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Home > AP Courses and Exams > Course Home Pages > Macroeconomics Course Requirements

Macroeconomics Course Requirements

The AP Program unequivocally supports the principle that each individual school must develop its own curriculum for courses labeled "AP." Rather than mandating any one curriculum for AP courses, the AP Course Audit instead provides each AP teacher with a set of expectations that college and secondary school faculty nationwide have established for college-level courses. AP teachers are encouraged to develop or maintain their own curriculum that either includes or exceeds each of these expectations; such courses will be authorized to use the "AP" designation. Credit for the success of AP courses belongs to the individual schools and teachers that create powerful, locally designed AP curricula.

The AP Macroeconomics course should be designed by your school to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of an introductory college course in macroeconomics. The purpose of your course should be to give students a thorough understanding of the principles of economics that apply to a market-based economic system as a whole.

There are no specific curricular prerequisites for students taking AP Macroeconomics.

All students who are willing to accept the challenge of a rigorous academic curriculum should be considered for admission to AP courses. The College Board encourages the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP courses for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the AP Program. Schools should make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population.

High schools offering this exam must provide the exam administration resources described in the AP Coordinator's Manual.

Requirements
To request authorization to label a course "AP," complete the following two steps:
  1. Complete and submit an AP Course Audit form, on which the teacher and principal attest that their course includes or exceeds the following curricular requirements delineated by college and university faculty.
  2. Submit an electronic copy of the course syllabus that demonstrates inclusion or improvement on the curricular requirements (see Syllabus Preparation Guidelines). If your course does not include one or more of the curricular requirements but merits designation as a college-level course, see Instructions for Submitting Materials for the process for describing alternate approaches to the course.
      Syllabus Preparation Guidelines
      Instructions for Teachers
Instructions on how to submit AP Course Audit materials via the Web will be posted on AP Central and mailed to principals in January 2007.

Curricular Requirements
  • The teacher has read the most recent AP Economics Course Description, available as a free download on the AP Macroeconomics Course Home Page.
      AP Macroeconomics Course Home Page
  • The course provides instruction in each of the following seven topics outlined in the Course Description*:
    • Basic economic concepts
    • Measurement of economic performance
    • National income and price determination
    • Financial sector
    • Inflation, unemployment, and stabilization policies
    • Economic growth and productivity
    • Open economy: international trade and finance
  • The course promotes the understanding of aggregate economic activity; the utilization of resources within and across countries; and the critical evaluation of determinants of economic progress and economic decisions made by policymakers.
  • The course teaches how to generate, interpret, label, and analyze graphs, charts, and data to describe and explain economic concepts.
Resource Requirements
The school ensures that each student has a college-level macroeconomics textbook (supplemented when necessary to meet curricular requirements) for individual use inside and outside of the classroom.


* This requirement was revised on April 19, 2006.  
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