When the College Board surveyed 18,000 Advanced Placement (AP) students in March asking if they wanted to take AP exams as scheduled amid the pandemic, 91% of respondents said “yes.”
But the first days of the tests’ first-ever online administration were marked by server crashes and evidence that students may have been seeking answers on the internet while taking the exams — a practice not banned but strongly discouraged by the College Board.
AP exams, which are taking place May 11-22, underwent significant modification this year as the College Board moved them online. To prevent easy cheating, the organization nixed the multiple choice section of the exams and instituted a 45-minute time limit for the free response questions.
The organization was also forced to make the exam “open book,” given the online format. The AP exams are usually closed book. The College Board set detailed rules for what was and wasn’t allowed, but in many cases, it seems that those rules either weren’t followed or were misunderstood.
The Notebook looked at Google trends data from around the time the tests took place, and Google searches for terminology related to a particular exam spiked during the time the test was administered.
For example, when AP Physics C: Mechanics was administered at noon on Monday, searches for the phrase “angular momentum,” a relevant phrase on the exam, spiked more than tenfold.
Neena Hagen based on Google Analytics
When the AP United States Government and Politics exam was administered at 4 p.m. that same day, searches for the word “federalist” went up more than twentyfold.
Neena Hagen based on Google Analytics
And when the AP Calculus AB and BC exams went live Tuesday at 2 p.m., searches for derivatives and integrals also went up twentyfold.
Neena Hagen based on Google Analytics
Philip Chiu, a senior at Masterman high school who took AP Physics C: Mechanics and Electricity and Magnetism, said he’s not at all surprised that students might have engaged in behavior that could be regarded as cheating. He said that even at Masterman, the top ranked high school in the state, he has observed cheating.
“Cheating in Masterman takes place in a variety of forms, looking things up on people’s phones, whispering during a test, copying off of others, the list could go on and on,” Chiu said. “It really bugs me.”
Chiu said having online exams makes it a lot easier to cheat because students aren’t monitored by a proctor, and they have easy access to their phones and computers. In order to make cheating more difficult, Chiu said he’d advise College Board to avoid putting easily searchable keywords on free response questions.
The College Board has begun cracking down on cheaters, though its efforts are by no means widespread — yet. Trevor Packer, the head of AP instruction, tweeted Sunday that the College Board had caught a band of students intending to cheat on the exams and then cancelled their registrations. The College Board is currently investigating other cases of potential cheating, though the number of students who have been caught remains unclear.
We've just cancelled the AP exam registrations of a ring of students who were developing plans to cheat, and we're currently investigating others. It's not worth the risk of having your name reported to college admissions offices. https://t.co/SiOSjUmOlc
— Trevor Packer (@AP_Trevor) May 10, 2020
But Packer’s tweet met with confused reactions from parents and educators alike. In the responses to the tweet, some individuals questioned what materials are allowed while taking the tests, even though College Board released a clear list of materials that students are permitted to access, including their textbooks and notes from class. But they’re strictly prohibited from interacting with each other or using shared study materials. Looking up answers online isn’t banned, but the College Board video recommends against it, saying “the information won’t be helpful.”
A few Philadelphia students whom the Notebook spoke to over social media expressed concern that the College Board was tracking the IP addresses of students who searched relevant exam terminology during the test and shared answers with their friends. This information is trackable through social media accounts.
The students cited circulating rumors. College Board spokesperson Jaslee Carayol was emailed to ask if the rumors were true. Her response didn’t directly address the question.
“When we have substantial evidence that students have attempted to cheat — for example, by soliciting someone to take their test or by sharing exam content on social media sites — we will cancel their AP exam registrations or invalidate their scores,” Carayol said. “In order to ensure the integrity of AP Exams, we’ll continue to monitor closely before, during, and after exams.”
The College Board said it can’t provide further details on any specific instances or patterns of cheating.
But cheating isn’t the only problem facing AP students this year. Hundreds of students on social media said they’ve had trouble turning in their exams because the servers have crashed right when they’re about to hit the submit button. Chiu said he didn’t have that problem himself, but a friend of his did.
The College Board said on Twitter that while 99% of students successfully submitted their exams, some had trouble cutting and pasting their responses. The organization dug into the problem and found that outdated browsers were mostly to blame. Make-up testing is available in June for any students who had trouble submitting their exams this time around, and students can request a makeup exam within 48 hours of the time they finish their regularly scheduled exam.
AP exams are high stakes — they’re not merely a mechanism for getting ahead in high school. Most colleges offer students the opportunity to place out of introductory-level classes if they have high enough AP scores — usually a four or five. For students, that can mean a savings of several thousands of dollars.
As of now, College Board plans to continue administering AP exams through next Friday without any significant modification.
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AP goes online, and problems follow | The notebook - Philadelphia Public School Notebook
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