ORLANDO, Fla. — Along with end-of-year reviews, students in Sarah Noveral’s AP biology class have spent weeks reviewing for end-of-year exams.
What You Need To Know
- High school students are taking AP exams online this week
- AP exams have been modified to make it harder to cheat
- Modifications have prompted students, teachers to think differently
- COMPLETE COVERAGE: Spectrum News | CDC | Florida Department of Health
Advanced Placement tests are important, because if students pass, they can earn college course credits.
Julia Mortensen, a junior in the class at Orlando's Boone High School, is grateful that AP tests are being offered online.
“I was worried, like, ‘Oh, am I not going to get the credit? I’m going to have to repeat this class in college — was there a point to taking it?’ so it was a little concerning,” Mortensen said.
In Orange County Public Schools alone — the eighth largest school district in the nation — more than 22,000 students will take the AP tests from home this year, and big changes have been made to the exams across the board.
They went “from being half multiple-choice and half free-response (to) all free-response, which is somewhat more challenging for the students," Noveral said. "But also, it really allowed me to focus on what kind of skills they needed to practice on."
The shift toward free response answers has also made it tougher to cheat.
And Noveral says the biology exam didn’t include information from lessons taught after classes moved online because of social distancing, which offered instructors and students more time to review.
But the new method brought new challenges, too.
“It’s definitely a little bit more stressful, because I was worried about technology issues," Mortensen said. "I was worried about (things like), 'What if this doesn’t submit in time? What if my internet crashes?' So it was definitely stressful in that sense.”
Noveral sat by her computer for hours Monday, making herself available in case students had technical issues during the exam.
Even with all the changes, she said it’s worth it to let students get the chance this school year to put what they’ve learned to the test.
“These courses are intense all year long, they’re college-level courses, and we teach them that way," Noveral said. "And to make sure the kids still have the opportunity to earn the college credit for the extra hard work they put in was really important."
AP tests will be held online through the end of the week.
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