Every year at the beginning of May, hundreds of students at Shenendehowa take AP exams, which are tests at the college level that can give certain high-scoring students college credit.
This year, a new digital and hybrid format will be implemented for these exams after having previously been taken exclusively on paper. Some exams will be entirely online through the Bluebook app, while other tests will have some online sections and some paper sections.
Shenendehowa junior Rosie Zhan plans to take the AP Biology, AP Calculus BC, and AP English Literature exams. She says she is prepared for the switch to a digital format.
“I grew accustomed to it because I took the SAT online, too,” she said.
Zhan said she is looking forward to taking some of her tests online more than others.
“I’ll definitely be more comfortable with AP Lit because I write slowly on paper, so being able to type will increase my proficiency,” she said. “For Bio I’ll suffer because I don’t like reading long passages or long scientific passages on a computer.”
Shenendehowa senior Ivan Stebletsov, who is taking the AP Biology exam, says that the change might not come easy to some.
“I feel like it will certainly be a harder change for some students to make as they have taken their AP exams previously on paper,” he said.
Stebletsov says he is also worried that the integrity of the tests may be violated with the switch.
“It does provide significant security risks for people who know how to get their way around the system, and they could end up accessing the internet during testing time,” he said.
Nichole Xue, a senior at Shenendehowa who is taking AP Calculus AB, AP Environmental Science, and AP Statistics, says that the switch to the online format is good for the environment. However, she said she wishes she received more training on how to use the Bluebook app.
“I think it’s a good transition to using more electronics in the testing world rather than using paper, but I wish the teachers were more explicit about it with the online format being used this year, or at least train us on how to use the software format just because that can waste time on the test,” Xue said. “In general, I think it’s a good transition and I like being eco-friendly.”
However, not all AP students cited the environmental benefits as a reason to be excited about the digital format. Shenendehowa senior Grayson Sisley, who is taking AP English Literature and AP Statistics, says he is opposed to the new system.
“I’m not a fan of it because I like to have everything on paper right in front of me,” he said.