The College Board announced that in May 2025 the use of paper tests will end for 28 Advanced Placement (AP) exams. The transition will move 16 exams to be exclusively online and 12 to be hybrids of part paper and part digital.
The online exams will be taken by students through the Bluebook application which has been used for the SAT and PSAT since 2022. Bluebook is compatible with students’ Mac and Windows devices as well as Ipads and chromebooks.
“I understand why they did it because it does waste a lot of paper since all those packets are so many pages long,” said senior Gwen Koplan. This year Kaplan has a number of AP tests that will be online although she usually “prefers paper tests.” Through PSAT and SAT tests she has become more familiar with Bluebooks format and has not found any issues.
To help students get accustomed to Bluebook, there will be test previews offered before May. In AP Classroom, when students take progress checks or quizzes the format will appear the same way it will on the Bluebook app on the May test.
“For math I always prefer to write on paper and I like to write my essays by hand instead of typing,” commented senior Hannah Benson. Since the majority of her classes use paper tests or have in the past, the transition to digital is an adjustment.
Online exams add another layer of possible difficulties when administering tests. To offer the easiest testing experience for all students and proctors the College Board will loan devices and WiFi support to schools in need.
The Bluebook application also only requires that students have a connection to the internet at the start and end submission of the exams so all work completed without the internet will be saved free of disruption. In the event that internet connection is not available at the conclusion of the exam and students can’t submit their answers, they will have up to 4 days after the exams to reconnect to wifi and submit.
Mary Kenny-Broda, Campolindo’s testing coordinator, says that the school is approaching this transition “with enthusiasm” since so far Campo’s “digital exam administrations for the PSAT and the SAT have been given two thumbs up by both proctors and students.” The new format allows for not only conservation of paper but also time, with less passing out materials, specific instructions, and counting tests.
The plan is to have “extra charging areas for students who need it” along with “tech-help available” during testing periods to limit any difficulties. Mrs. Kenny-Broda recommends that “students should familiarize themselves with digital AP Exams” through Bluebook and AP Classrooms test preview resources and come on the day of the test with a charged computer.
Fully digital AP tests: AP African American Studies, AP Art History, AP Comparative Government and Politics, AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Environmental Science, AP European History, AP Human Geography, AP Latin, AP Psychology, AP Seminar, AP United States Government and Politics, AP United States History, AP World History Modern.
Hybrid digital AP tests: AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Physics 1: Algebra Based, AP Physics 2: Algebra Based, AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Precalculus, and AP Statistics.
