College Board update changes this year’s AP exams
By Allyson Kang,
BlueDevilHUB.com Editor–
The College Board released an update on Friday, March 20, about AP exams for AP students affected by coronavirus (COVID-19). According to the website, this year’s AP exam format will be a 45-minute online free response and will not include topics that teachers typically cover after early March. There will also be two testing date options and free remote learning resources available.
“I don’t know if [the new tests] will be a good idea, but it sounds easier to me. As long as it’s less work […] I like it,” junior Amanda Kwok said. Kwok has signed up to take two AP exams this year.
Although Kwok believes subject tests are “way more important at this point,” she plans to continue studying for the Ap exams with Khan Academy and AP test books. She is unsure of whether she will use the remote learning resources yet.
Other students and teachers at Davis High have expressed their concerns about continuing study of AP material after the school closed on March 13 without a plan for online schooling. This College Board update has alleviated some of them.
Directly after the announcement of district schools closing, Chemistry AP teacher David Van Muyden worried about how he could continue to teach his AP students the exam topics he had yet to cover.
“We were going to be in great shape in terms of timing and now it’s going to be a cram. But I don’t think we’re the only school that’s in this situation,” Van Muyden said.
Now, however, with the breadth of material covered on the exam being shortened, that burden has been lifted and the focus has shifted to reviewing topics. Van Muyden has released practice tests through My AP as optional work as the Davis Joint Unified School District assembles a Distance Learning program.
Junior Anne Zhao, who has signed up to take six AP exams, has mixed feelings about the testing change.
“I’m glad they’re cutting off material because it means less to review for, but the significantly shorter test makes me concerned about the difficulty level of my tests,” Zhao said.
Most AP exams were usually between two to three hours long with multiple sections. These will now be condensed into a 45-minute-long free response taken online.
The shift to online tests for this year has also brought up many concerns over how students without access to the internet will take the test. According to the College Board, “we recognize that the digital divide could prevent some low-income and rural students from participating. Working with partners, we will invest so that these students have the tools and connectivity they need to review AP content online and take the exam.”
College Board will also be utilizing test security tools like plagiarism detection software to prevent cheating. The organization emphasizes that at-home work has been scored in previous years, and that they will be prepared for this year.
