by 
Well, there’s this tweet on Trevor Packer’s Twitter account that says, “We just canceled the AP exam registration of some students here. They are the ones planning to cheat in the coming AP exam, and we are investigating others. Having your name reported to college admissions offices is not worth the risk.”
Trevor Packer is the one managing the AP program at the College Board. If he says students are planning to cheat in the AP exam, he must have heard something. That’s like confirmation that people plan to cheat. So, if you’re thinking of cheating in your AP exam, once again, you’re not alone.
Looking at Trevor Packer’s tweet, many people consider it to be a baseless threat and that those who want to cheat will go ahead to do it, probably unnoticed. Checking through the reply session of the tweet gives you different people’s opinions about cheating and what they think of the tweet itself.
But, the ultimate question to ask now is; what if you plan to cheat? How can you do it? Are there easy ways to go about cheating unnoticed? Can the College Board detect AP exam cheating? What if you were caught, are there consequences?
Let’s try to provide answers to these questions and more in the following paragraphs of this article. So, if you want some tips and answers, continue reading.
5 Ways How To Cheat on an AP Exam
Cheating in exams is not a modern-day concept. The belief is that cheating is as old as the concept of an examination. So, we can conclude that n examinee might cheat if there is an exam to take. Though not everyone feels cool with the idea of cheating, many people don’t mind.
Some consider it a form of goodwill to help someone taking an exam with one, two, or more answers so far they need help. Some advocate for a change in the assessment system, claiming that recall exams are not the best ways to assess a person’s ability.
Honestly, the schools of thought are numerous. The bottom line is that; people find different justifications for cheating in an exam.
For those bent on cheating in exams, how do they do it? Seeing things have evolved, even in that aspect, what are some methods to cheating in our modern society? Check out the following tips;
1. Write on yourself
Ok, this method is basic, but many students have tried it out, and it seems to work. You could write something on yourself and check them out during the in-person version of the exam. We learned that students ask to go on a bathroom break to check out answers to questions from what they have written.
However, this year, the write-on-yourself method won’t work because the College Board has shortened exam time to only 45 minutes instead of three hours. You would not want to spend most of this time going and returning from the restroom to check answers to questions. So, consider other methods!
2. Collaborate with the intelligent student in your school
You could also collaborate with the intelligent student in your school and discuss some signals to communicate the answer to you. We have cases of students agreeing on signals like the smart one hitting the table once to indicate the answer as A, twice for B, thrice for C, etc.
But, this method won’t work this time around because the exam is digital-based, and you can’t plan how you sit. You might not sit next to the intelligent student, and even if you do, they probably will be too focused on beating the time while you’ll be stuck at one question waiting for an answer because once you go past a question, you can’t go back to it anymore.
3. Infiltrate the Exam HQ
For this one, you’ll have to figure out where the College Board and the AP exam provider have their Headquarters so that you can break in and have a look at the questions before you sit for them. Do we still need to tell you that method is practically impossible? Unless you have some unique ability like a secret Mission Impossible agent, look for other methods.
4. Hack into the exam provider computer
You also need special skills to pull up with this method. Maybe you can break through firewalls because you’re good with computers. Then, you can consider this option of breaking into the exam provider’s computer to gain access to the question beforehand and then memorize them. But your success rate is probably zero to none! You’ll have to strategize other means!
5. Take Advantage of Time Zones
The west coast of the United States and the east coast have different time zones. Because of the difference, those on the east coast would typically finish the exam before the west coast. So, those on the west coast could put a call through to communicate with someone on the other side and then google the answers.
However, it’s not going to work like that this time. Everyone would be taking the exam altogether, at the same time. That means some people would spend the early hours of the day writing exams—as early as 1 in the morning, in some states.
We could go on and give other ideas or tips on how those who cheat have done it. But, due to the change in the College Board strategy this year, these methods have become obsolete. There is always one or more reasons why they won’t work this time around.
Why not just spend quality time doing some good studying? Make use of the available materials and learn the best answers to questions.
It is funny how people go the extra mile to find cheating methods, get themselves into cheating scandals, and try to clear their names afterward. They could have invested that time studying—the most profitable way to spend the time!
Caught Cheating on AP Exam
Let’s look at the possibility of AP test cheating. When you look at the format for this year’s AP exam, the first impression would be that it’s easy to cheat in this exam. If that’s what you think, no problem, we’ll look into that shortly. First, let’s examine what we know about the exam so far.
AP exams this year will be in person and at home. It will also be in digital or pencil and paper form. The pencil and paper format is only for those taking the exam in school. However, the digital format can be taken in school or at home.
Now, if I’m taking the exam in the comfort of my home, isn’t that a license to cheat? From what we hear, the College Board has designed the exam with some features that prevent cheating.
What are some of the features, and how effective can they be?
- You can only take the digital format on a computer and not a smartphone or even a tablet.
- Your computer has to have a camera either built into it or attached to it. That’s because your photograph is going to be taken at the beginning of the exam.
- They’ve changed the digital exam format. You’ll have more multiple-choice questions than free-response questions and will not include questions that can be answered with textbooks, internet searches, study guides, etc. For exams that require a response, for example, the language or foreign language exams, you will not be able to take them digitally, only through pencil and paper format and in school. That way, you won’t be able to consult online searches, dictionaries, etc.
- Also, you won’t be able to go back and forth between questions. Once you complete a set of questions, you can’t go back to it anymore or change your answer afterward.
- As mentioned earlier, there’s a synchronous start time for digital exams all around the world. Regardless of what time it is in your part of the world, once that starts at noon EST, you’ll join, though that could mean taking it at 1 am for some people.
Time will fail us to mention all the College Board’s security features to curb people trying to cheat AP this year. If I were you, I’d drop the cheating idea right now and start preparing for my exams like I should. It’s almost impossible to cheat the system in place now.
AP Test Cheating Consequences
The Senior Vice President of the College Board tweeted some time ago about the cancellation of student’s registration for those caught planning how to cheat on an AP exam. The tweet generated a lot of controversies. However, it made it evident that there are consequences for cheating on the AP exam.
Though the Vice President didn’t specify how they found it, he mentioned that investigation is ongoing, and they are searching for more students planning the same. According to information on the College Board website, answers will be reviewed with;
- Plagiarism detection software
- Post-exam analyses to identify collaboration or use of unauthorized aids
To cap it all, violation of exam rules will result in score cancellation and additional consequences as warranted for either paper or digital exams.
What additional consequences? No one can tell, but CB says there will be additional consequences. Guess that’s left for the cheaters to find out.
Best Hacks for AP Exams
The best hack AP for this year is to study using available materials reasonably. Here are tips on how to prepare;
- Take advantage of free resources,
- Familiarize yourself with the test format,
- Study selectively,
- Create a personalized schedule, and
- Vary your review methods.
There are no two ways to perform better in your AP exam, as cheating on the exam should not be an option. Take the necessary steps and perform excellently as expected of you.
Can AP Classroom Detect Cheating?
This question has no straightforward answer. If what you seek to know is if there will be cameras installed in classrooms, especially for those who are taking the in-person, pencil, and paper format, the answer is NO. Though there are rumors that the College Board will do something, there is no data to confirm this claim.
However, there will be supervisors at school locations, and in every classroom, the exam will be taking place to monitor student’s activities. So, based on this information, we can say YES AP exam classroom will detect cheating through the exam supervisors and not the use of cameras.
Conclusion
Cheating is a form of cheating yourself. That’s because exams are there, not to dig your pit of failure, but to check your understanding of knowledge passed before you move on to acquire a much higher knowledge.
If you cheat your way through the AP exam, you would have created more problems for yourself. When you need the prerequisite knowledge the AP exam is designed to test, you won’t have it.
