A few of my friends, as well as people on Reddit recently received surveys from CollegeBoard, saying that they are considering making AP Exams online, with the ability of taking them from home. One of my friend’s surveys said it would be only 45 minutes long with solely Multiple Choice questions; a person on Reddit sent a photo of the same survey, but instead saying that it would be solely FRQs. Not sure what the purpose of the switch was, but how are they going to prevent cheating?
They said that colleges will be willing to accept these online tests for credit.
They probably sent out multiple versions of the survey to gauge people’s reactions to several potential set-ups. If responses were negative to the all-FRQ version but more positive for the all-multiple choice version (and colleges said the same), then they would probably choose to give multiple choice tests.
If they move forward with this, cheating will be a huge issue. Lockdown browsers simply aren’t effective when people have access to books and other electronic devices. I imagine many colleges will not accept credit from this year’s AP tests if they allow testing from home. Hopefully, departments will give their own tests at orientation to determine if incoming freshmen have a strong enough understanding of, say, introductory chemistry to skip the first course. It does suck for the current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors who will likely forget much of what they’ve learned before they have an opportunity to prove mastery for credit
To be fair to all students, some of whom have lost more instructional time than others, the exam will only include topics and skills most AP teachers and students have already covered in class by early March.*
Some of it is kind of funny:
Students will be able to take these streamlined exams on any device they have access to—computer, tablet, or smartphone. Taking a photo of handwritten work will also be an option.
Sure, whatever, back of an envelope? Works. Scrimshaw? Heard of it, send us a picture. Scoring may be slow this season…
How are they going to prevent cheating??? That is my biggest concern, I’d hate to see people get scores they don’t deserve. It’s not fair to the people who work hard to actually understand the material.
They won’t be able to prevent students from looking at their notes, but the test could be set up so that the students really don’t have time to do so. Also each person could get the answers arranged in different order and the questions themselves could be slightly different for each person. The College Board certainly has expertise in testing.
My DD21 immediately went to “Shorter time and less material means a harder test.” I went straight to “There’s going to be rampant cheating, 5 for everyone, and schools are going to discount the whole thing.” Test optional at schools is going to surge.
What I hate about this is that you are basically at a disadvantage if you don’t cheat, because everyone else is going to cheat and that just skews the entire scale.
My kid is taking AP Art History. The hardest part has always been keeping the details of each piece of the 200+ artworks straight. Is the material concrete or marble? Hmmm, Monet or Manet? What was the time period, early 7th century or early 9th… Yes, there is going to be rampant cheating.
They could design the FRQs to be hard and suitable for an open book exam, just like the open book exams that some college instructors give. That way, “cheating” by having open books becomes a non-issue.
However, the page at https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/news-changes/coronavirus-update indicates that some topics will not be tested on many AP exams, so some colleges may not give (or give less) subject credit or advanced placement for 2020 AP scores if they believe that the missing topics are important for the purpose of giving subject credit or advanced placement.
For example, the topics for the 2020 calculus BC exam are more like those in other years’ calculus AB exams. So a college may choose to treat the 2020 calculus BC score like it would a calculus AB score from a different year.
I really don’t know why anyone is concerned with rampant cheating, when rampant cheating was already an issue before Covid-19, apparently. The kids and families who cheat, are gonna find a way to cheat. The kids and families who have integrity, won’t cheat.
Taking tests remotely and online is not a new or risky (no more than any other massly administered test) proposition. Anyone who is required to obtain professional certifications has probably done it at least once, and I’d bet that a very large percentage of high school students have done it a few times. Remote proctors are used all the time. Can you cheat with a remote proctor? Of course! A determined cheater will find a way. But, it’s not really any more or less difficult than a single proctor, sitting in a room with 70 kids, and two of those kids are no-good cheats. It’s gonna happen, but a whole lot of people still have integrity. I’m putting my faith in them, and not worrying about the percentage of families (because cheating is more than just about a kid) cheating that is outside of my student’s purview and beneath his character.
AP exams that ordinarily have an essay component but switch to multiple choice will put some kids at an advantage and others at a disadvantage. There’s no perfect solution.
@nomatter Traditionally, AP exams taken in a proctored classroom environment are almost impossible to cheat on. You have no access to the wealth of information on the internet, and if you are found consulting someone else or something else, your scores will be nullified. Many people who care a lot about their score but realize that it is almost impossible to cheat on regular AP exams choose not to do so because it isn’t an option.
But if its an online test, where you have access to ANYTHING—I think a lot of people would succumb to the urge.
@squ1rrel I know that AP exams are taken in a proctored classroom (heaven knows my kid has taken enough of them), but so is the SAT, for example. That hasn’t stopped people from cheating. Cheater’s gonna cheat. :neutral:
I think that anyone who “succumb’s to the urge” is just a cheater, period.
I agree with you that there may be more cheating this year. We will ultimately see if scores are higher than average, which would also be an indication that untoward things may have transpired.
But, these online AP tests are going to happen, so I would encourage you to not stress about it because it’s out of your control. Do your best on your tests and tune out the rest of the noise.