Mirca Gomez | Writer
May 20, 2021
As students have started taking some of their AP exams, there have been many concerns about whether or not it was a good idea to do testing, at all. With COVID taking a toll on students’ education this year, many wonder if they are truly prepared for these exams; especially since the exams are not as modified as last year’s exams.
Most students feel as if COVID has had a negative impact on their education and feel unprepared for their AP exams. “Being all online at the beginning of the year has impacted my ability to maintain focus for multiple hours because of the abundance of distractions available during online classes” junior Jack Brown said.
Not only that, but at the beginning of the school year, all students were fully online and were taught in a different way than normal. For many, it was a struggle adapting to online learning which led to them not learning as efficiently as they would have if they were at school. It is not the same experience to learn something new at home as at school and the effects of this change were seen in a lot of students.
Many students do not agree with the 2021 AP exams and do not find it fair that they are more normal and not as modified as last year’s exams. “The students last year were only affected towards the end of the year when they had a normal year of learning under their belt, but we have not had normalcy this entire year so I don’t think it is fair for us to have less modified exams,” junior Saige Reale said.
Many also do not agree with the idea of some exams being in person and others online. “Taking the exam online and at home makes it a lot easier for a student to cheat or receive help from outside sources,” sophomore Hannah Eberle said. “When at home, no one is holding the student accountable and really changes the accuracy of the test. I believe the environment of test-taking plays a big role in a student’s performance, it can be helpful or damaging.”
In fact, some students believe it would have simply been better if they had chosen one method or the other. “I don’t agree with the AP exams switching up online and in-person testing. It’s confusing, to say the least, especially if a tester has multiple tests in person and at home. The tests should’ve either been all at home or all at school in my opinion,” junior Myles Wire said.
The IB exams for 2021 were extremely modified and cut down, so why weren’t the AP exams also modified to accommodate for the hectic school year?
Although these students might not agree with the idea of AP exams being given out or feel unprepared, most of them are still taking these exams. It will be interesting to see how the scores compare to previous years and if the effect of online learning will be noticeable in the scores.
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