Every day, the world turns a little more digital. This year, the AP College Board is hopping on the bandwagon and going online. Twenty-eight of the AP tests held in May, will be taken digitally from a chromebook, iPad, or other school device. For decades, standardized testing has been something that rarely changes due to the wide range of people taking the tests. While this change comes with many concerns and questions, it also sparks benefits for many students, as more of their schoolwork becomes digital each year. In this day and age, where kids spend more time on their phones than in textbooks, computers can feel more familiar than a paper and pen.
“I feel like the test being online will make it easier because whenever stuff is on my chromebook, I am not as stressed out as when we have to hand write it,” said junior Jaxon Swain, who plans to take the AP Language and Composition exam.
Not only are students more used to working digitally, but many found that it helps them work faster, which alleviates concerns of limited time during the test.
Senior Kahli Bradley will take the AP Chemistry test in May, and said, “I would rather do the test online because it will take way less time, and I think taking it on paper would be harder because I would be so focused on the time that I can’t concentrate on what I am doing.”
While many students look forward to this change, some teachers have concerns.
“When you write, you do it slower so you are able to think more about what you are writing. When you are typing it does go quicker which is helpful, but my problem is that I feel like if the students go too fast, then they won’t go back and check, so it is going to be a learning curve for them,” AP Psychology teacher, Melissa Bertelsen said.
The switch to digital testing also requires a change in study or teaching techniques, to ensure students are properly prepared when the test comes.
“When I have my students practice, I am having them hand write it, but I probably need to change what I do to be more in line with what the AP test will be like,” Bertelsen said.
Other concerns brought up by teachers and students include the possibility of internet or chromebook issues at the time of the exam. As far as a plan in case something happens, AP College Board has stated on their website, “Students only need to be connected to the internet to start the test and at the end to submit their responses. If the internet drops during testing, students can continue testing without disruption.” Also, if internet were to drop and students were unable to submit their exam, “In case of a widespread internet outage for an extended period or another unforeseen issue that prevents automatic answer submission at the end of the exam, students have up to 4 days after the exam to find an internet connection and submit their encrypted responses.”
Going digital can be scary, and there are concerns about how taking the AP exam online will affect students’ test scores.
The Harvard Graduate School of Education discussed a study done on Massachusetts students in 2015, where half of the students took a state-administered exam online, and half of them took it on paper. “According to the AIR researchers, the students who took the test online performed as if they’d had five fewer months of academic preparation in math and 11 fewer months of preparation in English than their peers who took the test on paper. There was no reason to believe that they were actually less prepared; instead, the mode of testing appeared to be dampening their results.”
This validates many concerns with this decision to go digital, yet there are still plenty of reasons to believe that this can be beneficial for students. Students have become more comfortable with technology over the years, which might make these AP exams easier for them to complete. They may also complete them faster which reduces the chance of scoring poorly because of a lack of time. The decision to go online for the 2025 AP exams is controversial and there are mixed opinions, but we will have to wait and see what the future of digital technology holds for students, because this is just the beginning.
