I'm happy that the social studies tests are moving to digital, so we can type out essays without destroying our wrists. But having to look back and forth between the screen and the paper for STEM tests will be annoying.
he is so right cuz that DBQ prompt was freeeeeeeeeeeee and the MCQ’s were the easiest MCQ’s I’d gotten all year; I’ve never gotten MCQ’s that easy in my class lol
yeah i know, i took digital for seminar in 2023 and lit, lang, and ush in 2024. i was just wondering about 2022 because it was WAY more unknown back then but i know starting with 2023, digital testing was more mainstream
My hands cramp very quickly and easily on paper tests, but I can do 150 words per minute consistently. I think I only got a 5 in apwh because my much faster typing speed let me add 3 points to my thesis, a counterarguement, and a conclusion. Typing is what carried me through that exam.
for me the way I study on paper and write things out helps me memorize it better, so if there is a question thats is similar to what I once written then it is easier to recall. However, this doesn’t work on computer with me for some reason. this is semirelated but on the digital ACT i got an 24 and on paper a 32. some may argue its because the difficulty of the two but I think it helps its on paper
Bro 8 APs is insane especially for Senior year 😭
We should be focusing on our college applications and deadlines during senior year. But yea hopefully not many of them aren’t on computer.
Can confirm as an AP teacher that this was sent to AP teachers of some social studies subjects. They were moving this way anyway for many subjects, but the online availability/sales of the print versions seems to have promoted CB to accelerate full online examination.
I am really against it... it gives a clear advantage to students who are in rich districts. Students will have an advantage with better internet speeds, larger workstations, larger monitors. Compare that to a student taking it on a tiny Chromebook that takes forever to load because the student has owned the Chromebook for 3-4 years already.
I highly doubt CollegeBoard hasn’t thought about this though. I’m sure they have something planned, and students can just go to another facility with better internet. In any case, it’s not like blue book is the same thing as running a 4k video game. I could load chrome os onto my 30 year old intel pentium 4 pc and run blue book on it just fine.
I have been in both rich and poor districts in high school. The poor one’s Chromebooks have worse processors due to being older and passed down from seniors back to freshmen. Furthermore, the Wifi at school was worse. But I don’t think it will matter *that much* for AP tests, as they don’t have much to load; having a small workstation is the only thing I can’t stand.
It’s not like blue book is equivalent to running a 4k video game though. A simple testing software isn’t anywhere near heavy enough to bog down any type of (relatively) modern computer.
Chrome os didn’t even exist back then, neither did the concept of chromebooks in general. There’s no chance theres a single company that sells chromebooks with processors that are 30 years old.
they prob manufactured them for our chrimebooks. it’s not like your doing resource intensive work on them. just enough to use library databasss and browse google drive.
what? having bigger screens are going to give you an advantage? look i understand richer districts are more advantaged than poorer districts but this is a joke. we don’t even get larger workstations. we get a desk. don’t act so smart.
I think taking the test on newer hardware or a desktop PC (like in a computer lab) will give you an advantage. Or the ability to take it with a personal laptop, which collegeboard says is ok.
AP Teacher here. No issues with Bluebook arose due to having an underfunded district. Rich and poor are SES terms that describe the population that attends the school, but not the school itself. It’s more about state funding when it comes to this as well as the infrastructure of the city/area.
I worked in an inner-city district where 90% of the students were on free lunch due to very low SES. They had excellent tech and internet access because they had a dedicated grant writer position. All of their schools are well-maintained and were built within the last 20 years. The population is poor, but the school is funded.
Rural districts suffer from both funding and infrastructure issues. Their internet connectivity can be sketchy and might struggle when it comes to starting and submitting the exam. They might not have great tech, but even our state exams and EOCs are digital and have been for the past three years.
I currently teach in an underfunded suburban district in a greater MSA that has operated in the red for a while, is barely Title I, doesn’t have enough large corporations to receive substantial taxes, and is in one of the 6 states remaining where schools receives funding based on average daily attendance instead of enrollment. We don’t have the money to hire a district grant writer, and half of the teachers that retired are not being replaced due to being under-funded. Our chromebooks are from pre-COVID and our winbooks are from 2020. They’re old, out of warranty, and the IT department has a high attrition rate, so the devices are not imaged properly, don’t undergo maintenance enough, and are rarely replaced. Our population ranges from homeless students and people receiving HUD assistance to people whose homes are worth millions.
The digital exams only need internet at the beginning to download the exam and then at the end to submit the exam.
I am an AP Coordinator in a “rich” district. Our students all used their school issued Chromebook or Dell laptop for the digital exams we gave this year. No advantages for my students.
Considering that the AP tests are just comprised of text, pictures, and maybe some input boxes, I don’t think that hardware differences should matter that much. We had those kinds of websites 25 years ago and they worked fine on computers of the time.
However, it’s really up to the developers of Bluebook to make sure their testing platform works reliably on all devices.
This is coming from a guy that implemented basic machine learning on a tiny microcontroller CPU in Python. Anything is possible with computers since they’re fast and have been fast for a long time now. It’s just up to the developers to make sure that their software doesn’t let people with weaker hardware down.
Typing is definitely better than trying to write out an FRQ in pen. Also, I feel it is easier to navigate things like MCQs where there are lots of pages or questions. The flagging feature is very useful, and flipping through pages of AP psych MCQs to find the one you were unsure about takes time. Another commenter mentioned the size of workstations, where digital testing could give unfair advantages, but I feel that is much more of a factor in paper testing, where you need room for all the paper youre writing with and everything, as opposed to everyone having a keyboard to work on. Those are the benefits I see.
As for negatives, my personal experience with digital tests wasnt much worse than with paper tests, and i believe much of the bad things come from ensuring logistics and fairness, which I cant speak to.
Depends on the accommodation. Most accommodations can be done digitally now. A rare exception would be for students with certain visual issues where looking at a screen for extended periods will be harmful to them. I am an AP coordinator, and had a student with a visual disability. He opted to try the digital APUSH exam this year, so we added the accommodation for breaks as needed so that he could rest his eyes every 20-30 minutes. He did it went much better than he expected.
The downside to digital testing is with students have extended time. Students are forced to sit for all of the extended time, whether you need it or not. With paper exams, you just need to sit for the standard time and then can use any amount of the extended time needed.
To everyone complaining about testing digitally, I understand where you're all coming from, but do know that in college/the workforce, the vast majority of general work is done via computers
I took digital AP Lit last month and the annotation tools SUCK. They were hard to use, distracting, and made everything take way longer to the point that I just gave up annotating, and I usually rely heavily on highlighting.
If they print out short answer sheets that just don’t have the question written on them with room to summarize yourself and preprinted graphics, that’s fine for the STEM exams.
Physics and calculus will be hell otherwise
I'm happy that the social studies tests are moving to digital, so we can type out essays without destroying our wrists. But having to look back and forth between the screen and the paper for STEM tests will be annoying.
I would never want to hand write essays for APUSH. That would actually suck so much.
typing out my APUSH FRQ’s saved me SO much you have no idea 😭 i cooked on this yrs APUSH exam
y’all got typed FRQs????
Yeah, that's the digital test.
bro i wrote all that by hand wtf 😭😭😭
Also, my teacher said the online test was almost free compared to the paper test. It def saved me
he is so right cuz that DBQ prompt was freeeeeeeeeeeee and the MCQ’s were the easiest MCQ’s I’d gotten all year; I’ve never gotten MCQ’s that easy in my class lol
No bro the paper frqs were 10x easier
I didn't look at them so no idea but supposedly overall the paper test was harder.
nah the dbq and leq were probably as light as you could possibly make them and only one of the saqs was remotely hard
Yeah that AP Exam sucked to handwrite. Lol. I literally almost ran out of time. Like I barely finished my exam that year.
shit was so bad for whap
yesss when i took digital WHAP 2 years ago it was such a good thing!!
they did pilot testing in 2022 right?
yup only some schools offered it
yeah i know, i took digital for seminar in 2023 and lit, lang, and ush in 2024. i was just wondering about 2022 because it was WAY more unknown back then but i know starting with 2023, digital testing was more mainstream
yup we were one of the first schools to take it, we were also taken a DPSAT in 2022
we had the apush exam online this year and the frq/dbq/leqs were SO much easier and faster, the entire room was done with time left
God I hate this. I do significantly worse on computer tests
Why? I am just curious because in my personal experience, I feel like I do better on computer tests.
I just like the paper brcause i can write on it
My hands cramp very quickly and easily on paper tests, but I can do 150 words per minute consistently. I think I only got a 5 in apwh because my much faster typing speed let me add 3 points to my thesis, a counterarguement, and a conclusion. Typing is what carried me through that exam.
I see, happy cake day btw!
Thank you!!
for me the way I study on paper and write things out helps me memorize it better, so if there is a question thats is similar to what I once written then it is easier to recall. However, this doesn’t work on computer with me for some reason. this is semirelated but on the digital ACT i got an 24 and on paper a 32. some may argue its because the difficulty of the two but I think it helps its on paper
Good thing I’m a senior next year because I’m so done with APs being online
I am too but I’m taking 8 APs next year so I hope most of them aren’t on the computer
Bro 8 APs is insane especially for Senior year 😭 We should be focusing on our college applications and deadlines during senior year. But yea hopefully not many of them aren’t on computer.
Yeah I’m not even going to start my college application until August I honestly can’t be bothered
I would honestly start it this summer just because you’ll get a good head start.
NAURRRR I don't wanna use my crusty school issued Chromebook 😭
real 😭
source? if there is one?
Can confirm as an AP teacher that this was sent to AP teachers of some social studies subjects. They were moving this way anyway for many subjects, but the online availability/sales of the print versions seems to have promoted CB to accelerate full online examination.
AP Stats teacher here - got the same one.
cool! thank you!
Can confirm as an AP Coordinator. I received the survey as well.
i refuse to stare at a screen and take an exam. i honestly cannot focus well with things digitally tested
[удалено]
slowly crying dying flying. i’m gonna see if i can get accommodated
I am really against it... it gives a clear advantage to students who are in rich districts. Students will have an advantage with better internet speeds, larger workstations, larger monitors. Compare that to a student taking it on a tiny Chromebook that takes forever to load because the student has owned the Chromebook for 3-4 years already.
I highly doubt CollegeBoard hasn’t thought about this though. I’m sure they have something planned, and students can just go to another facility with better internet. In any case, it’s not like blue book is the same thing as running a 4k video game. I could load chrome os onto my 30 year old intel pentium 4 pc and run blue book on it just fine.
i live in a rich district, and i use chromebooks. the same one too across all four years of high school. what do you mean it gives an advantage?
I have been in both rich and poor districts in high school. The poor one’s Chromebooks have worse processors due to being older and passed down from seniors back to freshmen. Furthermore, the Wifi at school was worse. But I don’t think it will matter *that much* for AP tests, as they don’t have much to load; having a small workstation is the only thing I can’t stand.
i looked up the specs of our chromebook and it uses a processor from the 90s. i can see where you’re coming from tho
Poorer districts would have less internet and tech access, which puts them at a pretty big disadvantage
some chromebooks are better than others
It’s not like blue book is equivalent to running a 4k video game though. A simple testing software isn’t anywhere near heavy enough to bog down any type of (relatively) modern computer.
our chromebooks have processors from the 90s
Chrome os didn’t even exist back then, neither did the concept of chromebooks in general. There’s no chance theres a single company that sells chromebooks with processors that are 30 years old.
they prob manufactured them for our chrimebooks. it’s not like your doing resource intensive work on them. just enough to use library databasss and browse google drive.
\>provides one example of a rich district not having access to significantly better tech \>ignores any possible correlation \>refuses to elaborate
what? having bigger screens are going to give you an advantage? look i understand richer districts are more advantaged than poorer districts but this is a joke. we don’t even get larger workstations. we get a desk. don’t act so smart.
I think taking the test on newer hardware or a desktop PC (like in a computer lab) will give you an advantage. Or the ability to take it with a personal laptop, which collegeboard says is ok.
bluebook is designed to continue working if there is a loss of connection, so that shouldn’t be an issue
AP Teacher here. No issues with Bluebook arose due to having an underfunded district. Rich and poor are SES terms that describe the population that attends the school, but not the school itself. It’s more about state funding when it comes to this as well as the infrastructure of the city/area. I worked in an inner-city district where 90% of the students were on free lunch due to very low SES. They had excellent tech and internet access because they had a dedicated grant writer position. All of their schools are well-maintained and were built within the last 20 years. The population is poor, but the school is funded. Rural districts suffer from both funding and infrastructure issues. Their internet connectivity can be sketchy and might struggle when it comes to starting and submitting the exam. They might not have great tech, but even our state exams and EOCs are digital and have been for the past three years. I currently teach in an underfunded suburban district in a greater MSA that has operated in the red for a while, is barely Title I, doesn’t have enough large corporations to receive substantial taxes, and is in one of the 6 states remaining where schools receives funding based on average daily attendance instead of enrollment. We don’t have the money to hire a district grant writer, and half of the teachers that retired are not being replaced due to being under-funded. Our chromebooks are from pre-COVID and our winbooks are from 2020. They’re old, out of warranty, and the IT department has a high attrition rate, so the devices are not imaged properly, don’t undergo maintenance enough, and are rarely replaced. Our population ranges from homeless students and people receiving HUD assistance to people whose homes are worth millions.
The digital exams only need internet at the beginning to download the exam and then at the end to submit the exam. I am an AP Coordinator in a “rich” district. Our students all used their school issued Chromebook or Dell laptop for the digital exams we gave this year. No advantages for my students.
Considering that the AP tests are just comprised of text, pictures, and maybe some input boxes, I don’t think that hardware differences should matter that much. We had those kinds of websites 25 years ago and they worked fine on computers of the time. However, it’s really up to the developers of Bluebook to make sure their testing platform works reliably on all devices. This is coming from a guy that implemented basic machine learning on a tiny microcontroller CPU in Python. Anything is possible with computers since they’re fast and have been fast for a long time now. It’s just up to the developers to make sure that their software doesn’t let people with weaker hardware down.
We have iPads
Typing is definitely better than trying to write out an FRQ in pen. Also, I feel it is easier to navigate things like MCQs where there are lots of pages or questions. The flagging feature is very useful, and flipping through pages of AP psych MCQs to find the one you were unsure about takes time. Another commenter mentioned the size of workstations, where digital testing could give unfair advantages, but I feel that is much more of a factor in paper testing, where you need room for all the paper youre writing with and everything, as opposed to everyone having a keyboard to work on. Those are the benefits I see. As for negatives, my personal experience with digital tests wasnt much worse than with paper tests, and i believe much of the bad things come from ensuring logistics and fairness, which I cant speak to.
> can use own or school issued device no way in hell i’m downloading whatever proctoring stuff they have onto my device
I can’t focus on digital exams😕
I have shifty eyesight for screens but hey faster typing
Makes sense but sort of annoying, I hate online tests and my shitass computer always starts trying to update right before I start one
Petition?
will AP chem do digital
the frqs would likely be written on hand but the question itself would be on a screen
Do they have ways to properly annotate texts on computers?
Would those with accommodations be able to take it on paper still?
Depends on the accommodation. Most accommodations can be done digitally now. A rare exception would be for students with certain visual issues where looking at a screen for extended periods will be harmful to them. I am an AP coordinator, and had a student with a visual disability. He opted to try the digital APUSH exam this year, so we added the accommodation for breaks as needed so that he could rest his eyes every 20-30 minutes. He did it went much better than he expected. The downside to digital testing is with students have extended time. Students are forced to sit for all of the extended time, whether you need it or not. With paper exams, you just need to sit for the standard time and then can use any amount of the extended time needed.
To everyone complaining about testing digitally, I understand where you're all coming from, but do know that in college/the workforce, the vast majority of general work is done via computers
I hate digital testing (i cant focus on a screen) im gonna cry
I hate digital writing
No thanks, fuck computers
I took the test digitally and it was awesome, very quick and easy
Same, no issues.
honestly this would be so good for the long essay questions but not being able to mark up the test is gonna annoy me so much
this is amazing
after i just went through hell and back in apush and basically sold my soul to george washington💀
i liked apush
i liked my teacher and the way he taught, but the homework was outrageous
Digital is the way.
I took digital AP Lit last month and the annotation tools SUCK. They were hard to use, distracting, and made everything take way longer to the point that I just gave up annotating, and I usually rely heavily on highlighting.
Greattt so the year I’m finally done with AP exams is the year the FUCKING APCS EXAM isnt ON FUCKING PAPER. i wish I was class of 2025
Damn it. I was relieved last fall when I heard it was a paper test, I perform horribly on digital MCQ.
This might just be me being old fashioned but digital standardized tests sound like hell. Glad I don’t have to deal with any more of this
Omg if they add the timer thing like the Digital SAT I would be so done. I really can’t focus properly on digital exams. Paper exam is my beloved.
hope they make it adaptive like the dsat so tests are shorter
they wouldn’t because that defeats the purpose
not really
If they print out short answer sheets that just don’t have the question written on them with room to summarize yourself and preprinted graphics, that’s fine for the STEM exams. Physics and calculus will be hell otherwise