LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. — Beginning in May 2025, 28 of the College Board Advanced Placement exams in the 2024-25 school year will move toward a fully digital or hybrid testing format. Schools nationwide, as well as Los Alamitos High School, will proceed with the exam on the Bluebook app following concerns within the administration surrounding the efficiency and security of paper testing.

By moving to digital AP exams, College Board aims to make the process easier by erasing the lengthy process of bubbling and filling out personal information. Additionally, the move to digital should allow students to write essays at a faster pace than writing on paper, making the test less stressful and far more efficient.

Back to the basics

Originally started in 1956 with a fee of $10 per exam, the AP exams were created to allow high school students to take advanced classes and learn college-level material. According to PrepScholar, fears that high schools were failing to prepare students for higher-level education during the Cold War led to greater efforts to prepare them for future opportunities in hopes of triumphing against the Soviet Union.

Traditionally, it is standard for students to be presented with several plastic-encased packets that make up the exam. Paper exams have been deemed by modern standards as inefficient, as they can often fall victim to stealing content or cheating. College Board delivers the physical exams in shipments of thousands to different locations throughout the globe; moving to digital ensures the safe and secure nature of testing.

In a statement titled “Accelerating Our Transition to Digital AP Exams,” the head of the AP program Trevor Packer expressed concerns about exploitation of AP material.

“Unfortunately, this year, we saw a rise in bad actors compromising AP Exam content for financial gain,” said Packer. “We were able to avoid large-scale cancellations only because none of the compromised material was distributed broadly, but we believe that paper AP testing will continue to be vulnerable to theft and cheating.”

College Board has hinted throughout the years that AP exams would transition to digital testing following the trend set by the SAT, PSAT and ACT, which have fully switched to a digital format since the 2023-24 school year.

Which exams are changing?

Out of the 28 exams moving to digital, 16 are moving to fully digital, while 12 subjects are moving toward a hybrid option that provides exam questions on the computer but requires a free response answer on a paper booklet.

Fully digital:

1. African American Studies
2. Art History
3. Comparative Government and Politics
4. Computer Science A
5. Computer Science Principles
6. English Language Composition and Writing
7. English Literature Composition and Writing
8. Environmental Science
9. European History
10. Human Geography
11. Latin
12. Psychology
13. Seminar
14. United Stated Government and Politics
15. United States History
16. World History

Hybrid:

1. Biology
2. Calculus AB
3. Calculus BC
4. Chemistry
5. Macroeconomics
6. Microeconomics
7. Physics 1: Algebra-Based
8. Physics 2: Algebra-Based
9. Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
10. Physics C: Mechanics
11. Precalculus
12. Statistics

Eight subjects, mainly of language and music-related subjects, have plans to transfer digitally in the near future but not in the 2025 testing year.

Planned to change in the future:

1. Chinese
2. French
3. German
4. Italian
5. Japanese
6. Spanish Language and Culture
7. Spanish Literature and Culture
8. Music Theory

It should be noted that the content and structure of the exams will not change, as each exam will have the same amount of questions and time allotted for each section.

How do students feel about this?

The reaction among LAHS students to this change has been varied, as some see the opportunity for themselves to write faster and quicker, while others claim that this will make the writing process harder.

In a survey of 18 LAHS students conducted by the Griffin Gazette, five students reported that they prefer writing essays by hand than typing, while another five believed it had no impact on their test-taking. The majority (eight students) ruled in favor of digital exams, citing the main reason as convenience.

“I feel like when I write with paper, I understand, process and remember the information better,” wrote an unnamed LAHS senior.

Junior Hana Huynh, who is currently enrolled in AP English Language and AP Music Theory, expressed her concern surrounding her issues with writing on paper.

“With writing physically, my hands start to hurt, my (lead) might run out or my pencil might break, but I don’t have to worry about any of that with digital tests,” Huynh said.

As the world becomes more immersed in advanced technology, it seems more likely that advanced testing will become 100% digitally immersed.