Opinion: The College Board should restructure the AP Exam
Last year, the College Board cut down their AP tests. Why not do the same this year, when students have half as much time to learn the same amount of content?
This year, between balancing remote and hybrid learning and dealing with a global pandemic, AP students are under more stress than ever. The Collage Board has the power to relieve the pressure that’s on them — and they should.
March 22, 2021
Tears wet the sleeves of a student as they try to cover up their crying face. Their homework is overwhelming, and they feel as if they barely have time for anything beside their AP classes. Their friends’ messages have all been neglected as have their other classes. The work feels monumental and it just keeps piling on. For the AP Exam in May, the College Board should cut down the content that students need to know for the test.
Last year, at the start of the pandemic, the College Board changed the formatting of the AP Exam. This included cutting down the content that the students need to know for the exam. This year, however, students are stressed out only because of the hybrid model and the fact that the College Board had not cut down the content that is needed for the AP Exam like they did at the end of last year.
Right now, many schools are not back fully in person. With the way hybrid is formatted students are learning content that in a normal year is hard to fit in fully. But now, due to hybrid learning, teachers are teaching the content that students need to know in half of the normal amount of time — and students are teaching themselves the rest.
For a normal, COVID-free year, AP classes demand a lot of homework. Now that the content is moving so fast for students they are getting hours of homework for one class. This amount of homework is around the same for all of their classes combined but it is in only one class. Some students are doing a whole unit in their AP classes in a week.
The amount of work is overwhelming the students who are in AP classes right now — more so than in a regular year. Students who are usually turning things in on time are turning in assignments late. Grades are lower than normal for students in classes because of this overwhelming amount of work that is placed on students.
The College Board may not want to change the test because of the fact many schools around the world are in-person fully and AP classes are taken world wide. But changing the test would make it easier on everyone who is taking an AP exam this year. It gives everyone at least a small chance to succeed on this test.
Students in AP classes just want a chance to breathe between assignments. They just want time to retain that information that they will need to know but they are not being given that time they need. If they change the test it will give students a chance to breathe a sigh of relief.
