AP® Calculus FRQ Finder: How to Find and Practice Free Response Questions by Topic

If you're looking for AP® Calculus FRQ questions—the free response part of the exam—you've probably noticed that tracking down practice by topic is a pain. The College Board releases past exams, but there isn't a built-in way to say "show me every question that's really about related rates" or "give me all the accumulation problems from the last few years." You end up opening PDFs, skimming, and hoping you're not missing the best ones for what you need to practice.

That's why we built the AP® Calculus FRQ Finder. It's a free tool that organizes every AP® Calculus free response question from recent years (AB and BC) so you can filter by topic, unit, year, and whether the question allows a calculator. You get direct links to the questions and, when available, scoring guidelines and solutions. This post is a quick intro to what it does and how to use it—and when it might make sense to get some targeted help on top of practice.

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What Are AP® Calculus Free Response Questions (FRQs)?

The AP® Calculus exam is split into two sections: multiple choice (50% of your score) and free response questions, or FRQs (the other 50%). The FRQ section is where you show your work: you solve problems, write out reasoning, and often explain or interpret results. There are 6 FRQs—typically questions 1 and 2 allow a calculator; 3 through 6 do not. Each question is worth 9 points, and partial credit is real. So practicing FRQs isn't just about getting the right answer; it's about practicing how you write and structure your work so graders can follow it.

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What the AP® Calculus FRQ Finder Does

The FRQ Finder does three things that are hard to do with raw PDFs:

1. Search by topic and unit. Every question (and each part of multi-part questions) is tagged with the calculus topics it uses—limits, derivatives, integration, area/volume, related rates, differential equations, series (BC), parametric/polar (BC), and so on. You pick the topics you want to work on and get a list of every matching question part or full question across all years in the tool.

2. Filter by year, course, and calculator. You can limit to AB only, BC only, or both; to specific years (e.g. 2021–2024); and to calculator-active or calculator-inactive questions. That way you're practicing the right kind of problem for the slot you're worried about.

3. Jump straight to the question and resources. Each result links out to the question itself (College Board PDFs) and, when we have them, to scoring guidelines and solution videos. No digging through multiple documents—you filter, click, and practice.

You can use it in two main ways: Question Parts (individual sub-parts like 2024 Q1a, Q1b) for very targeted practice, or Full Questions (whole Q1, Q2, etc.) when you want to simulate a full problem. There's also a Statistics tab that breaks down which topics and units show up most often—handy when you're deciding what to prioritize (we have a separate post on that).

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How to Use It for AP® Calculus FRQ Practice

A simple workflow:

• Early in the year: Use the Full Questions view to see how a whole FRQ is structured and what topics tend to appear together. Filter by one or two units you've just finished and do a question under timed conditions (about 15 minutes per question).

• When you're weak on one topic: Switch to Question Parts or Full Questions, select only that topic (e.g. "Related Rates" or "Area and Volume"), and work through several problems. Mix calculator and non-calculator so you're ready for both.

• Closer to the exam: Use the Statistics tab to see which topic groups and units show up most. Focus your last passes there, and use the finder to pull every FRQ that hits those topics so you're not guessing what to review.

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Where to Find It

The tool lives here: AP® Calculus FRQ Finder. It's free and doesn't require an account. We don't host the College Board's materials—we link to them—so you're always using the official prompts and, when available, official scoring guidelines.

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If You're Struggling with FRQs or Need a Study Plan

Practice with past FRQ questions is one of the best ways to improve, but sometimes you hit a wall: you don't know where to start, you keep making the same kind of mistake, or you're a few weeks out and have no idea what to prioritize. In that case, a few focused tutoring sessions can make a big difference—someone who can look at your work, spot patterns in what's going wrong, and help you build a clear process for setting up and writing FRQ responses. If you want help with free-response strategy, time management, or an AP® Calculus study plan tailored to where you are, you can explore our tutoring options here. We work with AP® Calculus students every year and keep it practical: targeted practice, clear feedback, and a plan you can actually follow.

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Bottom Line

The AP® Calculus FRQ Finder lets you find and practice AP® Calculus free response questions by topic, unit, year, and calculator use—so you're not wasting time hunting through PDFs. Use it to target weak areas, to see what shows up most (via the Statistics tab), and to get direct links to questions and solutions. And if you're stuck on how to approach FRQs or how to structure your review, getting help early usually pays off more than cramming the night before.