The CollegeBoard has posted rescheduled AP dates and regional times as well as the form, content, scoring information, exam security, and other details surrounding this year’s exams in light of the COVID-19 school shutdowns in mid-March.
Students in most AP courses this year only will have a choice between two exam dates, one during the week of 5/11 or 5/18, and another the week of 6/1 (officially called “makeup exam dates”). There is no advantage to choosing one date over the other in terms of content examined or level of difficulty, though the CollegeBoard is encouraging the early dates because, according to a Tweet on 4/10, if students “encounter a problem on [a makeup] day, they won’t have additional opportunities to test.” The following courses, which use portfolio submissions, will not have a separate online exam, and the submission date has been extended to 5/26/20, 11:59PM: 2-D Art and Design, 3-D Art and Design, Drawing, Computer Science Principles, Research, and Seminar. Details here.
All the exams can be taken using any internet-ready device (including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops), will last 45 minutes (plus 5 minutes for uploading), and will only include topics and skills most AP teachers and students have already covered in class by early March. They will be “open book/open note” (see the CollegeBoard’s tips for taking open book/open note exams here) and consist only of 1 or 2 free response questions (no multiple choice items). Students are asked to be online to access the testing system 30 minutes before the official start time.
Exams will be scored using the traditional 1-5 system and, despite this year’s later timetable, the CollegeBoard still promises tp provide photocopies of graded exams to schools and teachers who want to count them as a course final exam grade.
This is REALLY GOOD NEWS for AP students on at least one level, possibly four! First, because they consist of only 1 or 2 free response questions and a total of 45 minutes, there’s a lot less material to know to earn to earn top scores (i.e., 4’s and 5’s). To take two specific examples, consider English Language and Composition and U.S. History. Typically, Lang and Comp consists of a one-hr. multiple choice section based on four reading passages, and three 40-min, free-response questions (i.e., essays), one of which is a “rhetorical analysis” (very similar to the optional SAT Essay test), for a total of 3 hours. This year’s AP includes just one rhetorical analysis essay. Likewise, the typical AP US exam consists of 55 minutes of multiple choice, 40 minutes of short answers, a 60-min DBQ, and a 40-min essay. This year’s AP includes just one 45-min modified DBQ. Other courses’ exams also cover far less material than usual, and with all the resources available to help students master this year’s slimmed-down form and context, they present the best opportunity for countless students in years to earn the coveted 4’s and 5’s.
Bottom line: 2019-2020 will be the easiest set of AP Exams ever given so anyone who’s on the fence needs to come down one the taking-it side. We have tutors and review classes to help :-).