Board adjusts AP tests for students

Tom Nardini is a senior at the Engineering Science University Magnet High School in New Haven who has been studying all year for three Advanced Placement tests that he now may not take. “I’m really debating the merits,” Nardini said. “I’m worried about the new format, not because it seems harder, but because I find it hard to believe that any college will treat it the same way other exams have been treated. “

With COVID-19 making distance learners out of everyone, The College Board has moved the administration of its May AP tests online. Final details of the new format, were announced Friday.

The online test will focus on skills and concepts from the first three-quarters of the AP course. This year’s tests will be shorter — 45 minutes each, rather than hours long — and all free-response or essay questions. No multiple choice. And instead of being taken with pen and pencil at school, they will be taken on home computers or other electronic devices at home.

“We surveyed thousands of students from all over the country, and they overwhelmingly want to test,” said Trevor Packer, senior vice president of AP. “We want to give every student the chance to earn the college credit they’ve worked toward throughout the year.”

Last year, more than 1.24 million students in the class of 2019 took 4.26 million AP exams at public high schools nationwide, according to the College Board, which administers the test.

In Connecticut last year, 56,670 AP tests were taken by Connecticut public school students. Of those, 38,388 received a passing score of 3 or higher. The Class of 2019 in Connecticut logged the second highest passing rate in the nation behind Massachusetts.

State Department of Education officials are not sure how many have signed up to take the test this spring but they say they are pleased that the College Board made modifications for at-home tests and have posted free online classes and review sessions.

Peter Yazbak, a department spokesman, said their primary focus is on student safety, keeping them engaged and providing equitable access to opportunities for continuity of education during in-school class cancellations.

It definitely will be different, concedes, Kristen Record, a physics teacher at Bunnell High School in Stratford. She is teaching three AP physics classes remotely from home. Altogether there are 50 students.

Although the course material is condensed for AP exams, the same courses can earn Record’s students University of Connecticut course credits. After the April break, Record said she will have students practicing free response questions so they can get used to it for the AP test. After the AP test she will complete the full-year coursework to get f UConn credit.

It is hard for her to imagine reducing a whole year’s worth of physics into one or two questions, Record said.

Others, she added, find it even harder to imagine boiling down hundreds of years of U.S. history into one document analysis.

Students are worried, she said. Will the question asked be something they have down solid? “At least kids have the opportunity to try,” Record said.

Erik Martire, the AP test coordinator at Shelton High School, agreed.

At Shelton High, there are 365 AP students registered for over 600 AP exams this year.

Martire would much rather see an an adapted exam to no exam at all given the amount of work invested in the process.

“The opportunity for college credit and to validate their work is still very important to our AP students.,” Martire said. “Teachers and students are already wellinformed about the changes ... and they are making use of new additional online resources.”

INardini of New Haven took AP Psychology, AP Calculus BC and AP Language and Composition courses this year. He’s already taken seven AP exams and considers himself a veteran of the AP system.

“It seems foolhardy to even pretend that a 45-minute exam should somehow take the place of a 3-hour sitting,” Nardini said.