A Switch in the Wrong Direction: AP Exams Are Going Digital

At the end of last year, students in Green High School and across the country were signing up for Advanced Placement, or AP, classes that were designed to challenge students. At the end of the year, students must take a multi-hour standardized test for their course, which can help them earn college credit and save them thousands of dollars.

Before last year’s tests, all AP exams made by the College Board were given on paper in a highly secure fashion. In 2024, the board introduced digital testing to a few subjects to try it out. However, this year, for the first time, most AP exams are shifting to a digital format, and the Paw Print Editorial Board is astounded.

What made the College Board think switching to digital tests was a good idea? Without failure, technology has issues. Whether it is lagging connectivity or glitching, technology is only partially trusted. Who is to say these things will not happen in the middle of one of the tests? What would happen then? Does a student’s hard work and effort from an entire school year get invalidated because their Chromebook glitched mid-examination?

AP tests are already stressful enough. Students prepare for a whole school year to take a three hour test over everything they have learned. They should not have to worry more about whether or not their computer will die mid-test. It is just not fair.

When the College Board originally announced that they were going to go digital on some of the tests, they released information saying they would have practice digital tests set up through a testing browser called Bluebook. However, that testing browser will not be accessible until April of 2025, just one month before the exam.

This means that for the next seven months, teachers will be trying to teach their students how to use a browser they know very little about and have yet to see themselves. How can the College Board think that this is ok? 

Imagine sitting in your AP Literature class, and your teacher tells you that on the AP test, you should write down ideas to help you prepare to write an essay. Assuming you will have somewhere to take notes on the digital exam, you think you will have one less thing to worry about, but when you finally get to see the test set up in April, you find there is no place to take digital notes. You had been working hard to prepare for this test, but now you are lost. What will you do then? 

The College Board can not expect students to prepare all year for something and not even know what to expect until a month before a high-stakes test.

One of the reasons that the College Board made this decision is because, over the past few years, there has been a rise in tests being invalidated due to cheating. They hope that by going digital, it will increase the overall integrity of the tests.

This is just faulty logic. We all know how easy it is to cheat on tests. It does not matter if the test is on paper or a Chromebook. If someone wants to cheat, they will always find a way. 

The Paw Print editorial board thinks that the College Board should not have made this drastic switch on AP tests. It is not fair, and with knowledge of the thousands of things that could go wrong, the College Board should have never made this decision.