AP Psychology · 2024 CED

Pacing calculator

Type in the instructional days on your county's calendar. The calculator sets aside review and buffer days, then splits the rest across these units in proportion to the 2024 Course and Exam Description's unit weightings.

How the numbers are made

Teaching days are your instructional days minus review and buffer days.
Research Methods comes off the top. The 2024 CED folded research methods and statistics into the Science Practices, which are assessed inside every unit, so Unit 1 gets a flat share of teaching days instead of an exam-weighted slice.
The rest splits by CED unit. All five CED units carry a 15–25% exam weighting. Each one's days are divided evenly across its topics, and each site unit collects the days for the topics it teaches. That's how a mixed unit like Sensation & Perception (CED 1.6 and 2.1) draws from two CED units.
Split topics. Psychoactive drugs sit inside CED 1.3, so a quarter of 1.3 goes to U2B and the rest to U2A. Language (3.5) rides with Thinking in U5B.
Whole days. Totals are rounded so they add up exactly to your instructional days — nothing lost to rounding. Each unit's days include its test day.
Self-guided U7. Its days go back to every other unit in proportion, so CED 4 and 5 fall under their 15% floor in class time and the assignment has to carry that weight.
Social Psychology (CED 4.1–4.3) has no unit on this site yet, but it's on the exam, so it keeps its share here.

Source: AP Psychology Course and Exam Description, effective Fall 2024. Hover a row's CED codes for the topic titles.

Your calendar

Instructional daysClass meetings from the first day to the AP exam (or the end of the course).AP review daysHeld back for cumulative review and practice exams.Buffer daysAssemblies, testing windows, weather, the day that always runs long.Research Methods shareOf teaching days, for Unit 1. Science Practices are tested inside every unit, so it gets a flat share.

Teach U7 as a self-guided assignment (0 class days). Its days go to the other units.

CED unit weightings

The CED gives every unit a 15–25% band of the multiple-choice section, so the default is an even 20% each. Lean a unit up or down within its band; the calculator rescales so the five always total 100%.

CED 1 Biological Bases of Behavior20%CED 2 Cognition20%CED 3 Development and Learning20%CED 4 Social Psychology and Personality20%CED 5 Mental and Physical Health20%

Suggested days per unit

The bar is each unit's slice of teaching days, in % — together they fill the Σ row's bar. The days are the same numbers, rounded to whole days.

U1Research Methods & Statistical AnalysisScience Practices · every unitdays
U2AThe Biological Basis of BehaviorCED 1.1 · 1.2 · 1.3 (part) · 1.4 · 13 lessonsdays
U2BStates of Consciousness: Sleep, Dreams, and DrugsCED 1.3 (part) · 1.5 · 2 lessonsdays
U3Sensation & PerceptionCED 1.6 · 2.1 · 9 lessonsdays
U4Learning TheoryCED 3.7–3.9 · 8 lessonsdays
U5AMemoryCED 2.3–2.7 · 8 lessonsdays
U5BThinking and LanguageCED 2.2 · 3.5 · 10 lessonsdays
U5CIntelligence and TestingCED 2.8 · 3 lessonsdays
U6Developmental PsychologyCED 3.1–3.4 · 3.6 · 9 lessonsdays
U7Motivation, Emotion, Stress & Health / PersonalityCED 4.4–4.7 · 5.1 · 5.2 · 0 lessonsdays
—Social PsychologyCED 4.1–4.3These days stay in the plan — no unit on this site yet, so place them yourself.days
U8Clinical Psychology (Abnormal & Treatment)CED 5.3–5.5 · 8 lessonsdays
ΣTeaching days — all units abovedays
+AP reviewdays
+Bufferdays
=Instructional daysdays

Class time by CED unit

CED 1Biological Bases of Behavior
CED 2Cognition
CED 3Development and Learning
CED 4Social Psychology and Personality
CED 5Mental and Physical Health

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