AP Calculus uses a combination of Standards Based Grading and traditional testing to determine the student's quarter and semester grades.

Standards are discrete skills assessments checking whether the student understands the fundamental calculus operations, such as differentiation and integration techniques. The standards check if a student can complete basic calculus computations in isolation. Standards are assessed on a 3-point scale, and individual standards scores are averaged together to provide an overall grade for the standards. The standards score is linear scaled such that a 2.1 represents 70% and 3.0 represents 83%. This scaling model results in a minimum score of 40%. Standards by themselves allow a student to get a maximum of 83% in the class. The detailed grading scale for standards is listed below.

 

Unit tests are designed to mimic the Free Response section of the AP Test. The questions are very difficult, and often require the student to apply multiple calculus standards to find a solution. Test problems are graded like an AP test question. At most, a three or four part question will only have 9 points associated with it. Points are granted for correct answers only, and no partial credit is granted for mistakes in algebra or other pre-requisite skills. Because of the difficulty of the AP test questions, the 1-5 grading scale on the AP test doesn't follow the traditional 70%-80%-90% breakdown. The student's raw test percentage is adjusted according to the AP scale as shown in the table below.

The grade for a chapter is the higher of the standards grade or the test grade. Since the standards max out at an 83%, doing well on test allows students to score higher than a low B. The chapter grades, reflections, and midterms are then weighted and averaged. The chapter grades will count for approximately 90% of the overall grade.

The detailed grading scales are presented below as tables.

 

Avg of Stds	Stds Grade		Raw Test %	AP Grade	Adj Test Grade
0	40%		0%	1	0%
0.5	47%		5%	1	12%
1	54%		10%	1	24%
1.5	61%		15%	1	36%
2	69%		20%	1	48%
2.1	70%		25%	2	60%
2.2	71%		30%	2	65%
2.3	73%		35%	3	70%
2.4	74%		40%	3	73%
2.5	76%		45%	3	77%
2.6	77%		50%	4	80%
2.7	79%		55%	4	83%
2.8	80%		60%	4	87%
2.9	82%		65%	5	90%
3	83%		70%	5	91%
			75%	5	93%
			80%	5	94%
			85%	5	96%
			90%	5	97%
			95%	5	99%
			100%	5	100%