High School During COVID-19 - Testing Online

Paperseed’s summer intern, gabriela

by Gabriela Rosenfeld

Spring in High School is an especially stressful time, with the seniors worrying about heading off to college and juniors anxious about state testing, preparation for final exams, and the impending college application process. Those that feel exceptional pressure, though, are students enrolled in AP, or Advanced Placement courses. Each year in May, students enrolled in these courses take a two-three hour exam, covering the material taught during the year. Although the exam is not required, most students choose to participate since a passing score leads to university credit, thus allowing them to not only be exempt from classes in college, but also save time and money.  

This year, when students became aware that they would not be returning to school due to the pandemic, many students, including myself, wondered what would happen with AP tests. Some of my peers hoped that the tests would be cancelled, while others realized the importance of the exams since they could provide financial relief in the long run. 

This year’s ap tests were open note

By April, the College Board, a non-for-profit organization that administers the tests, announced how the tests would be carried out under quarantine conditions. For each class, the tests would be taken from home on any device, last only forty-five minutes, consist of only free response questions (normally, they include multiple choice too), and be open note – meaning we could refer to any materials during the exam. Universities and colleges announced that they would still accept the scores and provide the same course credit as they had with traditional testing.

For many students, as soon as they learned this news, any stress that normally comes with AP tests quickly dissipated. If the test was taken at home, and was open note, then students could communicate with each other and search the internet for answers. Seemed too easy, right? As it turns out, after having taken two exams, it does not play out so easily. In order to prevent cheating, the College Board formulated questions that required students to use much greater knowledge than any class notes or the textbook could provide, and they created multiple versions of the test, each with unique questions. In addition, they created “decoy” accounts on the internet pretending to be students offering help during the test, as an attempt to trick actual students into cheating. Luckily, most students quickly became aware of these false accounts, and did not fall for the ploy. In another effort to prevent dishonesty, the test was given at the same time in every location around the world, meaning some students had to wake up in the middle of the night to test.

Thankfully, the tests were offered during my normal school hours and I did not experience any computer issues when taking or submitting my tests – but others were not so lucky. Thousands of students worldwide faced several technical issues, and were not able to submit their responses - a fault of the College Board. In response to this, a 500 million dollar lawsuit was filed against the College Board on behalf of the students who were not able to submit their exams. The students involved demanded that the company accept their answers and not make them retake the exam in June (the makeup test date). 

Submitting responses was not the only trouble that students faced when taking exams online. Access to devices and reliable internet was another problem, and one which highlighted  a major equity issue. While there has always been a cost to take the exams (for which waivers are available for financial hardship), now students have additional financial responsibilities: owning a device and paying for reliable Internet access. I was fortunate — the school I attend offered devices and WiFi routers to students. But, that is not the case for many schools and students.

Navigating AP tests was just one of the barriers that students faced this year, but as we move into next school year and continue to try to adapt to our “new normal” created by the pandemic, more obstacles are bound to arise. Unfortunately, those students who already have the highest needs are the ones most likely to be impacted the most. Each of us will need to be alert and do what we can in order to ensure that every student, regardless of where they live or their financial status, can receive a full education.