microeconomics course and exam descriptions and course overviews and, before 2019, in the AP Economics course description booklets it shared with AP Macroeconomics. We read 5 source PDFs; each question links to its source. A question printed in more than one is listed once, from the newest PDF that prints it. Your picks stay in this browser and are never sent anywhere.
Unit 1: Basic Economic Concepts
- Topic 1.1 · Question 1 · Four-function calculator Why every society has to choose Societies must decide what gets made and who gets it. Pick the reason that decision cannot be avoided.
- Topic 1.1 · Question 1, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Three claims about scarcity Three numbered statements describe when scarcity exists. Decide which of them are correct.
- Topic 1.6 · Question 2 · Four-function calculator Choosing how many hours to study A graph plots the marginal benefit and marginal cost of each extra hour a student studies. Pick the true statement about the hours marked on it.
Unit 2: Supply and Demand
- Topic 2.3 · Question 5, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Spending on discs after a price cut A consumer spends the same total on compact discs after their price falls. Choose what that says about the consumer's demand.
- Topic 2.5 · Question 6 · Four-function calculator Bologna prices and cheese purchases A small rise in the price of bologna cuts the amount of cheese people want. Compute the cross-price elasticity and say how the two goods relate.
- Topic 2.6 · Question 4 · Four-function calculator Where total surplus is largest A supply and demand graph marks three prices and three quantities. Find the pair at which buyers and sellers together gain the most.
- Topic 2.7 · Question 2, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator What must raise the price of peaches Each choice pairs events in the peach market. Find the pair that pushes the price up for certain.
- Topic 2.7 · Question 3 · Four-function calculator Oranges priced under equilibrium The price of oranges sits below the level where the market clears. Choose the statement that describes the market at that price.
- Topic 2.7 · Question 3, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator A higher price for a normal good A diagram shows supply and demand for a normal good, with two marked prices. Choose what could move the market to the higher one.
- Topic 2.8 · Question 5 · Four-function calculator Surplus areas under a price floor On the same lettered graph, a floor is set at the highest marked price. Match the areas to what buyers keep, what sellers keep and what is lost.
- Topic 2.8 · Question 14, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Revenue from a per-unit tax An excise tax shifts supply on a lettered diagram. Find the area equal to what the government collects.
- Topic 2.8 · Question 15, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Who pays an excise tax With the same diagram, decide who ends up carrying the cost of the tax.
- Topic 2.8 · Question 16, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Deadweight loss of the excise tax With the same diagram, find the area of surplus the tax wipes out.
- Topic 2.8 · Question 23, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Surplus areas after an excise tax A lettered graph shows a market before and after a per-unit tax. Match the areas to what buyers keep, what sellers keep and what the tax wastes.
Unit 3: Production, Cost, and the Perfect Competition Model
- Topic 3.2 · Question 6, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Why short-run marginal cost turns up A firm keeps raising output in the short run. Pick the reason its marginal cost eventually climbs.
- Topic 3.2 · Question 7 · Four-function calculator When diminishing returns begin Labor is the only input a firm can vary. Identify what changes at the point where each added worker starts adding less.
- Topic 3.2 · Question 8, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Average cost against marginal cost Choose the statement about average and marginal cost curves that holds every time.
- Topic 3.2 · Question 20, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Marginal cost of the fourth unit A table lists a firm's total cost at outputs from 0 to 6. Compute the extra cost of the fourth unit.
- Topic 3.2 · Question 21, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Variable cost at five units From the same table, find the variable cost of making five units.
- Topic 3.3 · Question 8 · Four-function calculator Spotting economies of scale Choose the cost pattern that shows economies of scale as a firm grows its output.
- Topic 3.5 · Question 22, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Best output from the cost table Using the same cost table, decide which output earns the firm the most profit.
- Topic 3.6 · Question 9 · Four-function calculator Shutting down at a price of $4 A competitive firm makes 200 units where price meets its upward sloping marginal cost, and its average costs are given. Work out how much closing would save.
- Topic 3.6 · Question 10, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator The short-run shutdown price On the same diagram, find the price below which the firm should produce nothing for now.
- Topic 3.7 · Question 9, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Profit area at price 0A A lettered cost diagram shows a competitive firm. Find the rectangle that measures its economic profit at price 0A.
- Topic 3.7 · Question 10 · Four-function calculator A true statement about perfect competition Five claims describe a firm selling in a perfectly competitive market. Pick the one that holds.
- Topic 3.7 · Question 14 · Four-function calculator Which market setup hires the most labor Labor and output markets can each be competitive, monopolized or served by a single buyer. Find the setup that leads to the most workers hired.
- Topic 3.7 · Question 17, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator A competitive industry in long-run equilibrium A perfectly competitive industry has settled at its long-run equilibrium. Pick the statement most likely to hold.
Unit 4: Imperfect Competition
- Topic 4.1 · Question 11 · Four-function calculator Industries that are hard to enter New firms face steep obstacles to joining an industry. Choose the outcome that becomes more likely.
- Topic 4.1 · Question 13, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator A sign a market is not perfectly competitive Choose the equilibrium condition that rules out perfect competition.
- Topic 4.2 · Question 11, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator A monopolist's marginal cost shifts up Marginal cost rises for a monopolist. Predict what happens to its price and its output.
- Topic 4.2 · Question 12 · Four-function calculator A monopolist's two best quantities A graph shows a monopolist's revenue and cost curves with five marked quantities. Name the output for the most profit and the output for the most revenue.
- Topic 4.2 · Question 18, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Monopoly output and price, judged by efficiency Compare what a monopolist produces and charges with the efficient outcome.
- Topic 4.4 · Question 13 · Four-function calculator Monopolistic competition in the long run Pick the condition that describes where a monopolistically competitive firm produces once entry and exit have settled.
- Topic 4.5 · Question 19, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Strategy choices for Bright and Sparkle A payoff matrix gives profits for two oligopoly firms. Work out each firm's dominant strategy.
Unit 5: Factor Markets
- Topic 5.1 · Question 7, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Why marginal revenue product falls A firm hires in a competitive labor market. Identify what shrinks as more workers are added, bending its marginal revenue product curve down.
- Topic 5.3 · Question 4, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Splitting 100 workers between rods and beams A competitive steel maker sells rods and beams for the same price. Decide which rules put its identical workers to best use.
Unit 6: Market Failure and the Role of Government
- Topic 6.2 · Question 12, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator Toxic waste dumped into a river Competitive firms have been dumping waste at no charge. Predict how a policy that fixes the inefficiency changes industry output and price.
- Topic 6.2 · Question 15 · Four-function calculator Production that harms third parties Making a good puts costs on people outside the market. Choose the statement that follows.
- Topic 6.5 · Question 24, older AP Economics course description · Four-function calculator What a Lorenz curve measures Choose the economic question a Lorenz curve helps answer.
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