This AP Calculus AB cheat sheet compresses all eight College Board units into a printable rundown of the formulas and rules the exam leans on most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Pair it with the rest of your free Calculus AB toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
AP Calculus AB exam at a glance
- Questions: 45 multiple choice + 6 free response
- Time: About 3 hours 15 minutes (1 h 45 m MCQ + 1 h 30 m FRQ)
- Score scale: 1–5 composite (MCQ 50% + FRQ 50%); boundaries set each year
- Score target: A 3 is the common credit threshold; selective schools want a 4 or 5
- Cost: Set annually by College Board; confirm the current AP exam fee
What’s on the AP Calculus AB cheat sheet
- Units 1–3 · Limits & Differentiation (30–37%) — limit shortcuts, continuity, the derivative as a limit, and the power, product, quotient, and chain rules.
- Unit 4 · Contextual Applications (10–15%) — related rates, linearization, L'Hopital's Rule, and straight-line motion with v = s' and a = v'.
- Unit 5 · Analytical Applications (15–18%) — the MVT and EVT, the first and second derivative tests, concavity, and optimization.
- Units 6 & 8 · Integration (27–35%) — Riemann sums, both parts of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, u-substitution, area between curves, and disk & washer volumes.
- Unit 7 · Differential Equations (6–12%) — slope fields, separable equations, and exponential growth y = y₀e^(kt).
How to use it in your final week
- Drill the memory formulas first — power, product, quotient, and chain rules, plus the derivatives of e^x, ln x, and the six trig functions — since they feed every Section I question.
- Weight your reps toward integration and the analytical applications of derivatives (Units 5 and 6), which together carry close to a third of the multiple-choice questions.
- Rehearse both modes: work the no-calculator formulas by hand for Part A, then practice calculator-based numerical setups for Part B.
- Read the sheet the morning of the exam for a final pass on the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, u-substitution, and the disk and washer volume formulas.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your AP Calculus AB practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
AP Calculus AB cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the AP Calculus AB cheat sheet is 100% free to download as a PDF, with no sign-up required. It sits alongside Career Employer's free Calculus AB practice test, study guide, and flashcards, so your whole review stack costs nothing.
It condenses the exam's highest-value formulas and rules into a quick reference: limit shortcuts, the core derivative rules, the chain and quotient rules, both parts of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, u-substitution, and the disk and washer volume formulas — grouped by the eight College Board units.
Your Section I multiple choice (50%) and Section II free response (50%) combine into a composite that College Board converts to the 1-to-5 AP scale. There is no fixed passing percentage — the score boundaries for a 3, 4, or 5 are set each year based on that form's difficulty.
Aim for the score your target colleges reward. A 5 sits at the top of the scale, a 3 is the most common credit threshold at many schools, and more selective programs want a 4 or 5, so check each college's AP credit policy before you set your goal.
Click the download button (or the preview card) at the top of this page and the PDF opens instantly. Bookmark this page so you can pull the sheet back up during your final week before the May exam.
References
- 1.College Board. “AP Calculus AB Exam — AP Students.” College Board, 2026. ↑
- 2.College Board. “AP Calculus AB and BC Course and Exam Description.” College Board, 2026. ↑
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