AP Exams Invalidated Because Test Proctors Did Not Follow the Rules

17Jul
by Leticia Chavez-Garcia

More than 500 Scripps Ranch High School (San Diego) students who recently “sat” for AP exams just learned that they “sat” in the wrong seats resulting in the students needing to retest. Officials in San Diego were notified that students would need to return to school to take the AP exams over again as the Advanced Placement tests originally taken were invalidated. In fact, 847 students were informed that their test were invalidated by the College Board (the entity that oversees the AP testing) due to students not sitting in the correct seats. Of those 847, 540 students will retake the exams.  

Taking AP exams can be very stressful for students as well as expensive. It costs about $93 per exam.  It takes several months to prepare and study.  The College Board is not requiring a renewed fee to retake the test, and the students are not accused of cheating.  The seating rules apparently changed two years ago, which require students to sit at least 5 feet apart and seated at 8 foot tables.      

“First of all, the distance the students were seated should’ve been an 8-foot table and instead it was a 6-foot table,” Kevin Beiser, of the San Diego Unified School District, said last week. “And to make sure there were no opportunities for student cheating there was a divider put in between so the students could not see each other’s work.”

Parents and students were rightly upset by the snafu. However, the students will be retesting, and hopefully all will end well.  We hope that in the future, the rules will be carefully followed so that students do not have to go through this unnecessary stress. In the meantime, whoever coordinated the testing should probably be held accountable.

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Leticia Chavez-Garcia

Leticia Chavez-Garcia is a Mother, Grandmother, former Middle School Teacher, former Member of a School Board of Education and an Education Advocate for hundreds of parents and students in the Inland Empire. Having become a mother at 15, Leticia knows what it’s like to be a single mother trying to navigate the education system. Leticia received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science and Public Administration from California Baptist University and a Masters’ Degree in Education Technology from Cal State Fullerton in her 30’s. Leticia has used her knowledge and experience to help hundreds of families as an Education Advocate in the Inland Empire and currently works as an Education Specialist.

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