How to Take (and Submit) Your 2020 AP Exams COVID-19 Series
The Princeton Review
Hi, everyone.
I’m Rob Franek, Editor-in-Chief at The Princeton Review.
We’ve published a lot of videos about how to take your AP exams—as in, how to prep
so you can earn your target score.
We’ve even published a video about how to find your AP scoring rubric.
Today we’re going to talk about how to take your AP exams—as in, literally, how to do
this on a device from home.
Usually, you’d have a proctor guiding you through.
For this year’s exams, you are the proctor.
So in addition to your test prep, you should also take some time—should be less than
an hour—to do your proctor prep.
College Board has created an interactive exam demo, where you can practice logging in and
submitting your answer.
You should definitely, definitely do this, my friends.
Get used to the interface.
Understand it now, and waste zero minutes on test day figuring out what to do.
We have a link to this in the video description.
College Board has also created an exam day checklist, which you should go through in
advance to make sure that there are no surprises on test day.
(We’ve also included a link to this in the description.)
Probably most important of the items on your checklist is your exam time.
Make sure you know this.
Exams start at the exact same time worldwide, so depending on your location, you could potentially
have a start time that’s a little unusual.
OK, let’s talk about the nuts and bolts of taking your AP exams.
On exam day, you’ll need to log in 30 minutes prior to your test time.
You’ll need to enter your AP ID and then your personal information.
The info you’ll need to enter when you do the demo is LESS than what you’ll find on
exam day—so do take College Board’s advice and log in 30 minutes prior.
At this point, if I were in your shoes, I would also OPEN the application I was planning
to work in.
If you’re going to type your answers in Word, have Word already open so that you’re
not waiting for it to load during your precious exam minutes.
If you’re doing the test on paper, get your paper set up.
Regardless of how you’re planning on writing your exam, you’ll need to put your AP ID
and initials at the top of the page of your document.
You’ll also want any notes that you’ll need for the test handy.
As I’ve said before, you shouldn’t need anything more than the formula sheet you’d
get if you were taking the test at school and possibly your calculator, but it can be
comforting to have some notes or books within arm’s reach during the test.
As you’re entering in your info, you’ll see a timer counting down until your exam
starts.
In fact, you will see a timer throughout your exam letting you know how much time you have
left to submit your work.
It will appear in black until you have 5 minutes remaining, and then it will turn red.
If you find it distracting or stressful to have that timer on your screen, you are allowed
to hide it, but—and this is really important—you cannot be late!
You won’t get any points for work that you’ve completed but not submitted.
If you don’t click “Submit,” you don’t get points.
So if you’re not keeping track of the time using the timer on your screen, make sure
that you keep track of the time some other way.
It’s really important.
There is a bit of good news about timing.
College Board had initially said that, for one-question exams, you’d have 45 minutes
for the exam and 5 minutes to submit.
It turns out that you have 50 minutes total.
So you can take a teensy bit longer to write as long as you submit within the 50 minutes.
But friends, I would strongly advise against pushing the limit.
If you don’t submit, you won’t get credit.
It’s better to submit an incomplete answer than no answer at all.
For some two-question exams, you’ll have 30 minutes for the first question and 20 minutes
for the second.
That’s total.
So, 30 minutes to write and submit your first answer—and then 20 minutes to write and
submit your second answer.
You cannot borrow time from one question to give to the other.
If you complete and submit the first question in a breezy 25 minutes, you will see a timer
counting down those remaining 5 minutes until your second question begins.
It won’t start earlier just because you finished your first question earlier!
So here’s my advice about timing: Use as much of your time as you need to create strong
answers—but not a moment more because you must submit your work for it to count.
Now, let’s talk about the different ways you can submit your exam.
Remember that no matter how you submit, make sure that you include your AP ID and your
initials at the top of each page of your answer.
(If you’re copying and pasting your answer, you only need to include that information
once, at the very top.)
You can attach 1 text file, you can attach up to 5 photos, or you can copy and paste
your answer directly into the exam application.
When you’ve completed the question, you’ll have 2 options: Attach Response and Paste
Response.
If you choose to paste, keep in mind that your formatting (bolded letters, spacing,
and so forth) will appear when you paste.
But here’s the thing: You cannot type within the text field at all.
So if you paste a response and then realize you’ve forgotten to add your AP ID and initials
at the top, you’ll have to go back to your original application and add your AP ID and
initials, then return to the AP application, click “Clear Field,” and then re-paste
everything.
Then of course when you’re done, you’ll need to click “Submit.”
Now, if you’re planning to submit photos of your work, and you’re planning to take
those photos with your phone, keep in mind that you will need to submit the photos on
the device where you’ve launched your AP exam.
If you’ve logged in on your computer, then you’ll need to send the photos to your computer
so that you can attach and submit from there.
If you’re taking a world language exam, then on exam day things will work a bit differently
for you: You’ll click a button to connect to the AP World Languages Exam App, where
you’ll hear exam questions and record your responses.
And, if you’re taking AP Music Theory, you get to record your sight singing question
and take pictures of and upload your 4-part harmony question.
You’ll have the most multimedia exam experience of all.
Regardless of how you submit your exam, the message I hope all of you watching this will
take away is this: The more you can demystify the process of taking the AP exams, the more
you’ll be able to focus on what you know best—the AP content.
You’re going to be great!
Please leave us a comment if you have any questions, and subscribe to our channel for
all the latest updates.
We’ll see you back here tomorrow.