🌍 2024 AP Environmental Science: U.S. vs International Exam Comparison

The 2024 AP Environmental Science (APES) exam brought different challenges depending on your region. While the U.S. paper leaned toward applied environmental logic and U.S. policy, the International exam demanded greater fluency in global data, multi-step math, and treaty-based reasoning. Here's the complete comparison.

1. Shared Foundations

• Format: 80 MCQs + 3 FRQs in both versions
• Skill Focus: Data analysis, policy application, math-based justification
• Key Units: Energy, Pollution, Population, Climate Change, Biodiversity

2. Key Differences

3. What It Means

Both versions emphasize environmental literacy and decision-making — but the International exam pushed further into solution evaluation and cross-system reasoning. Students needed to justify real-world trade-offs, not just describe content.

4. Prep Strategies for 2025

• 📊 Study both U.S. and global environmental regulations — understand their structure and outcomes
• 🧮 Drill multi-step energy and population calculations with unit conversions
• 🌿 Be ready to propose AND defend environmental strategies using data
• 🧠 Practice using data + vocabulary + policy to explain real outcomes
• 📘 Use real 2024 U.S. + Intl FRQs to simulate both styles of reasoning

“The best APES students in 2025 will be those who can analyze like a scientist — and argue like a policymaker.”

📘 Recommended Resources

• 2024 APES U.S. + International FRQ Bundle
• AP Central FRQ Archive
• Fiveable, Princeton Review, Barron’s APES
• EPA.gov, IEA.org, UNEP.org