Online Ap Exams Cheating 2021
Parents were understandably concerned by College Board’s move this year to administer all AP exams online; such tests carry significant weight when considering college admission profiles.
Cheating can have devastating repercussions; you could be banned from taking future AP exams and colleges could learn that you cheated, so it’s crucial that students comply with test security policies and procedures.
1. Tutors
Students taking Advanced Placement exams must abide by College Board’s test security policies in order to pass. Any violation may lead to their scores being cancelled and may even lead to banishment from future testing. Furthermore, plagiarism-detection software review every exam and can detect cheating attempts by notifying schools and students immediately if something looks amiss – even before an answer submission attempt has taken place.
In the past, tutors have been accused of helping their students cheat on Advanced Placement exams. This usually entails providing answers for multiple-choice questions; however, some students also enlist tutors to aid them in answering free-response ones which require greater thought to answer correctly.
This year, the College Board has implemented new rules to combat cheating during Advanced Placement exams (AP). Students must wear wristbands with unique identifiers that will be verified by proctors prior to each examination; additionally, their identity will be confirmed through scanning face and photograph analysis before each exam starts. In addition, all AP test takers must sign an agreed upon code of conduct, which includes not sharing exam information online or with anyone outside of their proctor’s office.
AP Physics 1 exams, considered one of the more challenging AP tests, last for 2 hours and include more than 70 multiple-choice questions. Students are also expected to conduct lab experiments and write reports in addition to answering multiple-choice questions. Some tutors have even been accused of encouraging their students to cheat by providing answers to multiple-choice questions and helping write impressive lab reports.
During the initial week of AP exams, many students used online private messaging and videoconferencing apps such as Discord to stay in contact while taking exams. Sometimes one student took an exam on behalf of another.
The College Board recently caught a group of students attempting to cheat during the first week of AP exams and is investigating any further instances of possible cheating. Some experts predict there could be even more instances during round two online at-home AP exams from May 18 – 27.
2. Discord Servers
As the coronavirus pandemic spread, thousands of high-school students logged online to take Advanced Placement exams – but not all took the same ones. According to one high school junior speaking on condition of anonymity with Teen Vogue, 40 students from three separate schools in a suburban district created their own Discord server in which they collaborated during an AP calculus BC exam as well as sharing information during Physics C and Statistics exams without being caught by authorities.
Discord servers provide a community meeting platform with multiple voice and text channels with set rules for users, along with live streaming capabilities and other features that make the server useful to people who share common interests.
Servers may be open, allowing anyone to join. Most are small and invitation-only spaces targeted towards specific communities and friends groups – users can create one of their own for free and invite their friends. Larger servers offer various topics where members can connect. They may include private chats as well as open ones where anyone can post a message.
Discord’s user interface makes it simple for anyone to create and invite friends to a server, with a variety of templates for gaming, school clubs, or study groups available for their selection. When creating their server they can choose whether it will be public or private as well as specify its minimum required membership size.
Some teen Discord servers are dedicated to gaming or other interests and provide their members with an array of games and activities. Others, however, may have more controversial affiliations and links with white nationalist or alt-right movements; media collective Unicorn Riot has published the member lists and contents of several such servers.
Establishing a Discord server is simple and free; taking just a few steps and without needing special technical skills. The app prompts users to choose a template, or they can start with an empty server. While adding more than just a few members may take some work, there are ways to minimize that burden.
3. Social Media
This year’s College Board scandal over Advanced Placement tests wasn’t just about cheating; it also involved social media. Students were caught using chat apps like Discord to discuss questions and share answers among themselves as they collaborated on taking an AP calculus BC test together online. A group of 40 students from three separate schools used Discord together.
Though the College Board offers various digital security tools and plagiarism software, these cannot completely protect its students from scammers who are increasingly adept at bypassing protection mechanisms by searching any topic on Google, creating chat groups to discuss exams among friends, or working on one document in order to pass exams.
Teachers must discuss the rules of online testing with their students to make them aware that violating them could result in penalties such as having scores canceled, being banned from taking future AP exams or even being reported to college admissions offices.
College Board could also be taking measures to discourage cheating by targeting certain students for additional sanctions, which might seem unfair to those who do not cheat; these students deserve confidence that their score is authentic.
Even with all its challenges, online testing can still provide fair and equitable assessments for students. To do so effectively and avoid being subjected to cheating attempts, students should learn and abide by all test regulations prior to participating.
The 2020 Advanced Placement Exams demonstrate how difficult it can be to effectively track student performance during online exams without proctors. Figure 1 depicts surges of search data on terms related to exam topics coinciding perfectly with exam times; hourly search trends provided by Google Trends provide this data.
4. Study Guides
While AP exams can be challenging, they also present an incredible opportunity for college credit and academic advancement. Your success on an AP exam ultimately rests with how well prepared you are – the best way is by studying hard and refraining from cheating during the AP test itself.
Cheating during online Advanced Placement exams can scupper your chance at entering the school of your dreams and result in failing your AP course, academic probation or even expulsion from school. Furthermore, cheating is considered a serious offense that could even carry criminal penalties.
As soon as the College Board announced this year’s AP exams would take place online due to COVID-19 concerns, students were concerned about cheating being easier under this new format. But their vice president for AP and instruction assured students that security protocols had been put in place that would thwart cheating rings.
Uncertainty remains regarding how widespread and how a cheating ring may be detected, among other questions. When asked by reporters what steps were being taken by College Board to counter cheating, their spokesperson was unable to provide specifics and instead said only that company security measures are in effect and ongoing.
Though the new digital format allows students to use study guides and other resources in order to pass their AP exams, it is still advisable for students to utilize study guides or any other resources which could potentially assist them. It is important to remember that such actions violate the College Board’s code of ethics; should any college discover this practice during an application review process they may cancel your scores as well as disqualify you from future applications.
Practice an AP test demo version before taking it, to practice different ways of submitting responses and find one that’s quick and user-friendly. Furthermore, avoid signing in using multiple devices as this may lead to technical issues.