The Case Against Online AP Testing

This May, Advanced Placement tests for 28 of 36 AP subjects were held entirely online.  Going forward, College Board will administer most exams through Bluebook, the central testing platform that also delivers the SAT and PSAT.

As internet access has expanded, technology-enabled learning has brought real benefits to both teachers and students. However, shifting AP tests online risks undermining the credibility and academic rigor that make these exams meaningful in the first place.

College Board’s decision to move most AP exams online reflects a broader trend toward digital testing. But this shift opens a Pandora’s box of potential problems—technical issues, cheating, and declining academic standards—all of which already plague both K-12 and higher education.

Technical difficulties are inevitable with the new digital AP exam format. Technical difficulties are inevitable with the new digital AP exam format. Device failures, internet outages, and software crashes are likely to become increasingly common. The 2020 AP exam controversy—marked by incidents such as phishing and unfair testing conditions—is a recent, large-scale example of what can go wrong.

Online exams have become fertile ground for cheating and plagiarism. The strength of the AP exam lies in its standardization—something that will be significantly weakened when students no longer take the test under uniform conditions.

Online exams have become fertile ground for cheating and plagiarism. Given the presence of AI tools, internet access, and social-media platforms for sharing answers, it’s now easier than ever to cheat.

With the rise of ChatGPT and AI-generated homework, many online college courses have lost their value. If this trend continues, digital AP exams are likely to be affected as well.

Currently, there are no reliable technical solutions or anti-AI safeguards to prevent cheating on digital AP exams. Without strong protections against chatbot use, public trust in the purpose and credibility of the AP test is likely to erode.

Unfortunately, College Board’s move to offer AP exams digitally is part of a broader trend toward lowering academic standards.

During the Covid pandemic, countless colleges and universities adopted test-optional or test-free policies—approaches many have continued to this day. The SAT and ACT, long considered benchmarks of college readiness, have also been simplified. The SAT is now administered digitally, with shorter reading passages and fewer questions per passage. The ACT has introduced changes such as more time per question, revised question formats, and optional essay and science sections.

Additionally, many law schools across the country have made the LSAT optional, and the American Bar Association has at least discussed officially dropping the LSAT requirement.

Under the guise of aligning the tests with introductory college courses, AP exams have already removed key concepts like “big ideas” and “enduring understandings,” making the tests significantly easier.

Online high-school and college courses are increasingly becoming obsolete, lacking meaningful assessments and easily undermined by tools such as ChatGPT.

This isn’t modernization or genuine education reform—it’s a systematic lowering of academic standards and a campaign against meaningful standardized testing.

If AP exams, the SAT, and the ACT no longer demonstrate college readiness, what purpose do they serve?

Since their inception in the 1950s, AP exams have been the gold standard for measuring high-school students’ academic performance and college readiness. With the recent decision to digitize AP testing, College Board is putting at risk a legacy that dates back to the late 19th century.

College Board should seriously reconsider its transition to digital testing until sustainable solutions to technical issues, cheating, and declining academic standards are found and implemented.

The new online format of the AP exams will open the floodgates to AI misuse, grade inflation, and a continued decline in academic rigor—all of which undermine the exams’ core purpose: academic excellence. It’s a disaster in the making, and it’s only a matter of time before College Board begins moving its digital exams from schools and testing centers to students’ actual homes, further compromising the tests’ status. Parents and teachers must do everything in their power to prevent that from happening.

Jovan Tripkovic is communications manager at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.