They took my highlighter!

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
1

<p>During the Eng Lang exam - specifically, the synthesis essay - one of the proctors walked up to me and told me she needed to 'confiscate the contraband on my desk, and seek administrative guidance on whether or not to invalidate my test score'. No joke. The contraband in question? A highlighter. A plain old yellow highlighter.</p>

<p>I had used it a bit throughout the multiple choice section, and on a document or two for the synthesis, but that's it - not like that should be a problem anyway, right? I mean, it's a highlighter. I promise you, I didn't have answers written all over the cap.</p>

<p>Aaand, I never got it back.</p>

<p>Has this (or something equally ridiculous) happened to someone else during an AP exam?</p>

2

<p>wow, that really shouldn’t have happened, they’re supposed to allow you to have a highlighter for the exam</p>

3

<p>No, you are distinctly told you are NOT allowed to have a highlighter.</p>

4

<p>The fact that they took it off you - fair enough. The fact that they think it’s going to impact your result to the point of cheating is what really gets me.</p>

5

<p>You really aren’t supposed to have a highlighter, but I don’t think it will impact your test.</p>

<p>[AP:</a> Exam Day](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>What to Bring on AP Exam Day – AP Students | College Board)</p>

<p>The first bullet on what NOT to bring to the exam.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, you can’t have a highlighter in the exam, it’s in the set of instructions that the proctor tells you.
Do you know if they canceled your score?</p>

<p>They probably took the highlighter and had to run a few chemical tests and examine it further to make sure you didn’t cheat. Its just silly.</p>

7

<p>Are you telling me your proctor didn’t notice you had it at the beginning of the test? </p>

<p>Doesn’t anyone bother to check and read the rules before the test? I mean, my proctor read over the rules and specifically told us everything we couldn’t have at the beginning of the test…</p>

<p>And I know she at least looked around the room to make sure before we really got into the test. </p>

<p>It honestly took them the entire test to notice you had it? -head desks-</p>

8

<p>Yeah, that is pretty bad proctoring. Your proctor should have realized beforehand that you had something you shouldn’t have on your desk. </p>

<p>It’s no surprise that you haven’t gotten it back, though. They really might be testing it.</p>

9

<p>how could a highlighter be used for cheating? are they seriously running chemical tests on it?</p>

10

<p>I know of students in AP Econ that had multicolor pens taken away (the ones with a button for 4 different colors). I also know of students with “straight edges” threatened with cancellation.</p>

<p>I wonder how many people test in groups of over 100, 500, 1000, 1500 etc. It is pretty hard for proctors to notice much of anything with 1500+ examinees.</p>

<p>I am more concerned about rampant cheating that goes unnoticed than about highlighters or green pens (Micro graphs have a lot of curves that get messy with just blue/black).</p>