Ethan Chu
During the past year, the rise of the COVID-19 virus struck us all terribly. Whether it be emotionally, physically, or mentally–we all were affected by this pandemic in some way. As a result of this pandemic, serious changes occurred within the College Board as well. More specifically, changes in the policies of the AP exams.
In the spring semester of 2020, the College Board made a conscious decision to distribute AP exams electronically instead of cancelling them like many other test-taking organizations such as the IB and ACT due to COVID-19. So what’s the issue exactly? The issue was that College Board wasn’t able to physically accommodate test takers who were disabled and needed accommodations. In addition to this, many test takers ran into multiple issues: technical difficulties from their internet cutting out, submissions of their tests not being accepted, and most importantly, parents were unable to find proper support during this time and were told by College Board’s support team that they would only be able to retake it another day.
To add insult to injury, many of these test takers were international students who had to pay around $120 for each exam; and the other half of non-international students paid around $94 per exam, a hefty price that many thought was evident of College Board’s money-hungry tactics.
And the list of other problems goes on within these AP exams; a single free-response question (FRQ) for each specific exam would determine these students' fates, a clear difference to how AP exams were administered before: hours of testing and multiple questions on material learned over the course of the year. International students were forced to take their tests at midnight; some even took it at 3 AM in the morning. They were outraged, of course. Having to sit for exams in the middle of the night only to find that their internet would be cut off or that they would be unable to submit their work frankly caused most of their turmoil.
With these ongoing issues that many students faced, College Board pushed the blame towards students instead of owning up to their actions, stating that their web browsers weren’t up to date and that the files they submitted were corrupt. Yet, isn’t it College Board’s job to provide helpful and accommodating test-taking conditions? Clearly, they weren’t prepared to properly give clear instructions and proper help to these test-takers, many of whom were forced to take another test on a different day as a result of College Board’s poor planning when administering these AP exams.
All this build-up and lack of care led to a class-action lawsuit against College Board on May 16th, 2020, for gross negligence, breach of contract, and violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Many were tired of their antics and wanted justice for the mistreatment many students had to face as a result of College Board’s poor planning in an effort to increase their profits last year.
It has been a year since this all occurred, and with the results of the lawsuit still unrevealed, AP exams are being physically distributed this year instead of electronically like last year. Clearly, the College Board is trying to avoid their previous scandal once more. Yet, as we look into the past year and College Board’s scandals, we are reminded of how loosely the term non-profit is used on a day to day basis.
They refer to themselves as a non-profit organization, yet they rely on the fact that thousands of students need to take not only AP exams but also expensive SAT tests in order to get into college in the first place. They use these students as a form of profit, only choosing to do damage control when necessary and when under fire by the public. At some point, you have to ask yourself, how can the CEO of this non-profit reportedly earn over one million dollars a year while he chooses to neglect and put further stress onto these struggling students every year? Does he even have a single ounce of sympathy for these students trying so desperately and using their parent’s hard earned money to pay for tests that only give them more anxiety and anticipation each and every year? I don’t think so. After all, he is the one profiting, the one benefiting off of these students' turmoil.
Ultimately, the College Board is a successful corporation that has been using students as a form of profit. They benefit off of the sweat and numerous tears that these students have shed over these AP and SAT exams each and every year. However, with the rise of test optional colleges emerging within America, we students can only hope that more colleges will come on board so that College Board’s antics will stop with the removal of these nerve-wracking tests that give numerous students anxiety every year.
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