As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, CollegeBoard has announced on their website that the annual AP exams, originally planned to occur during early May, will be shortened online exams instead.
The exams will last 45 minutes and the tests have been reduced to cover only specific units of each AP subject. Generally, content will come from approximately the first 75% of units in the AP course as many schools have been unable to reach later units due to closures (CollegeBoard has posted the specific list of units covered in each exam on their website).
The exams will be administered online; students will be able to take the tests on laptops, tablets or phones, as well as taking photos of their work on paper.
Originally, most AP exams lasted between two to four hours and would cover material learned over the course of a full academic year. These exams would take place in a certified testing center on paper. The shift to online exams to be taken at home has raised questions about the security of the tests.
In response to the question of academic integrity, CollegeBoard has stated that they will implement the following measures to ensure maximum security:
“The exam questions are designed and administered in ways that prevent cheating; we use a range of digital security tools and techniques, including plagiarism detection software, to protect the integrity of the exams.”
The format of the revised AP exams will be posted on April 3, on their AP Central website.
