AP/IB Testing

May, better yet known as testing season for high schoolers across the country, has finally arrived, but not
without concerns of academic integrity arising. Across the span of a couple years, there have been many
reports of “cheating scandals” in the world of AP/IB testing, all in the hopes of a stronger university
application or successfully attaining college credit while in secondary school. Over the past few years,
there have been quite a few well known events that have led to cancelled scores and added security in an
attempt to prevent this from repeating.

M24 IB Time Zone Event

In May 2024, there were multiple IB exams (Math, Business, Global Politics, etc) that were conducted in
different time zones. However, students in earlier time zones who took the exams earlier leaked exam
details to students who hadn’t taken the exams yet on social media platforms like Reddit and Discord.
This led to IB announcing stricter implementation of anti-cheating security measures to ensure data
breaches don’t occur again.

AP Exam Leaks

IB isn’t the only organization dealing with exam leaks. College Board had major exam leaks within the
past two years, leading to mass cancellation of exam scores under the pretense of “suspected bad
behaviour.” This has led to a push for digitization of AP exams solely to increase security of AP exams and streamline
the testing process.

Editor’s Opinion

Although the concerns regarding increasing security are valid, I find the digitization of AP exams to be
frustrating, especially in the math-themed exams like AP Calculus AB/BC where calculations are much
more manageable on paper than online. Students have also reported difficulties getting into BlueBook and
not remembering their login details, overcomplicating the testing conditions. As testing environment
changes, its advisable for students to have practice resources available digitally to mimic the actual exam
conditions.