The Fate of AP Exams

Given the academic rigor and overall competitive structure of LHS, many students opt to take AP classes with the expectation that they will take the AP test in the spring. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been hard to keep track of how these AP exams will eventually pan out. The College Board, which administers the exams, has made several changes to accommodate AP testing this year. 

Last spring, the College Board decided on an open-note, at-home, shortened exam.As a result, colleges have declared they will accept this new form of  AP exam. However, these shorter tests, some as short as 45 minutes, were inadequate to fully demonstrate  mastery of the subject at hand. Because of this insufficiency, student are likely to go back to full length AP exams in the 2021-2022 school year. 

Additionally, many test-takers last year experienced difficulties with the virtual format. The College Board offered an alternative make-up exam to those affected; however, students wanted their original exams to be scored. As a result, the College Board was sued for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, since it was expected that students would run into problems. The lawsuit claims breach of contract, gross negligence, misrepresentation, and unjust enrichment by the College Board . Moreover, the exams took place during particular US mainland daytime hours. As a result, this was inconvenient for international students who had to take the tests in the middle of their night, who instead opted to take IB tests. This led the College Board to change the AP exam format once again.

For those looking for how AP tests will work this year, the College Board recently announced that there will be three different administrations for each test that occur on a different date, meaning that for each subject there will be a separate date for the paper exam, a combination paper and digital exam, and the digital exam. For most AP tests (except for French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Music Theory), LHS students will be taking the third administration, which is the digital exam. This exam will cover the whole curriculum and will be full-length. However, the digital exam will not be structured the same as the in-person exam. First of all, for history exams, there will be no long-answer questions (LEQs) and instead there will be five short-answer questions (SAQs). However, students will not be able to choose which SAQs they answer. Also, there will be 55 stimulus-based multiple choice questions (questions based on quotes, pictures, graphs, and other content) and one document-based question (DBQ). Although it may be a relief to hear  that there won’t be any LEQs, there are some drawbacks to the digital exams. As of now, students cannot return to previous questions, and there will be a single start time across the world, which may make it hard for international students to take the exam once again. In order to take the exam, students will need a computer and a working camera to check their photo ID. They will need to download a computer app in April which is necessary for the exam. On the bright side, if any of this is a dealbreaker, the College Board is allowing students to cancel taking the exam without paying any cancelation fees.

by Anika Basu