Photo by Kailyn Huynh / Baron News.
Starting this year, the College Board began digital testing, mandating fully digital or hybrid exams for the vast majority of its Advanced Placement courses. Sixteen AP exams are now fully digital, with 12 being hybrid exams, which means students complete their multiple choice questions (MCQ) digitally and their free response questions (FRQ) on a piece of paper.
For the majority of AP subjects, students had mixed feelings about the new digital format. Edwin Yong, senior at Fort Hamilton High School who took two fully digital exams and one hybrid exam – AP US Government and AP Environmental Science in the former format and AP Calculus BC in the latter – felt that while the exam was more convenient in some ways, he was not fully prepared for how different the experience of completing an exam virtually would be.
“For the MCQ, it felt almost like a disadvantage because I didn’t have the paper in front of me,” he said. “For the FRQ, it was almost the same situation, since we were just given an empty packet.”
Many teachers felt similarly but tried to find the silver lining in the new digital administration.
“It seems that students were very adapted to using technology, especially in this digital age,” said Dr. Sarah Tazghini, who teaches AP Environmental Science and proctored the AP Physics Exam. “All physics students have previously taken SATs and were used to the digital model, so it seemed to work in everyone’s favor.”
In spite of some connectivity issues, the exam administration went smoothly. The one exception was AP Psychology. The exam, initially scheduled for administration on May 16th, 2025, had to be rescheduled for May 21st after thousands of students across the country could not log in to the exam. This glitch shook an already tentative confidence many students had in the reliability of the digital exam format.
“Digital testing is obviously easier than doing it on paper, but [the] College Board just has to make sure that everything is working and running properly before we take the test,” said Cynthia Jiang, a senior who experienced issues logging into the Bluebook application for her AP Psychology exam.
In spite of the hiccups, however, students are mostly willing to remain optimistic on digital testing. Matilda Leydon, a senior who took AP US Government and Politics, English Literature, Environmental Science, and Psychology digitally, still feels that the benefits outweigh the negatives for digital testing.
“At first, I was kind of on the fence about it, but after taking the tests and just seeing how easy it was for Ms. Hysaj, our proctor, I feel like it’s just way more convenient,” she said. “It’s easier for the proctor and for the students and leaves it way more in the hands of the students.”
Leydon, who also would’ve taken AP Psychology on the 16th, said her appreciation for the digital format was not dampened by the glitch.
“Obviously, I’m a little more apprehensive with AP Psych, but it’s the first year many tests are digital and we’re bound to have hiccups,” she said. “In the next few years, I assume it’ll be fine. Sure, it’s not great, but it can be easily solved.”