May is the last month before the 2024-2025 school year ends, which means there are a few last events to take place. Whether it’s finals, senior celebrations, or the most imminent moment —Advanced Placement (AP) testing —it can come with many challenges as time passes.
“What prepares students for the AP exam is that they need to see the types of questions and also the format. For some of our tests, I give both multiple-choice questions and free-response questions,” said math teacher Julia Hott. “Sometimes, I give them straightforward and more so questions. On the free-response section of the AP exam, where they have to apply their knowledge, it’s not so straightforward. They have to think about what they know and how to use it to solve the problem.”
Preparing students not only gives them an idea of what the AP test will look like, but it also tests how students plan to learn the material up to the time of the tests. The AP test will help examine how well students have learned the course material compared to their peers.
“AP is designed to figure out what you didn’t learn, and I really have always thought that AP was designed to pick apart the kids that are good and the ones that know the subtle differences,” said AP Research and Seminar teacher Karen Mayer-Sebastian.
AP tests are known for their rigorous nature, causing students to stress their knowledge. However, the exam does not require students to know every single aspect of the specific class.
“The College Board tries to trick students. They make it intentionally hard, but they also don’t expect you to know everything. I always suggest to students that they need to take a deep breath and realize that they’re not going to know everything,” said science teacher Stephanie Lone.
Due to the difficulty of the exams, many AP teachers attempt to prepare their students with practice questions that will mirror the types they’ll see on the test.
“[I prepare students] through practice of both the specific type and multiple choice questions. It’s a stimulus-based multiple-choice different than what kids are used to. Exposure to those types of questions, but in particular writing skills, is important,” said history teacher Jared Willis.
Although most AP teachers attempt to prepare their students, the strategies they use can vary due to the different formats that AP tests use.
“So the first year that I taught AP, the test was paper. When we did timed rights, we would practice them on paper, where they would have to handwrite them. And
then when we moved from the digital test, because we actually moved to the digital test last year, we would practice typing instead of handwriting because the strategies are different,” said English teacher Chelsea Thomas.
With the changes in AP exam layout comes the need for new tactics to practice testing skills. These exam adjustments may have been brought about due to security risks.
“I would gamble that [changing AP tests] has to do with efficiency of resources, so you don’t have to print all the books. Also, test security, right? If it’s a closed device, when you submit the test, it doesn’t change hands or leave the room,” said Willis.
The decision to change the exam format, according to Lone, involves considering cheating and test security.
“There’s an AP newsletter that gets sent out to AP teachers from College Board. What I remember reading about it is last year, there was some scandal with some cheating that happened. Some tests had already gone to online, but others were going to be doing it on a slow process of changing them all to digital.”
Even though students have been shown to be the reason for the change in format, they will still be able to demonstrate their flexibility in learning. Students are already surrounded by technology in school and in their personal lives, so this change will give them a chance to test their ability to adjust.
“I think our students are super resilient, so I think they will be fine [with the new changes]. And honestly, I think that students do a lot of things digitally; that’s just the world we live in. When it goes digital, they’ll be okay with that. I just think that it will take a little bit of time for teachers and students to change to the new format, but I do think students will adapt faster than the teachers will,” said Lone.
Adapting to new changes and challenges is a way for students to demonstrate their learning. Also, needing to be resilient is a part of testing that has been addressed, but students also having control of what they want to achieve is advised.
“[My advice would be to] take ownership of your learning. With a lot of AP classes, there’s so much content, and the timeline of going through that material is shortened because the deadline is not the end of the year; it’s the AP test,” said Willis.