Compared to the paper format of the AP exam junior Lily Slutzky took last year, the new digital test sparks increased nervousness for her.
“When it’s a timed essay [on computer], then I feel like that’s just another stressor,” said Slutzky. “You can always go back and change and overthink wordings. And when you’re handwriting, it’s a lot harder to do that. You have to just accept what you’ve written.”
According to Katie McKeown, Glenbrook North testing and accommodations coordinator, the AP English Language and Composition exam and the AP English Literature and Composition exam are the newly digital tests this year at GBN.
All teachers of both courses agreed to run digital tests this year, McKeown said.
“We were not going to allow it to change from teacher to teacher,” said McKeown. “So the AP Lang teachers had to agree. AP Lit had to agree. If there was more than one teacher, everyone had to be on the same page.”
College Board did not agree to Torch’s interview requests, but a College Board spokesperson sent an email that stated in part, “Digital exams are the future of AP testing. They remove the need to manage paper exam booklets on exam day and reduce the risk of exam security issues and lost exam responses. In our surveys, students have indicated a strong preference for the digital exam experience, which allows them to type rather than handwrite free responses.”
Digital AP exams generally follow the same format as the paper tests, including the types of questions, amount of time given for each section and weighting of scores.
Students can access sample questions for the AP Language and AP Literature exams on the Bluebook testing app, which has already been downloaded onto school-issued Chromebooks. The practice exams includes both multiple-choice and free-response questions, along with an answer eliminator and annotation tool.
The technology team intends to roll out Bluebook updates appropriately on Chromebooks so students have the most up-to-date versions of everything they need, McKeown said.
“Students are not required to use their Chromebook,” said McKeown. “However, I would highly recommend that students do use their Chromebooks for AP testing because our technology team keeps very up-to-date on any Chromebook updates that are supposed to be happening, like any Chrome OS updates that are coming down.”
College Board plans to move seven more AP exams fully digital next school year for all schools that offer those specific classes.
Digital AP exams are a positive change, AP Language teacher Nicholas Timmer said.
“Students can write more, they can revise easily [and] make corrections easily,” Timmer said.
According to Slutzky, finding out future AP exams are going digital probably will not change her mind when signing up for classes.
“I don’t think I [would] not take a class just because the AP test is changing because it’s still probably valuable to learn the material,” Slutzky said.