Over the years, technology has become increasingly prevalent in schools, causing Advanced Placement exams and other standardized tests to be converted to digital exams. A once paper-driven classroom is now almost completely online, making teachers weary of the future of their classes.

PSAT, SAT, and AP Exams

Since March of 2023, the College Board has been offering both the PSAT and SAT in a computerized form with the goal of expediting both the test taking process and grading procedure. On October 23, Venice will administer the PSAT test for all 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students.

Testing Coordinator John Bruno greatly supports digital testing, praising it for its simplicity.

“Digital exams are the way to go,” said Bruno. “If we had to actually have physical tests and had to sort out the ninth and tenth graders, and at the end of the test we had to collect all the books and count all the books…it’s way better that it’s digital.”

Additionally, with the introduction of digital testing, students’ scores are provided faster, and teachers proctoring the exam will only have to be given special training. 

Lastly, the transition of AP testing becoming digitized has been a huge change in the academic world.

Since May of 2024, there have been talks of the College Board shifting from paper to screens when nine courses were put on computers, including AP U.S. History, AP English Language and Composition, and AP Computer Science Principles, but now, most AP exams are officially online.

The main goals of these changes are to increase speed and efficiency of the testing process, along with paper conservation.

“Everyone wants to save money in school,” said Bruno. “Since there is nothing for College Board to ship, we will save a lot of time and money.”

Many computer science, literature studies, and history exams have shifted to being fully digital, with the majority of science and math exams becoming hybridized. Hybridized exams are nearly identical to fully digital exams, except free-response answers go on paper as students would otherwise be unable to write the complex notations of subjects like physics, chemistry, or calculus.

Reactions at Venice have been mixed between both teachers and students, similar to reactions of other digitized tests like i-Ready. Several AP teachers have already expressed their approval, reiterating they will enjoy the efficiency of computers.

“I think for the AP Computer Science exam, it makes a lot of sense,” said AP Computer Science teacher Sue Oh. “Writing it on paper makes really good practice to be careful, but typing it on a computer is more similar to what they’ll be experiencing if they decide to pursue this as a career.”

I-Ready

Another major change to testing has been the integration of i-Ready, a digitized standardized testing platform that was first implemented by Venice in September of 2023.

The platform requires students to complete three diagnostics throughout each school year, which can cause conflict in teachers’ schedules as they have to alter their deadlines to acknowledge the time sucked up by testing.

Freshman Parker Weene doesn’t find digitized testing helpful.

“I don’t think this online test accurately measures your capabilities, and the i-Ready lessons are even worse,” he said. “Its system only reviews the same information that it’s been teaching for years, and the algorithm doesn’t allow us to actually learn or consume new information. I know it won’t prepare me for future tests.”

However, online testing seems to be the future of our society. 

English teacher Mark Gudani is constantly adapting to a paperless classroom. 

“The thing with testing is there’s always going to be some way, shape or form that you’re going to be tested,” he said. “So if it’s not i-Ready, it’s just going to be something else.”

Gudani said that technology counters our ability to think critically for ourselves.

“When we have tools to just ask questions and get answers, we’re gonna be less capable of coming to those answers ourselves, which is kind of what makes us humans–to be able to discover those answers for ourselves.”