The Advanced Placement examinations from College Board have been administered on paper for many years. However, as of this academic year, it has been announced that 28 of these exams will be going digital starting in May 2025.
According to College Board,“these evaluations will move to the Bluebook testing application in order to ensure their continued security.”With this newly implemented digital testing system, exam season is going to look very different. Students and teachers at Olympia High School shared their apprehensive thoughts on how significant this change could be.
With recent implementation of digital standardized testing for SAT and ACT, this switch to a digital platform for College Board was foreseen for some. “With how fast technology has been taking over, I did expect it. Maybe not this year, but in the upcoming ones, yes,” expressed David Cooper.
“I was [expecting]- since the world is rapidly becoming more digital” voiced sophomore Talia Mickey.
However, some students were more surprised by the digital switch, such as junior Gabby Stiffler who responded, “I absolutely did not expect it.”
One of the main concerns from students and teachers resides in the questionable reliability of the technological system. “One downside of this new measure could be the technological issues we often face, which I hope doesn’t happen as they could cause additional stress to the students,” AP Psychology teacher Kimberly Elkins shared.
“I believe this can have both positive and negative effects; we will be able to type faster, hence lose less time, but we probably won’t be able to apply the [previous] strategies we’ve learned from test taking on paper,” Junior Gabby Stiffler expressed.
“Unfortunately, it has become all too easy to have an AI program write an essay in seconds, but ultimately I don’t think it’ll harm the students” AP English Literature teacher Mr. Graham stated.
Nonetheless, many teachers were able to see the potential positive outcomes of this initiative. “I think and hope that College Board will do their best when it comes to minimizing the tech difficulties”, Mr. Cooper stated.
“I do believe that students will benefit from it as they will now be able to write essays in a shorter amount of time,” AP World History teacher Ashley Phillips shared.
“It will also be a lot easier when it comes to interpreting one’s handwriting” voiced Ms. Elkins.
Overall, it seems that both teachers and students will have to adapt to this change with new testing strategies to navigate a digital testing platform. Good luck Titans, keep studying and may your hard work pay off during testing season!
