AP German Language and Culture, AP exams, 50%

Section I: Free Response

Free response comes first and carries half the exam score. The two spoken tasks derive from the course project: a three-minute Project Presentation recorded with your Personalized Project Reference available, and a Project Q&A of four recorded questions answered without preparation. The written task is an argumentative essay in German built from provided sources.

Position: 1 of 2 exam sections
Published weighting: 50% in the official framework
Topics covered: 6 topics in this guide

What is covered

Topics inside this exam section.

These topics describe the scope students most often review for this part of AP German Language and Culture. Treat them as a study checklist rather than an exhaustive list of what a single exam form can sample.

Project Presentation: A three-minute recorded presentation in German on the released project topic, weighted 20% of the exam.
Project Q&A: Four recorded follow-up questions about your research, weighted 15% and answered spontaneously.
Argumentative essay: A written argument in German that takes a position and uses the provided sources as support, weighted 15%.
Personalized Project Reference: The outline you submit through the AP Digital Portfolio and may consult during the presentation.
Register and forms of address: Choosing du or Sie and matching formality to the audience implied by each task.
Accuracy under time: Case, gender, and word order held together while speaking and writing at speed.

Study tips

How to practice Free response.

Section-specific guidance that follows from how this material is usually tested.

Record three-minute presentations weekly and review them for hesitation and dropped endings.
Practice answering surprise questions about your project so the Q&A does not depend on memorized text.
Keep an error log of case and word-order slips from your own writing and drill the top three.
Learn a small set of connectors and subordinating structures well enough to deploy them under pressure.

Where this fits

Section I: Free Response is 1 of 2 exam sections in the AP German Language and Culture guide, and it carries a published weighting of 50% in the official framework. Use the full guide to balance it against everything else you have to review.

Back to the AP German Language and Culture guide Official exam information

Sample Free response questions

Practice questions, not yet expert-reviewed

Original practice questions written to the published framework for this section. No expert has reviewed them, and they are not taken from any official exam. Try each one before you open the answer.

Question 1Foundational
Which German pronoun is the formal form of address used with an adult you do not know well?
1. ASie
2. Bdu
3. Cihr
4. Dman
Show answer
Answer: A. Sie
Capitalized Sie is the formal you in German, used for both singular and plural addressees and paired with the same verb forms as the third-person plural. Ihr is the tempting distractor because it is also a plural you, but it is informal and would be used with a group of friends rather than in a formal task.
Key insight: Choose du or Sie before you start speaking and keep every pronoun, verb, and imperative consistent with that choice.
Question 2Foundational
What percentage of the revised AP German Language and Culture exam score comes from the spoken Project Presentation?
1. A20 percent
2. B15 percent
3. C25 percent
4. D50 percent
Show answer
Answer: A. 20 percent
The Project Presentation carries 20 percent of the exam, the Project Q and A carries 15 percent, and the written argumentative essay carries 15 percent, together making up the 50 percent assigned to free response. Answering 50 percent names the whole section rather than the single task the question asks about.
Key insight: Free response is half the exam, and 35 of those 50 points come from spoken German.
Question 3Intermediate
Which grammatical case does the German preposition mit always require?
1. ADativ
2. BAkkusativ
3. CGenitiv
4. DNominativ
Show answer
Answer: A. Dativ
Mit belongs to the group of prepositions that always take the dative, along with aus, bei, nach, seit, von, and zu, so you say mit dem Freund rather than mit den Freund. Akkusativ is the distractor drawn from two-way prepositions such as in and auf, which take the accusative only when they express motion toward a destination.
Key insight: Memorize the always-dative list as a chant; it removes a whole class of case errors from your speaking and writing.
Question 4Intermediate
In a German subordinate clause introduced by weil, where does the conjugated verb go?
1. AAt the end of the clause
2. BIn second position in the clause
3. CImmediately after weil
4. DAt the very beginning of the clause
Show answer
Answer: A. At the end of the clause
Subordinating conjunctions such as weil, dass, and obwohl send the conjugated verb to the end of the clause, as in ich bleibe zu Hause, weil ich müde bin. Second position is the rule for main clauses and for the coordinating conjunction denn, which is why denn and weil are not interchangeable in word order.
Key insight: Coordinating conjunctions leave word order alone; subordinating conjunctions push the verb to the end.
Question 5Advanced
Which auxiliary verb forms the Perfekt of German verbs of motion that express a change of location, such as fahren and gehen?
1. Asein
2. Bhaben
3. Cwerden
4. Dkönnen
Show answer
Answer: A. sein
Verbs describing a change of location or condition form the Perfekt with sein, giving ich bin nach Berlin gefahren rather than ich habe nach Berlin gefahren. Haben is the default auxiliary for most German verbs, which is exactly why the sein group has to be learned deliberately.
Key insight: Movement from one place to another, or a change of state, calls for sein; nearly everything else uses haben.

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Section I: Free Response