Olivia Soares

College Board has been transitioning to digital standarized testing, and it is most evident with AP exams this time of year.
This change has been slowly making its appearance with digital exams for AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP US History, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Spanish, and AP French last year.
While the digital SAT is a nightmare of its own, moving some AP testing online might not be the worst idea.
Digital AP testing has already been successful for certain classes, including AP Language and APUSH.
Students taking the exam for these classes are able to type their essays on Chromebooks, which is much easier and quicker than writing by hand. This allows students to spend less time actually writing essays, allowing them more time to revise and edit.
Other AP tests can learn from this.
If College Board were to implement digital testing for more classes, the process of writing such essays would be more convenient for the hundreds of thousands of high school students who take AP tests every year.
With testing also comes stressful time constraints, where students may resort to sloppy handwriting to finish answering prompts in the very limited amount of time.
This isn’t a worry with digital AP testing, where everything would be typed. Essays for free response questions and document based questions become much easier, without the concern of losing points because of illegible handwriting.
Digital testing is also more convenient for multiple choice exams. On paper, if students decide to change their answers on a multiple choice question but don’t erase their previous choice clearly enough, the system that grades the tests can get confused.
As a result, some students may not get credit for the question, even if they chose the right answer after making a correction.
With digital AP testing, the risk of this happening is reduced to zero. Students can only clearly mark one answer as their choice before moving onto the next question.
Currently, the AP testing format is notorious for its ridiculous time delays, usually due to passing out and retrieving test materials. Online testing would be more efficient as proctors wouldn’t have to hand out and collect test packets.
Digital AP exams could also shorten the amount of time actually spent taking the exam.
Looking at the digital SAT, it is approximately 45 minutes shorter than the traditional exam on paper. If this change is also reflected in digital AP exams, students would spend less time on the exam, which will also help with the constant delays. AP history and science exams would benefit most from digitization as they are known to be on the longer side.
Time delays aren’t the only issue with the use of paper testing booklets.
Each year, a lot of plastic is used for wrapping test booklets. Millions more sheets of paper are used for the test booklets, answer sheets, and scratch paper. Having the AP testing online would save significant amounts of paper and plastic, positively impacting the environment.
The potential transition to digital AP testing presents numerous benefits, from improved efficiency in essay to reduced environmental impact.
Embracing the potential for digital AP testing offers a promising look in test taking and outcomes for students in years to come.