By Lucy Stoter

Staff Writer

        After many years of giving Advanced Placement (AP) exams with paper and pencil, CollegeBoard has decided to move the exams online to Bluebook, an online testing platform. This has been a very controversial change for many students and teachers, affecting how they teach and prepare students for exams. 

    For most exams, writing and essays are a large portion of the test. This change greatly impacts many students who are used to handwriting essays rather than typing. Typing is a skill that is often neglected, which may affect students’ abilities on the test. 

    “I prefer to handwrite my essays,” junior Kendall Mccluney said. “I feel I better understand what I am saying, and I don’t constantly have to make sure I do not make errors in my spelling and grammar.” 

    This tends to be the overwhelming opinion of many students. Typing is not focused on as an important skill, so many students find themselves rereading lots of what they type compared to when physically writing. Students will also lack the ability to physically engage with the text on the exams. 

    “Part of what we teach and learn in AP [English Literature and Composition] is how to thoughtfully engage with a text through annotations,” AP English Literature and Composition teacher Jenna Whitener said. “Annotations are best done and made through literally marking up a text. Moving the exam to the computer takes away students’ ability to write directly on a text, which prevents them from, as intentionally, engaging with the texts that they are being tested on.”  

    With the removal of the physical text, many students will stray away from interacting with it. The online annotation features are harder and more complicated to use, leading many students to not use them at all. 

    On the other hand, the switch to an online test may have some advantages. Some downsides of a physical exam are the complicated security procedures, longer time to complete, and shipping complications. 

    “With the tests given all over the world, there is significant concern about test security,” AP Government and Politics teacher Christofer Wiley said. “My understanding is that there were compromised materials in past years, either in the form of leaked questions or mishandled materials.”  

    With complications like stickers, bagging, signatures, and individual tests, the process of taking a paper test can be lengthy. The additional time it takes to bubble answers and handwrite answers can be detrimental to students’ ability to pace themselves on the test. With the extra time, taking the test online should allow students to complete their exams more thoroughly. 

    Exams are approaching for this school year and the change is yet to be noticed. The controversy over the switch will last for months, but only time will tell the differences the online test will create.