Loading…
Choose a pre-built study schedule for AP Precalculus covering polynomials, exponentials, trigonometry, and polar/parametric functions.
Fast review of functions, trig, and polar for students with a solid precalc foundation who need a final push before the AP exam.
Balanced study covering all four AP Precalculus units — polynomials, exponentials/logs, trigonometry, and polar/parametric — with regular quizzes and FRQ practice.
Complete AP Precalculus preparation with deep coverage of all units, extensive FRQ practice, calculator skills, and multiple timed practice exams.
Plans are added to your dashboard Study Planner where you can track progress, check off tasks, and adjust the schedule.
These study plans break exam prep into a day-by-day schedule, with options sized for different timelines — from a full runway down to a final-weeks push. Whichever plan you pick is added to your dashboard planner, where you can check off tasks and adjust the pace as you go. Choose the one that matches the time you actually have.
AP Precalculus is a relatively new College Board course designed to prepare students for calculus and other college-level quantitative work by developing fluency with families of functions. The course is built around four units: polynomial and rational functions; exponential and logarithmic functions; trigonometric and polar functions; and functions involving parameters, vectors, and matrices. Importantly, only the first three units are assessed on the end-of-course exam—Unit 4 is taught but not tested. The central skill the course develops is modeling: students learn to recognize which type of function fits a situation, to analyze functions through their rates of change and key features, and to move fluidly among graphical, numerical, analytical, and verbal representations. A recurring theme is covariation—how output values change as input values change—and students study average rates of change, concavity, and end behavior as precursors to calculus concepts. Trigonometry is treated thoroughly, including the unit circle, transformations of sinusoidal functions, identities, and polar coordinates. Students most often struggle with the demand to justify and interpret rather than merely compute, with the abstraction of function composition and inverses, and with connecting symbolic forms to graphs. Because the exam mixes no-calculator and calculator-required sections, both algebraic fluency and technology skills matter. Effective preparation emphasizes understanding the defining behaviors of each function family—where they increase, decrease, have asymptotes, or repeat—and practicing the verbal interpretation of model behavior. Students who can describe what a function is doing, not just evaluate it, are best positioned to succeed and to transition smoothly into AP Calculus.
Two sections totaling 3 hours: Section I is 40 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours (28 no-calculator, 12 calculator), worth about 62.5%; Section II is 4 free-response questions in 1 hour (2 calculator, 2 no-calculator), worth about 37.5%. Only Units 1-3 are assessed.
Multiple-choice and rubric-scored free-response points are combined into a weighted composite converted to a 1-5 AP score, with 3 generally considered passing.