SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Every spring high school student who is in advanced placement classes will still take their exams and their scores can get them college credit.
Those exams are given starting May 11, 2020, and for the first time ever students will be taking these tests at home, on a computer with open notes.
“I think maybe a lot of people thought this would be an opportunity to be in your house and set up a couple of computers and just Wikipedia everything and that is not the case at all,” said Mike Fotenopulos, Academic Coach for Springdale Public Schools.
Fotenopulos says students will have 45 minutes to take each test, compared to the time limit of more than three hours students have in years past, on AP world history and U.S. history exams. He says there will be no multiple-choice questions.
“It’s probably going to be some form of open-ended question, much like a document-based question, etc. So, there isn’t much opportunity to sit there and start getting on the computer or getting on the phone with your friend because you are just wasting time,” he said.
John Stewart is an AP U.S. History teacher at Har-Ber High School and says he’s been prepping his students for the new format of the test where they are going to be writing one essay using what they know from memory along with five documents.
“Since it’s at home, it’s essentially College Board has told us it’s open note and so when we are learning the new material I’m telling them, if you get a question regarding this time period you are going to want this in front of you to spark some ideas and things to write this essay,” he said.
Students who score a three or above on their AP exams can get as many as two semesters worth of college credit.
The April ACT exams have now been moved to June 13th at testing locations across the county, but of course, this is subject to change.