AP PRECALCULUS Scoring Guide

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1. An open-top box is constructed by cutting squares that are inches by inches from the corners of an
-inch by -inch rectangular piece of cardboard, and then folding the sides of the box up to make walls. The
volume of the box is modeled by the function given by . Which of the
following statements is true about the function ?
The contextual situation restricts the domain of to , and the relative maximum value
(A) of on this domain is . This is because the longer side of the cardboard determines the
domain restriction.
The contextual situation restricts the domain of to , and the relative maximum value
(B) of on this domain is . This is because the shorter side of the cardboard determines the
domain restriction.
The contextual situation restricts the domain of to , and the relative maximum value
(C) of on this domain is . This is because half of the longer side of the cardboard determines the
domain restriction.
The contextual situation restricts the domain of to , and the relative maximum value of
(D) on this domain is . This is because half of the shorter side of the cardboard determines the
domain restriction.

2.

In 2016, the cost to mail a package was for up to ounces, plus an additional cost of for each
additional ounce or portion of an ounce less than a full ounce. A portion of the graph of this relationship is given
with cost, in dollars, as a function of ounces. Which of the following describes the restrictions on the range for such
a function?
(A) The range is positive real numbers.
(B) The range is positive integers.
(C) The range is values of the form , where is a nonnegative real number.
(D) The range is values of the form , where is a nonnegative integer.

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Let be an increasing function defined for . The table gives values of at selected values of . The function
is given by .

3. Part C

(i) Use the table of values of to determine if is best modeled by a linear, quadratic, exponential, or
logarithmic function.

(ii) Give a reason for your answer based on the relationship between the change in the output values of and the
change in the input values of .

Part C

Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples to score the response.

0 1 2

The student response includes both of these criteria.

• Answer of quadratic function

• Reason for quadratic function (Note: reference to a quadratic regression is not a sufficient reason.)

Model Solution

(i) is best modeled by a quadratic function.

(ii) Because the differences in the output values are a constant over consecutive equal-length input-value intervals,
a quadratic model is best.

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4.

A music agent is planning a series of concerts at local farms around the nation. The agent is building a model to
estimate crowd capacity based on different sizes of square fields. Which type of function is most likely to model
crowd capacity in this situation?
(A) Linear
(B) Piecewise linear
(C) Quadratic
(D) Cubic

5. Interval

Change in

Change in

Change in

Change in

The table gives the average rates of change for the functions , , , and for certain intervals of . Which of the
functions is best modeled by a piecewise-linear function with two linear segments with different slopes?

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(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)

6.

At a bakery, the number of cookies baked each day changes based on anticipated demand. The scatterplot shows the
change in hundreds of cookies baked from the previous day for eight days. The point at means that on day ,
the number of cookies baked will be more than the number of cookies baked on day . A function model is
to be constructed for the number of cookies baked on each of the days, through . Which of the following
statements best supports the selection of a model for ?
Because the information about rate of change is roughly linear, a linear model is best for .
(A)

Because the information about rate of change is roughly linear, a quadratic model is best for .
(B)

Because the information about rate of change is positive and negative, a quadratic model is best for .
(C)

Because the information about rate of change is positive and negative, a piecewise-linear model is best
(D) for .

7. The ancient Pythagoreans studied figurate numbers, which are numbers that can be shown by taking dots or spheres
and arranging them into geometric shapes. For example, the square numbers are , , , , , etc., and each of
these numbers of dots can be arranged into a square. The tetrahedral numbers similarly specify the number of
spheres needed to create a tetrahedron, which is a triangular-based pyramid. The tetrahedral numbers are , , ,
, , , , etc. Which of the following statements is true?

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The tetrahedral numbers are best modeled by a quadratic function because the differences are a
(A)
nonzero constant.
The tetrahedral numbers are best modeled by a quadratic function because the differences are a
(B)
nonzero constant.
The tetrahedral numbers are best modeled by a cubic function because the differences are a
(C)
nonzero constant.
The tetrahedral numbers are best modeled by a cubic function because the differences are a nonzero
(D)
constant.

Students who completed a class participated in a year-long study to see how much content from the class they retained
over the following year. At the end of the class, students completed an initial test to determine the group’s content
knowledge. At that time ( ), the group of students achieved a score of out of points. For the next months,
the group was evaluated at the end of each month to track their retention of the content. After months ( ), the
group’s score was points.

The group’s score can be modeled by the function given by , where is the score, in
points, for month , and is the number of months since the initial test.

8. Part C

The leaders of the study decide to use model to make predictions about the group’s score beyond months (
year). For a given year, model is an appropriate model if the group’s predicted score at the end of the year is at
least point lower than the group’s predicted score at the end of the previous year. Based on this information, for
how many years is model an appropriate model? Give a reason for your answer. (Note: The end of a year
occurs every months from the initial evaluation— , , )

Part C

Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples to score the response.

0 1

The student response includes this criterion.

• Answer with reason (based on use of the displayed logarithmic from Part A)

Model Solution

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is decreasing, and the graph of is concave up.

Therefore, year is the first year for which the model is not appropriate.

Model is appropriate for the first years

( to ).

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