The marginal benefit of each extra hour of studying for a quiz is worth $40, $32, $24, $16 and $8 for hours 1 to 5. Each hour has a constant opportunity cost of $18. How many hours maximize net benefit?
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This is a free 15-question sampler in the style of the AP Microeconomics multiple-choice section, written by the StudyPDF team to the six units of the published course. It covers marginal analysis, supply and demand, elasticity, costs and perfect competition, monopoly and game theory, factor markets and externalities, and it mixes multiple choice, select all that apply and fill in the blank. Answer all 15, then check your score and read the worked explanation for every question.
All 15 questions at a glance
Prefer to read before you play? Every question in the sampler is listed below. Answers and explanations stay collapsed until you open them.
1.The marginal benefit of each extra hour of studying for a quiz is worth $40, $32, $24, $16 and $8 for hours 1 to 5. Each hour has a constant opportunity cost of $18. How many hours maximize net benefit?
- A. 2 hours
- B. 3 hours
- C. 4 hours
- D. 5 hours
Answer: B. 3 hours
Keep adding hours while the marginal benefit is at least the marginal cost. Hours 1, 2 and 3 are worth $40, $32 and $24, all above the $18 cost, so each adds to net benefit. Hour 4 is worth $16, which is less than $18, so it would reduce net benefit. The best choice is 3 hours. Total benefit keeps rising through hour 5, but the goal is the largest benefit minus cost, not the largest benefit.
2.The price of tea rises. Which statement correctly describes the market for coffee, a substitute for tea?
- A. The quantity demanded of coffee rises along the existing demand curve, and the equilibrium price is unchanged
- B. The supply of coffee falls, so the equilibrium price rises and the quantity falls
- C. The demand for coffee increases, so the equilibrium price and the quantity both rise
- D. The demand for coffee decreases, so the equilibrium price and the quantity both fall
Answer: C. The demand for coffee increases, so the equilibrium price and the quantity both rise
When tea gets more expensive, some tea drinkers switch to coffee at every coffee price. That is a rightward shift of the coffee demand curve, which raises both the equilibrium price and the equilibrium quantity. The first option confuses a shift with a movement along the curve: the price of tea is not on the coffee axis, so it shifts the curve. Nothing in the story changes how coffee is produced, so supply does not move.
3.When the price of a good rises from $10 to $12, the quantity demanded falls from 100 to 85. Using percent changes from the starting values, which statement is correct?
- A. Demand is inelastic, and total revenue rises
- B. Demand is elastic, and total revenue falls
- C. Demand is unit elastic, and total revenue is unchanged
- D. Demand is inelastic, and total revenue falls
Answer: A. Demand is inelastic, and total revenue rises
The price rises 2/10 = 20 percent and the quantity falls 15/100 = 15 percent, so the price elasticity of demand is 15/20 = 0.75. That is below 1, so demand is inelastic: buyers respond less than proportionally. When demand is inelastic, a price increase raises total revenue. It was 10 x 100 = $1,000 and is now 12 x 85 = $1,020. The midpoint method gives about 0.89, which is still inelastic.
4.The equilibrium price of a good is $8 and 100 units are sold. The government sets a binding price ceiling of $5, where buyers want 140 units and sellers offer 60. Which statements are true?
Select all that apply.
- A. Quantity demanded exceeds quantity supplied by 80 units
- B. The number of units actually bought and sold falls to 60
- C. Consumer surplus is certain to increase
- D. A deadweight loss appears
- E. The market quantity stays at 100 because the price signal still works
Answer: A. Quantity demanded exceeds quantity supplied by 80 units, B. The number of units actually bought and sold falls to 60, D. A deadweight loss appears
At $5 buyers want 140 units and sellers will only supply 60, a shortage of 80. Trade can only happen on the short side of the market, so 60 units are sold, not 100. The 40 units that would have been traded at $8 are lost, and the surplus on them disappears, which is a deadweight loss. Consumer surplus is not certain to rise: the buyers who get a unit pay less, but other buyers lose the units they would have bought, so the net effect depends on how responsive supply is. The quantity does not stay at 100, because the ceiling stops the price from rising.
5.Complete the sentence.
A $3 per-unit tax is placed on sellers of a good whose price was $10 before the tax. After the tax, buyers pay $12 and sellers keep $9 on each unit after paying the tax. Buyers bear _____ of the tax on each unit, and because buyers bear the larger share, demand is _____ than supply.
Options for blank 1: $1, $2, $3, $12
Options for blank 2: less elastic, more elastic, equally elastic
Answer: $2, less elastic
Buyers went from paying $10 to paying $12, so they bear $2 of the $3 tax. Sellers went from receiving $10 to keeping $9, so they bear the other $1. The two shares add up to the tax. The side of the market that is less elastic cannot easily walk away from the good, so it ends up with the larger share. Buyers bear more, so demand is less elastic than supply.
6.A firm adds workers one at a time and its total output is 10, 25, 37, 45 and 50 units for 1 to 5 workers. At which worker do diminishing marginal returns begin?
- A. The first worker
- B. The second worker
- C. The third worker
- D. The fourth worker
Answer: C. The third worker
Marginal product is the change in total output from one more worker: 10, 15, 12, 8 and 5. It rises for the second worker, which is increasing returns from specialization, and then falls for the first time with the third worker (12 is less than 15). Diminishing marginal returns begin there. Total output keeps rising through the fifth worker, but that does not matter: diminishing returns means the additions get smaller, not that output falls.
7.A firm's total cost is $400 when it makes 20 units and $424 when it makes 21 units. Which statement about the 21st unit is correct?
- A. Marginal cost is $24, which is above the average total cost of $20, so average total cost rises
- B. Marginal cost is $24, but average total cost still falls because the extra unit spreads the fixed cost
- C. Marginal cost is about $20.19, so average total cost does not change
- D. Marginal cost is $424 divided by 21 units, so average total cost falls
Answer: A. Marginal cost is $24, which is above the average total cost of $20, so average total cost rises
Marginal cost is the change in total cost from one more unit: 424 - 400 = $24. Average total cost at 20 units is 400/20 = $20. When marginal cost is above average total cost, the extra unit pulls the average up, so average total cost rises, to about $20.19 at 21 units. Spreading fixed cost over more units is real, but it is already inside the average. The rule to remember is that the marginal curve pulls the average toward itself.
8.A perfectly competitive industry is in long-run equilibrium. Which statements are true?
Select all that apply.
- A. Price is greater than marginal cost
- B. Price equals marginal cost
- C. Price equals the minimum of average total cost
- D. Each firm earns zero economic profit
- E. New firms keep entering the market
Answer: B. Price equals marginal cost, C. Price equals the minimum of average total cost, D. Each firm earns zero economic profit
A competitive firm maximizes profit where price equals marginal cost, and in the long run entry and exit push the price down to the minimum of average total cost. At that price each firm covers all its costs, including the owner's opportunity cost, so economic profit is zero. Price is not above marginal cost, because the firm is a price taker and produces until the two are equal. Entry stops at this point: new firms enter only while economic profit is positive, and leave while it is negative.
9.Complete the sentence.
A perfectly competitive firm faces a market price of $12. At 50 units, where marginal cost is $12, the average total cost is $14 and the average variable cost is $10. In the short run the firm should _____, and its economic profit is _____.
Options for blank 1: shut down, produce 50 units, produce more than 50 units, raise its price to $14
Options for blank 2: a profit of $100, a loss of $100, a loss of $200, zero
Answer: produce 50 units, a loss of $100
The firm is a price taker, so it cannot raise its price, and it maximizes profit at the quantity where price equals marginal cost, here 50 units. Price ($12) is above average variable cost ($10), so selling covers the variable cost and contributes $2 per unit toward the fixed cost. The loss is (14 - 12) x 50 = $100. If the firm shut down it would still owe the fixed cost, which is (14 - 10) x 50 = $200, so staying open loses less. It would shut down only if price fell below average variable cost.
10.A profit-maximizing monopolist produces 100 units, where marginal revenue equals marginal cost, which is $12. The demand curve shows a price of $30 at that quantity, and average total cost is $22. What is the monopolist's economic profit?
- A. $1,800
- B. $3,000
- C. $800
- D. $2,200
Answer: C. $800
Profit is (price - average total cost) x quantity = (30 - 22) x 100 = $800. Total revenue is $30 x 100 = $3,000 and total cost is $22 x 100 = $2,200, and the difference is the same $800. The value $1,800 comes from using marginal cost, (30 - 12) x 100, which is not profit. Marginal cost tells the monopolist how much to produce, and the price is read off the demand curve at that quantity.
11.Which statements about a profit-maximizing monopolist that cannot price discriminate are correct?
Select all that apply.
- A. Price is greater than marginal revenue
- B. The marginal revenue curve lies above the demand curve
- C. Price is greater than marginal cost at the profit-maximizing quantity
- D. Output is higher than the allocatively efficient output
- E. It can keep earning positive economic profit in the long run if barriers to entry remain
Answer: A. Price is greater than marginal revenue, C. Price is greater than marginal cost at the profit-maximizing quantity, E. It can keep earning positive economic profit in the long run if barriers to entry remain
To sell one more unit a monopolist must cut the price on every unit, so marginal revenue is below price and the marginal revenue curve lies below the demand curve, not above it. The monopolist produces where marginal revenue equals marginal cost, and the price on the demand curve at that quantity is higher than marginal cost. That makes output lower than the efficient level, where price equals marginal cost, so the claim that output is higher is backward, and a deadweight loss results. Barriers to entry stop new firms from competing the profit away, so it can last.
12.Complete the sentence.
Two firms each choose a High price or a Low price. If both choose High, each earns $10 million. If both choose Low, each earns $6 million. If one chooses Low and the other High, the firm with the Low price earns $14 million and the other earns $3 million. Each firm's dominant strategy is _____, so in the Nash equilibrium each firm earns _____ million.
Options for blank 1: the Low price, the High price, to copy its rival, none, because no dominant strategy exists
Options for blank 2: $3, $6, $10, $14
Answer: the Low price, $6
Check each firm's best response. If the rival chooses High, Low earns $14 million against $10 million for High. If the rival chooses Low, Low earns $6 million against $3 million for High. Low is better either way, so it is a dominant strategy. Both firms play it and each earns $6 million, which is the Nash equilibrium. Both would be better off at $10 million each, but neither can stay with the High price, because the other gains by undercutting. This is the classic oligopoly dilemma.
13.A firm sells its output at a constant price of $5 and can hire workers at $50 an hour. The marginal product of the 1st to 5th workers is 20, 16, 12, 8 and 4 units per hour. How many workers should it hire?
- A. 2 workers
- B. 3 workers
- C. 4 workers
- D. 5 workers
Answer: B. 3 workers
The marginal revenue product of labor is the output price times the marginal product: $100, $80, $60, $40 and $20 for the five workers. A profit-maximizing firm hires as long as the marginal revenue product is at least the wage. The third worker adds $60 for a $50 wage, so hiring is worth it. The fourth adds only $40, which is less than $50, so the firm stops at 3 workers.
14.A firm is the only employer of workers in a small town. Compared with a perfectly competitive labor market with the same supply and demand for labor, what will this monopsonist do?
- A. Hire more workers and pay a lower wage
- B. Hire fewer workers and pay a higher wage
- C. Hire the same number of workers and pay the same wage
- D. Hire fewer workers and pay a lower wage
Answer: D. Hire fewer workers and pay a lower wage
A monopsonist faces an upward-sloping labor supply curve, so to hire one more worker it must raise the wage for all of its workers. That makes the marginal cost of labor higher than the wage. It hires up to the point where the marginal revenue product equals this higher marginal cost, which is fewer workers than in a competitive market, and it pays the wage read off the supply curve at that smaller quantity, which is lower than the competitive wage.
15.A factory in a competitive market pollutes a river and imposes costs on downstream residents that the factory does not pay. Which statement is correct?
- A. The market quantity is too low, because marginal social benefit exceeds marginal private benefit
- B. The market is efficient, because buyers and sellers agreed to every trade
- C. The market price is below the factory's marginal private cost
- D. The market quantity is too high, because marginal social cost exceeds marginal private cost
Answer: D. The market quantity is too high, because marginal social cost exceeds marginal private cost
This is a negative externality in production. The factory counts only its private cost, so the market supply curve sits below the true marginal social cost, and the market produces more than the efficient quantity, where marginal social benefit equals marginal social cost. Mutual agreement between buyers and sellers does not make the market efficient when a third party bears a cost. A per-unit tax equal to the external cost can move the quantity back to the efficient level.
What the AP Microeconomics exam looks like and how it is weighted
The AP Microeconomics exam is scored 1 to 5. According to the College Board, it is a hybrid digital exam: you read the multiple-choice questions and the free-response prompts in the Bluebook app, and you handwrite your free-response answers in a paper booklet. Section I is 60 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour 10 minutes and counts for 66 percent of your score. Section II is 3 free-response questions in 1 hour, including a 10-minute reading period, and counts for 33 percent. One of the three is a long question worth half of the section, and the two short ones are worth a quarter each. A calculator is allowed. The College Board lists the 2027 exam for Tuesday, May 4, but check AP Central for your own year, because dates and details can change.
The course has six units, and the College Board publishes how much of the multiple-choice section each one gets. Basic Economic Concepts is 12 to 15 percent, Supply and Demand 20 to 25, Production, Cost, and the Perfect Competition Model 22 to 25, Imperfect Competition 15 to 22, Factor Markets 10 to 13, and Market Failure and the Role of Government 8 to 13. Units 2 and 3 together carry roughly 42 to 50 percent of the section, and they are where supply and demand, elasticity, taxes, price controls, costs and the perfectly competitive firm all live. If you only have time for part of the course, start there.
A 5 is the top score, but what a score earns is up to each college. Some give credit for a 3, many ask for a 4 or a 5, and policies differ by school. Look up the colleges you care about before you decide how hard to push.
How to use this sampler, and how to take it on paper
The 15 questions follow the unit weights loosely: one on marginal analysis, four on supply and demand, four on costs and perfect competition, three on monopoly and game theory, two on factor markets and one on externalities. Most of them ask you to reason through a graph in words, because that is what the multiple-choice section does. Which curve shifts, which way, and what happens to price, quantity and surplus.
Take it in one sitting with scratch paper. Sketch the graph before you pick an answer, even when no graph is shown, because a quick sketch of the market, the cost curves or the monopolist's marginal revenue catches most of the shifts you would otherwise get backward. Then read the explanation for every question, including the ones you got right. Treat a miss as a topic. If you missed the price ceiling question and the tax question, the gap is probably which side of the market is held back by the rule, not two separate graphs. Math is written in plain text here.
Inflation, GDP and monetary policy are not on this exam. Those belong to AP Macroeconomics, and there is a separate sampler for it in the list below. If you would rather work on paper, use the Download test as PDF button above the questions. The file has all 15 questions with an answer key on the last page and needs a free StudyPDF account. The questions are original and written to the published course outline. They are not released exam questions, and this sampler does not practice the free-response section. For that, work through the College Board's released free-response questions and score yourself against the published scoring guidelines. Those questions reward labeled graphs, a clear direction for every change and an explanation in a sentence or two.
How StudyPDF builds AP Microeconomics practice tests from your class notes
Fifteen questions can show you which unit is shaky. They cannot get you ready on their own, and a generic bank rarely matches the graphs, examples and vocabulary your teacher actually uses.
StudyPDF works from your material instead. Upload your textbook chapters, your teacher's slides, a worked problem set or your review packet, press New material, and StudyPDF builds practice tests from those exact pages. Every question is grounded in your material and every explanation cites where the answer comes from, so you can go straight back to the page when a step does not make sense.
You do not need to upload anything to start. Name a topic instead, for example elasticity and total revenue or monopoly and price discrimination, and Bo sets it up with its key concepts so you can build quizzes and flashcards on it. Your results track which concepts you keep missing, so the next practice test can target them. Starting is free.
Written by the StudyPDF team. Last updated August 19, 2026.
Good to know
Is this AP Microeconomics practice test free?
Yes. All 15 questions, the score screen and every worked explanation are free, and the quiz runs in your browser. A free StudyPDF account is needed to download the test as a PDF with an answer key or to build more practice tests from your own notes.
Who wrote these questions?
The StudyPDF team wrote every question and explanation, following the six units of the published AP Microeconomics course outline. They are original items, not real or released exam questions, and StudyPDF is not affiliated with the College Board, which does not endorse this page.
How many multiple-choice questions are on the real exam?
According to the College Board, Section I has 60 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour 10 minutes and counts for 66 percent of the score. Section II has 3 free-response questions in 1 hour, with a 10-minute reading period. This page gives you 15 questions in the same style, so it is a sampler and not a full-length test.
Can I get practice tests built from my own class materials?
Yes. Upload your textbook chapters, slides, problem sets or review packet to StudyPDF and you can build practice tests from those exact pages, with explanations tied to your sources. If you have nothing to upload, name a topic or a unit instead.