In a world where climate change, a growing population, and environmental concerns have become prominent topics of concern, College Board intentionally created the AP Environmental Science course to address these major environmental issues. In this course, students apply core scientific principles in an environmental context and use data interpretation and analysis skills.
Introduction to AP Environmental Science
AP Environmental Science surrounds 9 big units: Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Populations, Earth Systems and Resources, Land and Water Use, Energy Resources and Consumption, Atmospheric Pollution, Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution, and Global Change. Most units carry similar weight, with the first two slightly smaller (6–8% each) and the last unit carrying the most weight (15–20%).
In addition to studying key skills and concepts covered in each unit, you must be able to manipulate data in various contexts. For example, you could be prompted to evaluate the effectiveness of certain trade-offs in an environmental policy or design an experiment to read data and test a hypothesis for a given scenario.
Now that we’ve given an overview of what’s tested on the AP exam, let’s dive into the specific question types and approaches for tackling each one so that you can excel in your class and the exam!
Strategies to Acing the Multiple-Choice Section
The AP exam consists of 80 multiple choice questions (MCQs) in 90 minutes, which make up 60 percent of the exam score. With this in mind, you should spend no more than around 60 seconds (1 minute) on each MCQ. Using this method, you will have some time at the end to check over some questions you were uncertain about. On the AP exam, MCQs are both stimulus-based, using data or other information graphics to support the question, or standalone MCQs, which assess your knowledge of key concepts and terms.
For stimulus-based questions, to get comfortable with how to interpret and analyze these figures when prompted on the MCQ, you are encouraged to practice making graphs and charts from sample data online. We also highly encourage you to become extremely familiar with the 15 different environmental laws, the biogeochemical cycles, and have a broad idea of topics like population dynamics and energy flow to be able to solve the stimulus-based MCQs that fall on the qualitative side of MCQs.
Beyond these strategies for MCQs, we also suggest that you get comfortable with the use of calculators (our latest blog post!) for math-based calculation questions.
Strategies for Free-Response Questions
The AP Environmental Science exam consists of 3 FRQs that last 70 minutes in total, weighing 40% of the exam score. FRQs on the exam are more sophisticated than MCQs, requiring deliberate analysis, knowing methods of experimental design, making conclusions based on quantitative data, and justifying or opposing a policy or management decision.
For FRQs, we encourage you to initially view past years’ FRQs (typically from the last 5 years) and then practice physically writing out sample responses and comparing them with the online AP scoring guidelines to see if you are on the right track with their responses.
This is particularly important for knowing how to draw key figures, including data graphs and charts, ensuring that you are making them easy and clear to follow. This principle extends to any calculation, as College Board requires each step to be deliberately shown, no matter how simple. Partial points are not awarded, so be explicit and concise.
We also encourage you to be as clear and cohesive as possible in your written responses, even if it means giving more context or background information that needs to be given.
On the Magna Education platform, we provide a stress-free environment for you to try out any type of FRQ and receive immediate feedback on your responses. We also have a vast library of FRQs and have many FRQs for each topic covered by the AP course to help you strengthen your understanding of the concepts/skills across every unit. An example of “Design an Investigation” question type available on Magna is given below. You will be able to get rubric-aligned feedback immediately after writing your responses.
Sample FRQ
A coastal research team is studying the impact of mangrove restoration on marine biodiversity and coastal protection. They have established three study sites along a tropical coastline: Site A (restored mangroves), Site B (degraded mangroves), and Site C (healthy natural mangroves). The team has collected data over a five-year period to assess various ecological parameters.
Design and analyze an investigation to study the effectiveness of mangrove restoration in supporting marine biodiversity and coastal protection. Use the provided data to answer the following questions.
| Year | Site A (Fish Species) | Site B (Fish Species) | Site C (Fish Species) | Site A (Sediment Acc. cm/yr) | Site B (Sediment Acc. cm/yr) | Site C (Sediment Acc. cm/yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 12 | 8 | 25 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.2 |
| 2020 | 15 | 7 | 26 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.3 |
| 2021 | 18 | 6 | 25 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| 2022 | 22 | 5 | 27 | 1.4 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| 2023 | 24 | 4 | 26 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 1.3 |
Part A. Identify two dependent variables that would be essential to measure when comparing the effectiveness of restored versus natural mangrove ecosystems.
Part B. Propose one control variable that should be kept constant across all three study sites to ensure valid comparisons.
Part C. Analyze the trend in fish species diversity at Site A (restored mangroves) from 2019 to 2023.
Part D. Describe one method to measure sediment accumulation rates in mangrove ecosystems.
Part E. Compare the sediment accumulation rates between Site A and Site B in 2023.
Part F. Evaluate the success of the restoration project at Site A compared to the natural mangroves at Site C by 2023.
Part G Predict the likely trend in fish species diversity at Site B if no restoration efforts are implemented.
Part H Explain one possible reason why Site C maintains relatively stable fish species numbers throughout the study period.
Part I Suggest one improvement to the current monitoring design to better assess mangrove restoration success.
Part J Describe one potential limitation of using only fish species diversity as a measure of ecosystem health.
High-Level Questions and Targeted Feedback
On the Magna Education platform, we offer a multitude of question types and have a large database of questions to choose from and practice.
For MCQs, you can choose from different difficulty levels (easy, medium, and hard), which consist of both non-stimulus and stimulus questions that require you to pull big ideas from different units to determine one conclusion. You can customize your practice-quiz settings (time it to simulate the AP exam) and choose how many questions to practice.
After this, you don’t have to wait – you get instant results powered by our AI-driven feedback! In the reviewing stage of your MCQ performance, you are also encouraged to ask our AI Tutor known as AskMagna. Our AI tutor can answer queries on any given topic, and you can even leverage it to nail down your weakest points so that you can ace all concepts on the exam!
We also offer FRQ practice on the “Analysis & Solution” and “Design an Investigation” FRQ types for the AP exam. FRQs also have the same instant, targeted feedback by our AI tools upon submission (could take longer to grade than the MCQs, but nonetheless, within minutes!), so we encourage you to take advantage of our feedback to boost your insights and understanding with the AP Environmental Science content.
Studying an upcoming APES quiz or self-studying the course? Look no further! You can start practicing MCQs and FRQs instantly for free upon account creation at magnaeducation.ai today!