After a year of dedication and anticipation, students across the globe prepare to take AP exams that will determine if they receive college credits for their efforts. However, during the 2024 testing season, there was a significant rise in cheating, with many tests leaked online via social media apps such as TikTok. This breach in the test’s privacy affected the authenticity of these exams and forced the College Board to change testing formats to an online version for the upcoming 2025 exams.

While this change may seem insignificant, some have expressed concerns that this will negatively affect their testing experience.

“I get headaches after reading screens for a while, and I also prefer to be able to underline, write, and tangibly grab a paper,” senior Ashley Schmidt said.

Although AP testing becoming digital is reasonable, especially considering many other College Board tests, such as the SAT, are now online, this raises concerns about how math-heavy exams will be administered.

“I understand why it is going online for test security reasons,” Alicia Marusik, the AP Chemistry teacher, said, “Last year, the test was released online before the test was administered here. But it is definitely much easier to be able to write on a test than answer the questions on the computers. So I think it will be an adjustment for everyone.”

In an effort to prepare her students for this new adjustment, Marusik is changing the way she administers tests throughout the year as well.

“I’m moving from each student having their own paper copy of the multiple-choice to only having a class set of questions that they can’t write on,” Marusik said. “They can only write on scratch paper.” 

Besides this putting a possible strain on AP students, many doubt that this change will even adequately prevent cheating. 

“I think it will help, but if people are definitely determined to cheat, they will,” senior Folademi Ajao said. 

AP exams going digital opens up essential conversations on whether it is possible to stop cheating. It also calls for school administrators everywhere to consider the reasoning behind the current epidemic of academic dishonesty in high schools. 

For students preparing to take AP exams in 2025, especially for math-related subjects, it is crucial that new study habits are implemented and new testing strategies are learned to succeed during the upcoming testing season.