The new AP Statistics exam, in full
The redesigned exam is 3 hours and fully digital in the bluebook testing app. Section I is 42 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes; Section II is 4 free-response questions in 90 minutes. Each section is worth 50%. The first exam on this format is May 2027.
College Board redesigned AP Statistics for the 2026-27 school year. The old nine units became 5, covering 55 topics. This matters more than a normal syllabus tweak, because almost every study resource online still describes the nine-unit course: before you trust a review book, a video, or a unit guide, check which version of the course it was built for. Everything on StatsLearn is built on the new framework.
The two sections
| Section | Questions | Time | Share of score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section I: Multiple-choice | 42 | 90 min | 50% |
| Section II: Free-response | 4 | 90 min | 50% |
That works out to roughly 129 seconds per multiple-choice question and 23 minutes per free-response question.
The four free-response questions
40 points in total. Question 3 is always inference, which makes it the most predictable question on the paper and the one worth drilling hardest.
How the free-response section is scored, and the sentences that earn points
What each unit is worth
Weights are the share of the multiple-choice section.
Unit 1Exploring One-Variable Data and Collecting Data13 topics20-30%Unit 2Probability, Random Variables, and Probability Distributions12 topics15-25%Unit 3Inference for Categorical Data: Proportions15 topics15-25%Unit 4Inference for Quantitative Data: Means10 topics10-20%Unit 5Regression Analysis5 topics10-20%The four course practices
The exam is built around four practices rather than around topics alone, and the free-response questions are labelled by which practices they target. Analysing data and interpreting results carry the most weight, which is why writing a conclusion in context is worth as much practice as the arithmetic.
What a digital exam changes
Fully digital in the Bluebook testing app. Practising on paper and sitting on a screen are not the same task: you cannot annotate a printed table, scrolling costs time, and you have to hold a stem, a data table, and a graph in view at once. Work through problems in the format you will meet them in, and get used to reading a question without a pencil in your hand.
For context on the exam this one replaces: in May 2025, 60.3% of AP Statistics students scored a 3 or higher, with a mean score of 2.92. Those figures describe the previous exam, not this one, and no score distribution exists yet for the redesigned exam.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the new AP Statistics exam?
3 hours, split evenly into two 90-minute sections. Section I is 42 multiple-choice questions and Section II is 4 free-response questions. Each section is worth 50% of your score.
When is the first exam on the new course?
May 2027. The redesigned course takes effect in the 2026-27 school year, so students starting the course in Fall 2026 are the first cohort to sit the new exam.
Is the AP Statistics exam digital now?
Yes. Fully digital in the Bluebook testing app. That is a change students should practise for, because reading a stem, a table, and a graph on one screen is a different skill from working on paper.
How many units does AP Statistics have now?
5. College Board redesigned the course for 2026-27 and the old nine units became 5, covering 55 topics in total. Most study material you will find online still describes the old nine-unit structure, so check which version a resource is built on before you use it.
How many free-response questions are there, and what are they worth?
4 questions, 40 points in total, each worth 12.5% of your overall score. Question 3 is always an inference question, either a hypothesis test or a confidence interval, so it is the single most predictable question on the exam.
Which unit is worth the most on the exam?
Unit 1, Exploring One-Variable Data and Collecting Data, carries the largest share at 20-30% of the multiple-choice section, and it is also the longest unit at roughly ~26 class periods. Students often treat it as the easy opening unit and under-prepare it.