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AP Exams During COVID-19
As the Covid-19 situation has continued to develop, areas of academics, arts and athletics have had to make creative and sometimes difficult adjustments. One aspect of many students’ academic learning that has made a drastic change was Advanced Placement (AP) exams, which were moved online and altered to fit the situation.
The Advanced Placement programs offered by the College Board is a university-level curriculum offered to high school students. Universities may grant students who score highly on the exam course credit and placement. We are lucky that Brentwood offers such a wide variety of AP courses, in every academic area, including languages, social studies, sciences, mathematics, technology, and electives like music and art. Some examples for the range of the AP courses are Environmental Science, Comparative & Government Politics, English, Economics, Computer Science Principles, and Studio Art.
The standardized AP Exam exam is usually between two and four hours and might include multiple-choice, short answers, essays, and equations written on paper. The adjustments that the College Board has made to put the exams online during this period include changing the test to forty-five minutes without multiple choice. It was also open-book, which means that students had access to textbooks, the internet, and notes, while the exam was equipped with anti-plagiarism software to prevent direct copying of information from outside sources. The teachers were to verify the students’ responses before they were sent to the College Board to be graded. Each test took place at the exact same time, which the College Board decided would be at 11:30am Pacific.
Most teachers had to make fast changes to their classes in order to keep up with the adaptations of the exam and the new learning environment. One of the classes Ms Richardson teaches is AP Psychology. In transitioning to online learning and a new type of exam to prepare for, she understood that “a useful strategy would be to use the materials published by the College Board”. Mr Collis, who is the Head of the English Department and teaches AP English 11, has had to alter his teaching too in preparation for the new test. He understood that the exam this year “suited one kind of writer”, as it was only one essay as opposed to three. Mr. Collis also “hugely misses marking on paper as opposed to screen”, which was a drastic shift given he had to mark over 400 student essays in preparation for the exam.
Not all of the courses, such as AP Studio Art, were standardized tests. The students had to complete pieces to submit for the end of the year, which was difficult if they had not finished all their work yet. One of the senior students of the class, Jude P, Privett ‘20, opened up about a big challenge that he and the other students faced, which was “getting photos of the pieces that were all at Brentwood, but we have Mr. Luna to thank for helping with that”. All of our teachers have done an amazing job keeping up with the changes and adapting as necessary to give us students the best chance of success. For this we are very grateful.
This type of online test should probably be avoided by the College Board in the future if possible. As Ms Richardson noticed, “there are too many inconsistencies for a standardized test, from technology access, testing conditions, use of the internet, and other variables”.
Brentwood teachers did a fantastic job with the preparation that they could offer, with the scheduled lessons and office hours and resources that not many other students around the world might have had access to. In the future, an exam that acknowledges students’ different living conditions and accessibility to notes, internet, and software around the world would be beneficial for the College Board to consider.
Chloe C, Allard ‘21
The Advanced Placement programs offered by the College Board is a university-level curriculum offered to high school students. Universities may grant students who score highly on the exam course credit and placement. We are lucky that Brentwood offers such a wide variety of AP courses, in every academic area, including languages, social studies, sciences, mathematics, technology, and electives like music and art. Some examples for the range of the AP courses are Environmental Science, Comparative & Government Politics, English, Economics, Computer Science Principles, and Studio Art.
The standardized AP Exam exam is usually between two and four hours and might include multiple-choice, short answers, essays, and equations written on paper. The adjustments that the College Board has made to put the exams online during this period include changing the test to forty-five minutes without multiple choice. It was also open-book, which means that students had access to textbooks, the internet, and notes, while the exam was equipped with anti-plagiarism software to prevent direct copying of information from outside sources. The teachers were to verify the students’ responses before they were sent to the College Board to be graded. Each test took place at the exact same time, which the College Board decided would be at 11:30am Pacific.
Most teachers had to make fast changes to their classes in order to keep up with the adaptations of the exam and the new learning environment. One of the classes Ms Richardson teaches is AP Psychology. In transitioning to online learning and a new type of exam to prepare for, she understood that “a useful strategy would be to use the materials published by the College Board”. Mr Collis, who is the Head of the English Department and teaches AP English 11, has had to alter his teaching too in preparation for the new test. He understood that the exam this year “suited one kind of writer”, as it was only one essay as opposed to three. Mr. Collis also “hugely misses marking on paper as opposed to screen”, which was a drastic shift given he had to mark over 400 student essays in preparation for the exam.
Not all of the courses, such as AP Studio Art, were standardized tests. The students had to complete pieces to submit for the end of the year, which was difficult if they had not finished all their work yet. One of the senior students of the class, Jude P, Privett ‘20, opened up about a big challenge that he and the other students faced, which was “getting photos of the pieces that were all at Brentwood, but we have Mr. Luna to thank for helping with that”. All of our teachers have done an amazing job keeping up with the changes and adapting as necessary to give us students the best chance of success. For this we are very grateful.
This type of online test should probably be avoided by the College Board in the future if possible. As Ms Richardson noticed, “there are too many inconsistencies for a standardized test, from technology access, testing conditions, use of the internet, and other variables”.
Brentwood teachers did a fantastic job with the preparation that they could offer, with the scheduled lessons and office hours and resources that not many other students around the world might have had access to. In the future, an exam that acknowledges students’ different living conditions and accessibility to notes, internet, and software around the world would be beneficial for the College Board to consider.
Chloe C, Allard ‘21