CollegeBoard, a not-for-profit association dedicated to helping students with college, recently announced that the AP exams set for May 2025 will transition from paper and pencil to digitally. They announced that 28 exams will move towards the Bluebook digital testing application. Of these 28 exams, 16 of those will be fully digital and 12 will be hybrid. The specific exams can be found on CollegeBoard.
These changes, however, have affected the teachers at Ayala who teach the AP courses, specifically the AP Language & Composition and AP Literature & Composition courses.
Due to the formatting of their exams, with the Free Response Questions being a compilation of three handwritten essays, CollegeBoard’s decision to have these exams go fully digital will affect the teaching style of teachers trying to prepare their students for the exam in May.
Much like how the SAT became digital in March 2023, using the Bluebook format, teachers at Ayala are trying to get their students more comfortable with the website in preparation. Yet this switch will take some getting used to due to the long-standing format of paper and pen in the past.
“Mrs. Sjol, Ms. Tse, and I, we’re making sure that the students have access to [Bluebook] so we can practice using the tools,” AP Language & Composition teacher Mrs. Mariana Jolly said. “So planning wise, we’re trying to make sure that we work on assignments and opportunities for students to utilize the app, so they’re not completely shocked when they take the AP test.”
Students have a similar mindset towards the digital switch because switching from pen and paper towards typing on a computer allows for easier accessibility of the writer.
“Going digital will help since the free responses are the things that are majorly getting shifted due to the digital format,” Austin Elder (12) said. “More aid in that department will definitely help me with potentially getting a better score.
Students are getting more familiar with digital assignments as they have also seen this switch with the SAT. Typing is a skill that is beneficial for life, not just for school, and switching digitally may help.
“I think improving your typing skills is a really great skill that you will need outside of just an English class,” Jolly said. “It might be beneficial to students because they’ve been practicing doing digital assignments since junior high and elementary school.”
Typing an essay, both in theory and in reality, requires less labor-intensive work, and would therefore help students taking the AP Language & Composition and AP Literature & Composition exams. There are many benefits that typing has that handwriting lacks.
“If you want to get rid of something, there is less of a penalty with typing than if you were writing it,” Elder said. “Typing allows the writer to edit something from the beginning portion of the essay more easily when they are already on the later portions of the essay.”
However, the reading comprehension and annotations may be negatively affected as they deal with different skills.
“I am worried about being able to physically annotate the papers because I know that is something that I rely on heavily,” Jolly said.
Annotating is something that many students find useful when it comes to reading comprehension. However, this brings up the question of how annotations would work digitally and how that might affect a student’s overall reading comprehension. Many students have expressed that the digital format may hinder their ability to focus on the text than if it was on paper.
“I find it a bit of an annoyance reading long passages digitally, like for MCQ practice on CollegeBoard, so my reading comprehension skills might tank a bit since I will just get bored and distracted more easily,” Elder said.
Despite the hindrances, CollegeBoard’s decision to switch many AP Exams to the digital format may help benefit students even more, especially as they are already inclined to the feeling of typing out their essays for revisions. Ultimately, the digitalization of AP exams may be better for the future.
“A lot of things are going digital, so it will be easier just because it’s a medium we’re more comfortable with and because it’s just around more,” Gaby Ladrido (11) said.
