Twenty-eight Advanced Placement tests, which were all previously handwritten, are being administered online for the May 2025 testing season. This change will take effect in all schools across the country including Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The tests will be administered through Bluebook, the same application used for the online SAT starting last year.
Out of the 28 tests, 12 tests, such as the AP Biology and AP Precalculus exams, are being administered as a hybrid of paper and digital tests. For those exams, the multiple-choice questions will be completed online through the Bluebook application. The free response question prompts will also be given on the platform, but the answers will be submitted handwritten on paper.
The other 16 tests will be offered entirely online. The full list of online AP exams can be found on the Collegeboard website.
Certain exams will not be administered online. This includes tests that have an audio component, such as the AP Spanish Language exam, and tests that are portfolio-based, such as the AP Art exam.
Other exams are undergoing changes to the exams themselves. These changes include a decrease in the number of answer choices from five to four, such as is occurring with the AP English Literature and AP Psychology exams, as well as changes to the format of the FRQs.
“[For] the multiple-choice questions, I believe there’s less questions on the exam,” AP psychology teacher Ronit Reoven said. “And instead of five answer choices, there’s four answer choices. Our FRQs are no longer FRQs. We [used to] have what were called free response questions. Now they’re called evidence-based questions and article analysis questions, so that in itself are two completely different writing pieces that we’re going to now teach the students how to do.”
Accommodations previously offered for the paper tests, such as 504 plans, will still be implemented with the online tests. Students with accommodations will test in a separate room and will remain in the room for the entire extended time period. They cannot leave early.
Students will also have to make adjustments to how they study and prepare for the exam.
“I don’t think that the digital exams are going to affect my test taking a lot because I’ve had to adjust to digital testing my high school year because of tests like the FAST and the digital SAT,” senior Olivia Lechowski said.
The change has been implemented in order to make the testing process easier for administrators, as well as to prevent cheating on the exams.
“The tests would help students respond more quickly, since they could type rather than handwrite answers, and that the digital exams are more secure than shipping paper exams to thousands of locations weeks in advance,” Ileana Najarro, reporter for Education Week, said.
However, some teachers are concerned that the online platform will spur new problems for administering and taking the tests.
“I’m not very tech savvy, so for me, it’s a little I don’t know if overwhelming is the word, but it’s more of I’m a little more intimidated by the idea that now everything is going online,” Reoven said. “So, in my head, I’m always thinking of computer glitches and issues and not enough laptops.”
The testing formats, although new for MSD, are here to stay. Teachers are making efforts to adjust to the new online setting and prepare their classes for the changes to the exams and their administration.
