For decades, CollegeBoard has offered Advanced Placement (AP) Classes to motivated students throughout the United States and abroad. AP classes are known for their rigor and course load, which are meant to mimic college courses and their content. In May, when courses come to a close, students take AP tests that are meant to assess their knowledge of the college-level curriculum. The exams are 3 to 4 hours long, and contain both multiple choice and free response questions. Those who score high on the AP tests can earn college credit because they have demonstrated their knowledge of college-level curriculum. AP tests have always been proctored on-site with strict guidelines and regulations to ensure academic honesty and integrity.

In response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, however, CollegeBoard has decided to shift testing online for students to test at home. Originally multiple hours long, the tests have now been reduced to 45 minutes. In addition, the exams allow for the use of external study materials, no longer cover the entire course curriculum, and will only focus on free response questions. Although AP exams are important to the education of many high school students, CollegeBoard should not migrate AP exams to this format.

The reduction of the test duration from 3+ hours to 45 minutes makes it impossible for AP exams to test the entire year of curriculum. To demonstrate this absurdity, the AP Language and Composition test consists of a multiple choice section and an essay section. The essay section consists of three different types of essays, each generally taking about 40 minutes. CollegeBoard has mentioned that the new format of AP exams will only contain free response questions, an issue that will be elaborated on later. 45 minutes simply is not enough time. Multiple choice questions were of great importance to most AP exams. Multiple choice questions are often worth 50% of the AP test. This question format has the capability to effectively and quickly assess students’ knowledge on a wide variety of topics.  To completely omit this section would be a poor decision and would undo an entire year's worth of preparation for that section by the students and teachers. Moreover, CollegeBoard has decided to make their exams “open-book”, meaning that students will be able to access external material during the testing period. This voids the ability of the exams to assess student knowledge of the content covered, as they can now readily access any information they lacked. This issue is further exacerbated by Collegeboard’s decision to omit up to one third of the curriculum for each test. As a result, the new AP exams cannot effectively measure the students’ skills and knowledge that were acquired throughout the year, demonstrating that the new online format should not be adopted.

In addition, academic honesty is compromised with the new testing format. Unproctored online tests allow students to access a wide variety of resources normally not allowed, even for “open-book” tests. Examples include help from parents, tutors, and other test-taking students. Online collaboration will likely be one of the most common ways to cheat on the exams, as students who are taking the same exam will be able to discuss approaches to problems and solutions without any way of getting caught. From the current information provided by CollegeBoard, there seems to be no effective way for CollegeBoard to prevent cheating on the test. Instead, CollegeBoard claims that the problems will be structured in a way that nullifies attempts to cheat. However, this cannot be the case. CollegeBoard clearly outlines what concepts and content are covered in each unit of each AP class: history exams can only cover specific historical periods and the events within them; math exams can only cover specific concepts and techniques; literature exams can only cover specific literary techniques and devices; etc. Students who discuss the questions with tutors or friends will certainly have an unfair advantage over students who do not. Online platforms allow for widespread cheating and the collaboration of thousands to ensure that everyone can receive their desired scores without demonstrating their personal knowledge of the curriculum. Academic dishonesty will lead to a tremendous impact on all students: test scores. A test score is determined by setting a threshold correctness percentage for each AP Score (1-5). For example, for the AP Language & Composition test, a score of 80% typically equates to an AP Score of 5. This may seem low, but due to the difficulty of the exam, less than 30% of test takers receive a 4 or a 5. When academic dishonesty occurs, students are projected to perform better on the exams, thus leading to a more difficult curve that will lead to good students receiving lower scores, which is completely unfair.

Finally, the abrupt change to the entire AP exam format greatly exacerbates the chaos students are facing in regards to the ongoing pandemic and the associated response. Educators and students across the country are attempting to adapt to online schooling amid the stress and worry they face from the pandemic, self-isolation, risk of getting infected, etc. Not only does CollegeBoard need to create a completely new test within a month, but they also expect teachers to prepare their students for this completely new format within that same period, while still in the chaos from the pandemic. Normally, educators are given an entire school year to teach and prepare their students for the exam and the way it is structured. Adapting to this new format in such little time adds to the difficulty and workload that teachers are already facing. Likewise, the abrupt shift to a new test format is adding to the stress that students are currently facing. Many have been spending countless hours practicing for the multiple choice or oral sections on their exams, only to learn that these sections have been removed, and that their efforts have gone to waste. The changes to the test are too drastic and cause unnecessary distress to the students and teachers who have worked so hard this year to prepare for what should have been the exams.

For all the reasons above, we kindly ask that CollegeBoard reconsider its decision to migrate AP exams to the new online format. We understand due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 virus, there is no guarantee that even a postponed date will work. A viable alternative would be to take the entirety of the test online, perhaps one section at a time to minimize cheating. In any case, we strongly suggest that CollegeBoard change the new AP test format.