Cheating On Online Ap Exams
Even though AP exams will soon be taking place outside of school settings, cheating remains difficult; The College Board employs various digital security measures to prevent cheating on these exams.
Each student’s Advanced Placement teacher will receive copies of his or her submissions and can identify any discrepancies, while any student who violates security policies during an exam may have their scores nullified.
1. Copying Answers
The College Board has implemented numerous digital security measures and methods to protect the integrity of online AP exams. Their exam platform uses simultaneous test administrations to monitor students and detect any possible instances of cheating; each student’s AP instructor receives copies of submitted work from each student submitted, which allows instructors to spot inconsistencies that might indicate plagiarism or cheating; any student found sharing questions/responses with anyone to gain an unfair advantage will be prevented from taking the exam and their scores may even be cancelled altogether.
Cheating on online AP exams may not be as easily detected, however. While the multiple-choice section is graded automatically by machine, free-response sections require human graders and therefore make cheating more challenging; yet there may still be ways that students may attempt to bypass detection during online AP exams.
One of the more prevalent methods that students use to try to cheat on Advanced Placement online exams is copying answers from other students, either directly by looking at their responses or through apps that record screens and allow users to highlight text for later reference. It’s important to remember that cheating on online AP exams is against school policy and could result in suspension from classes or expulsion from programs altogether.
Students taking online AP exams can also cheat by using “cheat sheets”, which contain answers for every question on an exam. Cheat sheets can be found on many websites and printed off before exam day; however, many unofficial cheat sheets cannot pass muster with College Board’s grading software and may easily be detected as cheating attempts.
If a student is caught cheating on an online AP exam, school officials will likely convene and discuss the incident with them. To best address their actions and demonstrate they truly regret them, students should prepare a well-thought out explanation and demonstrate they regret them while assuring school officials that this incident won’t impede on either their academic or behavioral record moving forward.
2. Copying Cheat Sheets
As the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to move Advancement Placement (AP) exams from classrooms to computers, many educators were concerned about cheating. After all, it’s easy enough to cheat online: students can simply Google any topic of interest or create chatrooms between classmates to exchange answers and make up answers as if in real life.
College Board has recently introduced changes to combat cheating during exams. New digital security tools and plagiarism software are in place to stop students from sharing answers or using unauthorised resources during an exam, while Advanced Placement exams now feature questions that require more complex solutions than simply “Googling.” This should prevent cheating.
College Board has also implemented other security measures, including one to verify whether or not a student took an exam on their own, using results submitted by their high school teacher to compare against. Any discrepancies will be identified and penalized accordingly. Furthermore, anyone caught cheating during an AP exam will have both their high school and any colleges applied to for admission informed of this violation by College Board.
One way for students to avoid penalties associated with taking the AP exams on their own and without communicating with other students during them, is taking them in isolation and reading and accepting all terms and conditions and security statements before each exam. College Board will send reminders as well as links to this document before each examination takes place.
Another way for students to protect themselves is for them to remain aware of any attempts at cheating and report them immediately. If an AP exam student was found communicating with another during an exam session, their score will be cancelled, and The College Board will notify their high school and any colleges where they have applied for admissions about this incident, with some schools potentially taking further disciplinary actions against their applicant(s).
3. Breaking into the Test Center
Coronavirus pandemic has forced higher education online and led to an unprecedented surge in cheating. College Board officials promised that its new AP tests would prioritize security by including mostly confidential protocols to detect students attempting to game the system; but recent events demonstrate otherwise.
Dinosauce313 created the r/APtests2020 subreddit on May 10, with the intention of providing an online community for students taking this year’s Advanced Placement exams. But instead, it quickly turned into a hub for cheaters sharing answers among themselves.
Some posts were clearly tongue-in-cheek; others weren’t so lighthearted. One student posted a link to an open-book study guide for their physics exam on this website and asked users whether or not they wanted it; in just under 24 hours this post received more than 3,00 upvotes and over 1,500 downvotes!
Cheaters gain access to exam answers by purchasing questions and answers from other students who took the exam, then sharing this information on social media, chat forums or websites. Even discussing multiple-choice questions during an exam break with someone close to you or discussing free-response questions during group chat could get them into hot water with teachers and instructors.
Attracting suspicion can also be harmful, so try not to gaze too long upon the test supervisor. Instead, move your gaze away and take short looks around before returning back to any one spot for longer than several seconds at a time.
AP tests are not designed to be 100% secure; therefore if caught cheating on one, your school and any colleges where your scores have been submitted will be informed as well as law enforcement authorities. Unfortunately, it remains unknown just how many cheaters are being caught; but as recent scandals involving Arizona State and Georgetown University demonstrate, cheaters will always find ways to bypass any security system set in place against them.
4. Taking the Test in the Dark
Due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns, this year’s AP exams have been modified and made shorter than usual, open book, meaning students can use online resources (although the College Board discourages it) during examination. Unfortunately, however, this new format has not proven any less attractive to cheaters; Trevor Packer of College Board’s Senior Vice President for AP Instruction tweeted before online exams began that his organization “caught a ring of students who were making plans to cheat”, as well as investigation other suspected instances of academic dishonesty.
Teen Vogue reports that several students have admitted using videoconferencing apps such as Discord and FaceTime during the first week of exams to collaborate, in violation of College Board policy. Our sources tell us teachers may be less motivated than usual to screen their AP exams for signs of cheating; tutors have confirmed they are being paid significant sums to take exams on behalf of other students.
One potential solution would be for the College Board to develop software that could detect whether student writing has been copied from someone else’s answers, perhaps using features such as writing style or word usage; though this would likely be difficult without being able to access actual test questions and answers directly.
An alternative option would be requiring schools that administer Advanced Placement exams to submit incident reports of any incidents that arise during testing periods, including cheating. Once submitted to the College Board with completed exams, these reports will be evaluated and, if sufficient evidence is presented against an exam taker’s registration will be cancelled and scores from that test invalidated; additionally, school administrations would need to notify district superintendents and local law enforcement of their actions.