Advanced Placement (AP) Microeconomics (also known as AP Micro) is a course offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program for high school students interested in college-level coursework in microeconomics and/or gaining
advanced standing
Transfer credit, credit transfer, or advanced standing are the terms used by colleges and universities for the procedure of granting credit to a student for educational experiences or courses undertaken at another institution. This is a subset of ...
in
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...
. The course begins with a study of fundamental economic concepts such as
scarcity
In economics, scarcity "refers to the basic fact of life that there exists only a finite amount of human and nonhuman resources which the best technical knowledge is capable of using to produce only limited maximum amounts of each economic good. ...
,
opportunity costs, production possibilities, specialization, and
comparative advantage
In an economic model, agents have a comparative advantage over others in producing a particular good if they can produce that good at a lower relative opportunity cost or autarky price, i.e. at a lower relative marginal cost prior to trade. Comp ...
. Major topics include the nature and functions of product markets; factor markets; and efficiency, equity, and the role of government. AP Microeconomics is often taken in conjunction with or after
AP Macroeconomics
Advanced Placement (AP) Macroeconomics (also known as AP Macro and AP Macroecon) is an Advanced Placement macroeconomics course for high school students that culminates in an exam offered by the College Board.
Study begins with fundamental econ ...
.
Topics outline and distribution of topics
*Basic Economic Concepts (8-14%)
*The Nature and Functions of Product Markets (55-70%)
*Factor Markets (10-18%)
*Market Failure and the Role of Government (12-18%)
The exam
*Multiple Choice
0 minutes, weighted 2/3 (66.7%) of the total exam score*Free-Response
0 minutes of planning then 50 minutes of writing with one longer free-response question and two shorter ones, weighted 1/3 (33.3%) of the total exam score
Grade distribution
74,049 students took the AP Microeconomics exam in 2014.
[http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/apcentral/ap14-microeconomics-score-dist.pdf ]
The exam was first held in 1989, along with Macroeconomics. Grade distributions since 2008 are as follows:
See also
*
AP Macroeconomics
Advanced Placement (AP) Macroeconomics (also known as AP Macro and AP Macroecon) is an Advanced Placement macroeconomics course for high school students that culminates in an exam offered by the College Board.
Study begins with fundamental econ ...
*
Microeconomics
*
Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
*
Economics education#Curriculum
*
Glossary of economics
This glossary of economics is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in economics, its sub-disciplines, and related fields.
0–9
A
B
...
External links
AP: Microeconomics
Study Resources
*
*Free online AP Microeconomics course taught by Prof. Jon Gruber (MIT): https://www.edx.org/course/introductory-ap-microeconomics
{{College Board
Economics education
Advanced Placement