College Board Changes This Year
Mr. Roth, an AP teacher at Hamilton High School, teaches his class. Photo by Cora Kuhlenbeck.
Have you paid your AP test fees? Because this year, they’re due in November. This is just one of the many College Board changes in 2019-2020, and adjustments in AP classes can be impactful as they are an important part of high school for many juniors, seniors, and even sophomores.
Understanding the College Board’s resources can lead to college credit for many students, and the amount of credit depends on exam scores in the spring that range from one to five. Although a three may suffice to pass, many students aim to achieve fives on their tests. A higher score will lead to more college credit and more money saved.
Timelines, resources for students in teachers, and structures of AP tests are changing in the 2019-2010 academic year, and if you want to understand them more thoroughly, you’re in the right place.
The College Board is offering new resources for students to use to prepare for their exams. College Board spokesman Zachary Goldberg stated that there will be access to a bank of former AP questions, and that these resources will help create “customized practice tests” and “unit tests” that will be helpful for tracking progress and understanding what knowledge is required for different parts of each exam.
Such resources are available from the College Board accounts of students and are intended to help all students and teachers to thoroughly understand what information is necessary for tests in order to give more students an equal chance. Another major change this year is the timeline of registering for the AP exam. In previous years, students would register later in the school year. This generally ensured that students had time to learn and decide if they wanted to take the exam based on how successful they felt in the course.
Another major change this year is the timeline of registering for the AP exam. In previous years, students would register later in the school year. This generally ensured that students had time to learn and decide if they wanted to take the exam based on how successful they felt in the course.
This upcoming year, student registration must take place by November 15th, when the unchanged $94 fee will be paid for the exam. If late registration takes place between November 16th and March 13th, students must pay a $40 late fee, and students will also be charged $40 if they do not take the exam after signing up.
AP Student taking a standardized test. Photo by Cora Kuhlenbeck
If students are considering taking the exam in the spring this new timeline ensures that they will sign up in the fall lest they have to pay extra fees. So, remember to get your AP fees in by November 15th.
Besides these technical issues in timelines and resources, the actual material of exams sometimes changes. This year the AP English Language exam is changing, and this will affect teachers trying to teach the material as well as students trying to learn.
Some general changes in this exam are outlined by Marco Learning and include that multiple-choice passages will be shorter, there will be fewer multiple-choice questions, and there will be new free-response rubrics. With these changes, the College Board releases new materials to teachers with AP classroom to help them understand what their students should be learning to be most successful on the exam.
But exam changes can also create delays in the availability of study tools. Some AP English Language prep books such as the 2020 Princeton Review will not be released until later this year. The review will be available on December 17th, while such books are usually published in August- the 2020 Princeton Review AP Chemistry book is currently available to purchase and has been for months.
When changes in the exams themselves occur, adaptations must occur in both the students and teachers as teachers try to learn what they should be teaching. Looking into ways that exams you will be taking may have changed could help you prepare for them more thoroughly.
The changes in the timelines, tests, and learning resources in the 2019-2020 academic school year are worth understanding, and looking into them will help you become more prepared when the test rolls around in the spring.
