Free fall
Also called Freefall
Free fall is motion in which gravity is the only force acting, so the object accelerates downward at the local value of g whichever way it happens to be moving. A ball thrown straight up is in free fall the whole way, including at the top.
An object is in free fall when gravity is the only force on it. Its acceleration is then 9.8 m/s directed downward near Earth's surface, identical for a bowling ball and a marble, because the mass that sets the gravitational force is the same mass that resists being accelerated by it.
Free fall is not the same as falling. The phrase describes which forces act, not which way the object moves. Throw a ball straight up and it is in free fall from the instant it leaves your hand: on the way up, at the peak where , and on the way down. The acceleration is 9.8 m/s downward at every one of those moments, the top included. Only the velocity turns around.
An object leaves free fall the moment a second force starts to matter. Air resistance is the usual culprit, and once drag has grown to match the weight the object is at terminal velocity. The AP Physics 1 exam lists as a standing convention that air resistance is negligible unless a question says otherwise.
Whether to put 9.8 or 10 in for on the exam has a documented answer, and it is not this page: see is g 9.8 or 10 in AP Physics 1. To solve the motion itself, run the kinematic equations with set to the free-fall value.