Starting this year, the College Board is implementing a significant change to the AP exam format, with exams for 28 classes transitioning to either fully digital or hybrid. According to the College Board, this change is being made to improve security.
This is not the first time digital AP exams have been introduced. In 2020, AP exams were taken at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Science teacher Neil McLeod thinks the AP exams that were taken in 2020 were a trial for digital exams.
“When they did the AP exam during COVID-19, they still had the AP tests and those were all digital, so I kind of figured that was their pilot to see how it all worked,” McLeod said.
Twelve of the 28 exams will be hybrid digital, meaning that they will have both a digital component and a paper component while the remaining 16 exams will be fully digital. The digital part of exams will be administered on the Bluebook application.
Senior Matthew Tieman, who is taking the AP Psychology exam, would rather take the exam on paper.
“I am a little disappointed that the AP Psych test will be digital this year,” Tieman said. “I prefer paper tests over digital tests. I don’t like taking notes on my computer and feel like I learn more and can do more on paper.”
Similarly, McLeod believes a paper exam allows students to interact with the test easier.
“I think the hardest thing is [students] can’t write directly on it, so they have a piece of scratch paper. They’d be looking up and
down, which I would find to be annoying as opposed to being able to circle and underline things in the short answers that are helpful.” Mcleod said.
Tieman believes the change could make exams for subjects like math more challenging, but won’t affect subjects like psychology.
“I think that it may be harder for math as there is more solution-based work in math,” Tieman said. “Psychology is mostly terms and how they apply to different situations so success on the AP test is going to be based on how much one knows while you have to work things out in math and the solution-based exams.”
McLeod is optimistic that the new change will allow students to get their scores earlier.
“Hopefully, they can get the multiple choice back faster and I would think that it’s probably going to be more secure,” McLeod said. “Big stacks of papers of the multiple-choice tests are more likely to be insecure as opposed to being digital.”
