Although Diamond Bar High School is still in the middle of  AP testing, many students are still unsure about the logistics of testing and other details one would think should already be common knowledge. 

First off, it has been unclear what classes students are excused from or if they are even excused at all. Personally, some of my teachers stated that they were aware of certain upcoming AP tests and how that would result in lower attendance numbers.

 However, for other teachers, the topic of AP testing was not mentioned at all and they, instead, carried on class as usual or sometimes needed to be informed by students. With these students already juggling classes and cramming for upcoming exams, the one thing they shouldn’t have been worrying about were minute problems like attendance.

Past the issue of simply worrying students, teachers not knowing exact dates of AP tests could have caused potential problems with scheduling. For example, it would be easy for a teacher to accidently schedule a test, presentation, or even worse, a final on the day of an AP exam.

Both these problems could easily have been solved by issuing an email to all teachers and staff that included dates well before AP season began. These teachers could have set up a Google form for students to fill out and submit, making attendance easier for teachers and, subsequently, making student’s lives a bit easier.

One could argue that it is just as easy for students to email all of their teachers, but the school should have prepared a more centralized system for the AP test schedules instead of giving more responsibilities to the students.

The issues do not stop there; there have been many technical problems regarding AP tests, ranging from simple ones involving the lockdown browser to ones that involve scheduling for the exam itself.

Many students have tried to cancel and get refunds for an AP test they signed up for early on, but ended up facing week- or month-long delays before receiving any kind of response. Considering the importance of AP tests, it’s something that should be addressed very quickly—not ignored and put on the backburner.

Adding on to technical problems, some students have apparently heard rumors of being able to switch between the options of taking the AP test online or in-seat. It was never actually clarified if, once you made the decision to take a test, if you could switch to the other test-taking option.

Some students ended up having to email their teachers—last minute— inquiring about the ability to switch from online to in-seat or vice-versa. So far, out of the stories I’ve heard, these students received indefinite answers from teachers saying they were either unsure or that they’d have to double-check. 

Overall, AP testing this year was definitely chaotic and poorly planned as important information was left unknown to both teachers and students.