What's on the AP Stat Formula Sheet?

The AP Statistics exam covers a lot of content, but you do have a resource available to use on the test! You will be provided with a two-sided formula sheet that contains many of the important formulas you’ve learned over the AP course and which may be required to answer questions on the AP exam. The AP Stat formula sheet will be printed at the front of both the multiple-choice and free-response portions of the AP Statistics test. If you are looking for your own copy, make sure you get the most up-to-date version from the College Board website.

What’s on the AP Stat Formula Sheet?

The information on the formula sheet is organized into clearly defined topics. The variables are not defined on the formula sheet, so it is important to be familiar with them.

The first page contains three topics:

• Part I: Descriptive Statistics
• Part II: Probability and Distributions
• Part III: Sampling Distributions and Inferential Statistics (1st half)

Part I: Descriptive Statistics contains formulas for one- variable and two- variable statistics.

• The first row contains the two formulas for one- variable statistics: mean (expected value) and standard deviation.
  • You won’t be expected to calculate standard deviation by hand, so this is mostly just for reference. You can always use the “one- variable stats” button on your calculator.
• The second and third rows contain the formulas for two- variable statistics, including correlation and slope.
  • You should not use the correlation formula in the third row should really never be used; use the calculator function instead!

Part II: Probability and Distributions contains formulas for one -variable and two -variable statistics.

• The first row contains probability formulas, including conditional probability.
  • You will see that the first equation is useful for finding the probability of A or B.
  • You can use the second equation for finding the probability of A given B.
• Below the first row, there is a table of probability distributions including formulas to find the means and standard deviations of each type.
  • You should use a binomial distribution when you’re looking for the probability of a specific number of successes.
  • You should use a geometric distribution when you’re looking for the probability of getting the first success on a specific try. Geometric patterns continue until there is a success, so they could go on infinitely.

Part III: Sampling Distributions and Inferential Statistics is split into two parts. The first part is on the first page of the formula sheet and contains general formulas, including significance tests (standardized test statistics), confidence intervals, and chi-squared tests.

The second page contains additional topics:

Part III: Sampling Distributions and Inferential Statistics - (2nd half). The second section for Sampling Distributions and Inferential Statistics is on the second page of the formula sheet and contains specific pieces to plug into the general formulas. There are multiple tables of random variables, parameters of the sample distribution, and standard error.

• Sampling distributions for proportions
  • You should know that the formulas from the table are used with confidence intervals. The first row is used with one population. The rest of the table is used with two populations.
• Sampling distributions for means
  • Just as you used the sampling distributions for proportions, the entire table can be used with confidence intervals with the first row being used for one population and the second being used for two populations.
• Sampling distributions for simple linear regression
  • You won’t need to calculate this by hand, but it shows up in Minitab outputs.

All of the information on the formula sheet is very useful, but there is a lot. You don’t want to waste time during your preparation memorizing the information, but you definitely don’t want to waste time searching for equations during the actual test. Make sure you use the sheet as you study and practice. The more you use it, the quicker it will be to find the information you need to answer relevant questions – and you might find you naturally start to remember some of the information on it!

If there are any equations or variables on the AP Stat formula sheet that you aren’t familiar with, especially as the test date inches closer, make sure to review those topics in advance to make sure you’re ready to use the formulas if needed!