AP Psych Barrons

Answering Free-Response Questions
CHAPTER 16
HOW TO WRITE THE AP PSYCHOLOGY FREE-
RESPONSE ANSWER
Every year around the beginning of June, high school and college psychology teachers gather at a
university for one purpose: to grade AP psychology free-response question answers. These readers are
assigned to one of the two essay questions and go through careful training to ensure they grade your
writing fairly and consistently. Readers go through several reliability checks during the reading to
make sure each free-response answer is read fairly. This is a unique grading experience for many of
the readers, just as writing the AP psychology free-response answer might be a unique writing
experience for you.
Writing an effective free-response answer on the AP psychology test may require you to modify the
way you usually answer a normal essay question. These essays are graded in a very specific way, and
your writing should take this difference into account. Free-Response graders strive to be very
consistent and objective, so the tests are graded in a systematic way. The entire grading system is set
up to ensure that every student’s response is given a fair reading. Understanding how the tests are
graded should give you insight as to how to use your writing time best. This chapter begins with
general suggestions about answering the free-response questions. These suggestions and hints apply
specifically to AP psychology free-response questions and are based on how the items are designed
and graded. Then an example AP-style free-response question and rubric are provided. AP readers use
rubrics similar to this one to score student responses. Finally, a fictional student response is provided
with a complete explanation of how this student response would be scored. Carefully examining this
question, rubric, and scored sample student response will give you a complete picture of how the items
are structured and scored.
GENERAL HINTS AND TIPS FOR THE FREE-
RESPONSE PORTION OF THE EXAM
Style/Organization Hints
1. Remember to think before you start writing and feel free to jot down a few notes. You should
have timed some practice responses before the test in order to get an idea about how much time
you need to answer the questions. Use two to three minutes to organize your thoughts about
each response, but be careful not to spend so much time that you feel rushed later.