IB/AP Tests

AP tests are now only proctored at home. IB tests have been cancelled completely. What does this mean for testers? To be perfectly frank, no one really knows what this means for college admissions.

I go to an IB school, and will be taking one AP test (AP statistics) at the end of May. For my IB classes, all they are using for my scores are my IA (Internal Assessment) and the predicted grade my teacher sends in. This is concerning for two reasons: some people may have not put maximum effort into their IA's, hoping that they would make it up with their written test and sometimes predicted grades can be hard for teachers if they feel like they haven't gotten a good enough feel of your classwork during the year. I know people (including myself) that have suffered from one or both of these reasons. I had to do my Mandarin IA over Zoom call! To others that had to do this, I feel that the ethics become confused. Cheating becomes a thousand times easier, and IB specifically does not want your camera to be on (only audio) when recording the actual speaking portion of it.

The same problem exists on AP tests that will be taken at home. I've heard multiple rumors as to how the College Board will be monitoring you to make sure you don't cheat, but I'm rather sure that the rumors aren't true.

So what does all this mean for college admissions for juniors? As I said above, I'm not really sure. I'm sure that different colleges will take different approaches. I believe that AP and IB tests taken this year will not be looked at as much, and GPA before COVID-19 will be looked at more. (But this is simply my opinion.)