AP Microeconomics

6.3 Grading AP Free Response Questions Assignment

By this point in the course you have encountered numerous AP Free Response questions. You probably
have noticed that these questions can vary in length and tend to incorporate concepts from multiple
lessons.

When you take the free response portion of the AP Test you will have a limited amount of time to read
your questions and then answer by drawing the appropriate graphs or making calculations. Go here
(http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_tips/4050.html) to read the College
Board's advice on taking the Free Response portion of the Microeconomic test.

Assignment: Read the following AP Free Response Question. Then instead of answering it, continue to
read how one student responded to the question. While you read the question, pretend you are an AP
grader. How would you grade the student's response? There are usually multiple parts to a free
response question and as a student, you don’t know how much each question is worth. In the sample
below, you will be given a number of points possible for each part of the question and you will need to
decide how many points you would award to the student. Remember an AP grader does give partial
points for partially correct answers.

Things to Consider:
 Did the students answer their question in a manner that is clear, specific?
 Did the student show and label a graph when appropriate?
 Did the student explain their answer when asked?

Submit your analysis of how you graded the student's response. For each part of the question, provide
your grade and explanation for giving it. Once you have submitted your assignment to your instructor,
you will be allowed to see how an actual AP grader scored the assignment. Ultimately, this assignment
will help you understand what an AP grader is looking for when they grade your free response.

Grading: This assignment will be graded out of 10 points. For each part of the question you will receive 2
points. One for identifying how you would rate the response (as described above) and one point for a
reasonable explanation of why you selected this rating.

Below you will find the question, a sample student response, and form to complete your analysis of the
student’s response.
The question:

1. Market structures differ from one another in many respects. Consider two profit-maximizing firms
that earn short-run economic profits. One is a perfectly competitive firm and the other is a monopoly.

(a) For each firm, draw a correctly labeled graph showing the following:

(i) Price
(ii) Quantity of output
(iii) Area of economic profits

(b) For each firm, explain the relationship between price and marginal revenue

(c) For each firm, explain how the economic profits would most likely change in the long run.

(d) Label the area that represents the deadweight loss on the graph for the monopoly firm
drawn in (a). Explain what this deadweight loss represents.
Sample Student Response:
Your Critique:

Points you
Points
would Explanation for points awarded.
Possible
award
4 Both graphs are accurate. They are labeled accurately, show the
correct curves (e.g. the perfect competition shwos a perfectly
elastic demand curve, a marginal cost and average total cost
Part (a)(i) 4 curve), and correctly identify the economic profit
The price for perfcom is correctly identified, as is the price for
the monopoly.

The quantity for perfcom is correctly identified the quantity

where the marginal cost curve intersects the demand curve
Part (a)(ii) 4 The quantity for monopolistic competition is correctly identified
as the quantity where the marginal revenue intersects the
marginal cost.

2 The answer correctly identifies that the perfect competition firm

is allocatively efficient and that the price is equal to the marginal
revenue.
Part (b) 2 The answer also correctly identifies that the monopolistically
competitive firm sets a price that is higher than the marginal
revenue intersection.

1 The answer incorrectly states that there will be positive

economic profits for the monopoly competition, but correctly
Part (c) 2 identifies the fact that there are zero economic profits for the
perfectly competitive firm.

Part (d) 2 N/A Nothing show up for me, so I can’t grade this.