Students Take AP Exams… In the Squash Courts
By Fiona Burton ‘23
From May to mid-June, Greens Farms Academy students took AP exams. Though the exams looked slightly different this year because of the pandemic - students took the exams socially distanced in the squash courts - Ms. Jennifer Shairer, GFA Testing Coordinator for the College Guidance Office, successfully organized the exams to ensure that students still had the same opportunities as they would have pre-pandemic. The planning process for the exams began in the fall and continued throughout the school year. It was particularly challenging this year to find spaces for students to take the exams in large numbers.
Besides the pandemic, the other major shift for AP exams this year was the switch to a digital format. “AP exams are different this year, with the launch of a totally new digital AP exam app,” stated Shairer, “digital exams should run more smoothly this year than they did last year. One major difference is students will not be uploading pictures of their work, they will be submitting everything directly through the exam app. Also, not all exams are offered in a digital format. World language and math exams are only available in the traditional paper and pencil format.”
In recent years, GFA has taken strides to move beyond the AP and engage students in classes at a higher level. “While we don’t have APs, we certainly have courses where you can take the AP [exam]. But on that level, if we think about a 100 to an 850, an AP, an advanced course, would be a 650.” said Justine Fellows, Assistant Head of Upper School. Students taking courses equivalent to an AP course are eligible to take the AP exams.
The rotation schedule, adopted in the 2020-2021 school year to keep GFA students and faculty safe from COVID-19, posed a challenge for certain exams. “Those who completed the course in rotation three, that’s a little challenging because they've been going for a couple of months without exposure to the language, although, we highly encourage them to expose themselves as much as possible to the language, either by looking at videos or reading authentic sources from each language, so hopefully they've been doing that.” said Yensen Lambert, GFA World Language Department Chair who teaches AP spanish. The three teachers of AP language classes also held review sessions the week before the exam.
“We won’t know the impacts of the rotations on the exams until we get the scores, but I can tell you that I'm feeling pretty confident about my students, I think they’re prepared…” continued Lambert.
As of May 14th, 325 AP exams were running for 169 students. Each student took 1-3 exams. “College board has a temporary policy due to Covid that will allow students to opt out at any time without a penalty, and that’s never happened before… in a normal year, we usually run about 400, so it is a decrease, not a ginormous one at the moment, but it’s fluid so it could still change.” said Shairer.
