Score Higher on AP Macroeconomics 2024: Tips for FRQ 2 & 3

FRQs 2-3 – Short

This guide organizes advice from past students who got 4s and 5s on their exams. We hope it gives you some new ideas and tools for your study sessions. But remember, everyone's different—what works for one student might not work for you. If you've got a study method that's doing the trick, stick with it. Think of this as extra help, not a must-do overhaul.

📌 Overview

• Students make assertions about economic concepts, explain principles or models, make mathematical calculations, and create graphs or visual representations.
• 17% of Exam Score
• 2 Questions, each worth about 8.5% of the total exam score. Spend about 15 minutes per question.

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💭 General Advice

Tips on mindset, strategy, structure, time management, and any other high level things to know:

• Focusing on the differences between the graphs especially the label of the axis is the most important to succeeding on FRQs.
• College Board has great FRQs and their answers that you can look at anytime to make sure you understand format and basic topics.
• Focus on answering the written questions you can first if you’re not sure what graphs to draw. It’s possible that while answering the written questions, it’ll help you remember which graph you’re supposed to draw.
• You’ve got this! You’ve been studying this for months and been practicing. Do your best to stay calm while taking the test. When you’re freaking out, you’re more likely to forget what you do know.
• Work on the questions you do know and come back to the questions you’re stuck on!
• Before the exam, look over the graphs you’re supposed to know. Try to understand the parts of the graph and what it represents. It’ll help a lot better compared to just memorizing the graphs.
• Review vocabulary!! These FRQs test your understanding of these terms and see if you know what you’re talking about or not.
• Make use of your prep time to fully answer everything. With AP Macro, there can sometimes be sneaky labels or graphs that you want to make sure you fully understand before starting.
• Don’t take time to restate the questions; use your energy and brain power to answer it. This won’t get you points.
• Bring a four function calculator!!!! Scientific/graphing calculators are not allowed so make sure you bring the right kind that can help save time with some of the easier math.
• Get familiar with the Task verbs and what they are testing you on. They often are the same in the practices so get used to the difference between “Identify” “Explain” “Calculate” and more.
• Make sure you review what effects different shifts have and the reasoning behind why these shifts happen!

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🕐 Before you Write

What should a student do in the first few minutes, before they start writing?

• There is a purpose behind each question; it was deliberately put into the test to try to get you to use a few key ideas. If you can identify the topic and the key ideas, the rest should follow with ease. Think about what the AP graders want to be said, what points are easy to get, and perhaps what questions about the topic have already been asked.
• After reading the question, write down what you do know about the question such as vocab words and their definitions. You can also sketch a quick graph of what the question is asking for!
• Even if you don’t need a graph for the question, drawing a graph to help you understand the logic and intuition behind the question.
• Also remember that graphs don’t stand alone, they are good examples but you need to be able to justify the graph, explain it, and showcase what value it brings for it to be counted.
• Make sure you answer all parts. Even if you can’t get part a, you can still earn points for the next parts so give it a shot!

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🏛️ Structuring Your Response

• The point system isn’t all or nothing. Doing well on AP tests is mostly about playing the game—aim to get as many points as possible through partial credit. This often means name dropping a concept, drawing out a few relationships, and putting any concepts related to the question down on paper.
• The questions are usually straightforward, so make sure that you clearly state your answer. If needed, you can add any additional information to support your answer in the same sentence or a new sentence.
• Label your graphs clearly and correctly. Label the axis and make sure you also label the curves/graphs correctly and draw correct arrows when necessary.
• For explain prompts, make sure you actually explain the reasoning behind the question. Instead of just saying price will go up or price will shift down, add an explanation as to why these incidents happen.
• Show/write out your calculations clearly. This will help your own organization but also help support your answers as evidence if referred to and used properly.

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⭐️ Most Common Equations

• MPC (marginal propensity to consume) = Change in spending/Change in income
• MPS (marginal propensity to save) = 1 - MPC
• Spending multiplier = 1/MPS
• Tax multiplier = spending multiplier - 1
• Money multiplier = 1/Required Reserve Ratio
• CPI (consumer price index) = Value of market basket given year/value of market basket base year x 100
• GDP (gross domestic product)= consumption + investment + government spending + net exports
• National savings = GDP - consumption - government spending
• Private savings = GDP - taxes - consumption
• Spending Multipliers: 1/1-MPC = 1/MPS= (∆GDP)/( ∆ Spending)
• Balanced Budget Multiplier (equal changes in taxes and government spending) = 1
• Simple Money Multiplier: 1/RR
• Money Expansion = Money multiplier X Excess Reserves

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✏️ Drawing Graphs

• The Phillips curve, one of the central ideas being consumer expectations for inflation set the inflation rate.
• Re-read the question to ensure that you understand what type of graph they’re asking you to draw.
• Make all your intersect points clear so you can get full points and label these when necessary.
• Make sure to use the correct interest rate on the Market for loanable funds model.
• For the AD-AS model, make sure to label any equilibrium on the axis, not the interior.