AP Macroeconomics Progress Check answers, explained.
College Board builds six Progress Checks for AP Macroeconomics, one for each unit, and publishes what each one contains. This page walks through all six: the topics each Progress Check tests, the mistakes that cost the most points, and what actually earns credit. Explanations only, never AP Classroom answer keys. Working on a different subject? Start from the Progress Check hub.
What is actually in each Progress Check.
College Board publishes the composition of every Progress Check in the AP Macroeconomics Course and Exam Description, once in the Course at a Glance and again inside each unit guide. Both surfaces agree, and most study sites carry no per-unit figures at all.
| Unit | Progress Check | Multiple-choice | Free-response | Weighting on the multiple-choice section |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Progress Check 1 | ~20 | 2 short | 5–10% |
| Unit 2 | Progress Check 2 | ~20 | 2 short | 12–17% |
| Unit 3 | Progress Check 3 | ~25 | 2 short | 17–27% |
| Unit 4 | Progress Check 4 | ~20 | 2 short | 18–23% |
| Unit 5 | Progress Check 5 | ~20 | 1 long | 20–30% |
| Unit 6 | Progress Check 6 | ~20 | 1 long | 10–13% |
That last column is College Board’s own figure, and it is scoped to the multiple-choice section of the exam rather than the whole exam. Unit 5 is the heaviest at 20 to 30 percent and Unit 1 the lightest at 5 to 10 percent, which is the fastest way to decide where revision time goes.
Two things fall out of the table. Progress Check 3 is the largest, at about 25 multiple-choice questions. And Units 5 and 6 are the only two whose Progress Check carries a long free-response question instead of two short ones, which is why those two feel different from the rest.
Does the score count toward your grade?
No, and College Board is unusually direct about it. Because the Progress Checks are formative, their results cannot be used to assign letter grades to students or to evaluate teachers, and College Board states that misusing them that way is grounds for a school losing its authorization to offer AP courses. Your Progress Check percentage is feedback. It is not a grade, and it is not a predicted AP score.
You already have the explanations
Inside AP Classroom, every Progress Check multiple-choice question comes with a rationale explaining the correct and incorrect options, and the free-response questions come with scoring information. That is College Board’s own explanation, it is already yours, and reading it properly is worth more than any answer key. The walkthroughs below are built to help you do that.
A Progress Check is not the exam
The AP Macro exam runs 2 hours 10 minutes: 60 multiple-choice questions worth 66.65 percent of the score, then three free-response questions worth 33.35 percent, with a 10-minute reading period. Those three are one long question worth 10 points and two short questions worth 5 points each. Progress Check free-response questions are shorter and narrower than that, so for how the real free response is structured and scored, read the AP Macroeconomics FRQ guide.
College Board also notes that the unit sequence is an optional one for teachers, and that course content may be paired with a variety of skills on the exam. A Progress Check tests a unit as it was taught. The exam can combine any content with any skill, which is the main reason a strong Progress Check score is not a promise.
All six units, expandable.
Open a unit for what its Progress Check tests, the mistake that costs the most points, and what earns credit.
U01Unit 1 · Basic Economic Concepts
- Scarcity
- Opportunity cost and the PPC
- Comparative advantage
- PPC graph analysis
U02Unit 2 · Economic Indicators and the Business Cycle
- GDP and the circular flow
- Unemployment
- Price indices and inflation
- GDP calculation
U03Unit 3 · National Income and Price Determination
- Aggregate demand and aggregate supply
- Multipliers
- Fiscal policy
- AD–AS shift analysis
Unit 3 has its own full walkthrough: AP Macroeconomics Unit 3 Progress Check.
U04Unit 4 · Financial Sector
- Money and its functions
- Banking and the money supply
- Monetary policy
- Open-market operations
U05Unit 5 · Long-Run Consequences of Stabilization Policies
- The Phillips curve
- Inflation expectations
- Economic growth
- Phillips curve shift
U06Unit 6 · Open Economy: International Trade and Finance
- Exchange rates and the foreign exchange market
- Balance of payments
- Trade and capital flows
- Exchange-rate effects
Turn a raw score into a 1–5.
A Progress Check percentage is not an AP score. To see roughly what a full practice raw score would become, put your multiple-choice count and free-response points into the calculator.
Open Macro calculatorGo deeper on Unit 3.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers, checked against College Board.
What is the difference between Macro Progress Checks and the real AP exam?
Progress Checks are formative practice that AP Classroom assigns unit by unit, and College Board attaches no 1–5 score to them. The exam is scored differently from how most people assume. College Board states that AP Exams are not norm-referenced and not graded on a curve; they are criterion-referenced, so every student who meets the criteria for a 2, 3, 4 or 5 receives that score, no matter how many students do. Your raw score is weighted across the two sections and converted to a 1–5 composite against those criteria.
Does my Progress Check score count toward my grade?
Not as a grade. College Board states that because the Progress Checks are formative, their results cannot be used to assign letter grades to students or to evaluate teacher effectiveness, and that misusing them that way is grounds for a school losing its authorization to offer AP courses. Your teacher may still expect you to complete them.
Where are the answers?
Inside AP Classroom. Every Progress Check multiple-choice question comes with a rationale explaining the correct and incorrect options, and the free-response questions come with scoring information. That is College Board’s own explanation and you already have access to it.
Should I do every Progress Check or skip around?
Do them in order the first time, because each unit builds on the last. If you are reviewing in May, start with Unit 5 and Unit 4: they carry the heaviest multiple-choice weighting, at 20 to 30 percent and 18 to 23 percent.
Why do you not publish exact answer keys?
AP Classroom assignments are graded as your own work. Posting raw keys would help cheaters and harm the students using Curve for actual studying. Our walkthroughs explain reasoning, not letter answers.