COVID-19: AP Test Dates and Question Types Announced

Most tests will be 2 free response questions. Students will be able to type out or responses or write them out by hand and submit a cell phone picture.

Well, to no one’s surprise, College Board’s promise to release AP exam dates and question types ‘by April 3rd’ really meant ‘on April 3rd.’ Either way, they’re out now, and you can click here to view all the details yourself.

Some rapid fire thoughts:

Tests that were scheduled for the week of May 4th have been pushed back by at least 1 week.

For example, originally the first test day was scheduled for Monday, May 4th. That day was supposed to be U.S. Government and Politics at 8 AM local, Physics C: Mechanics at 12 PM, and Physics C: E&M at 2 PM.

Now those tests will instead be on Monday May 11th, with Physics C: E&M at 12 EST, Physics C: Mechanics at 2 EST and U.S. Government at 4 EST.

Since there were originally different tests scheduled for May 11th, those 3 tests (Biology, Chinese Language and Culture, and Environmental Science) move back 1 week to May 18th.

Great, so each test just moves back a week, with some changes to times?

Nope. Not that simple. For example, the Latin test is sticking on its original date of May 12th. Other tests are moving back but not by exactly a week, such as Japanese Language and Culture, which is moving from Thursday May 7th to Tuesday May 19th.

The short story is, there’s no set pattern to the way tests are being rescheduled. Make sure your students carefully reference this link and not this link (which is still inexplicably live on the College Board site)!

Most tests will have 2 free response questions, the 1st lasting 25 mins and the 2nd 15 mins.

Leading up to today, College Board kept saying the test would be 45 minutes long. So where did those 5 minutes go? It looks like they are reserved for students to upload their responses.

Take for example the details for the Calculus AB test:

“Students will have 25 minutes to read and respond to Question 1, and then 5 minutes to upload their response. After uploading the response to Question 1, students will have 15 minutes to respond to Question 2, with 5 additional minutes to upload their response to Question 2. Once their response to Question 1 has been submitted, they cannot go back to it.”

So in total, it looks like students will have 50 minutes for most tests, 40 of which are designated for working on the questions, and 10 minutes for submitting answers. Now, students will obviously be able to use a portion of those 10 minutes to work on the questions themselves. But College Board is trying to bake in extra time because…

Students can write out their answers by hand and submit by taking a cell phone picture:

According to the College Board website:

“Students will be able to take exams on any device they have access to — computer, tablet, or smartphone. They will be able to either type and upload their responses or write responses by hand and submit a photo via their cell phone.”

This is where I think students, tutors, and really everyone has a lot of questions:

• How can students ensure their answers are legible in the picture? Will the technology tell students to resubmit a picture if it’s low quality (much like how check deposits through mobile banking apps works)?
• What happens to students who have no devices to take the test on?
• What happens if there’s an error with the upload process during the live test?

College board says they’ll send students an email in “late April” with more information:

“In late April, we’ll provide AP students and educators with information on how to access the testing system on test day, and video demonstrations so that students can familiarize themselves with the system.”

Stay tuned, but I’d plan on that email being sent out on April 30th 😂

College Board mapped the new question types to existing questions types for each test

Take for example the guidance they provide for the AP Psychology test:

You’d then combine this table with the AP Psychology course description to determine the types of questions your students can expect.

There are sure to be more questions in the coming days, especially about accessing the test on test day. I’ll follow up once we receive that new information!