April 1, 2021

Hi, 

Advance Placement (AP) exams start in May this year. If you work in a school or district that offers AP courses, please share the message in this Google document with AP teachers, AP coordinators, and others who should know. Let’s make sure they are aware of LearningExpress Library / PrepSTEP’s AP test preparation materials so they can tell their students. 

The message is written for educators, but if you share information directly with students, it wouldn’t take much to modify it for them. Maybe just remove the “Getting back to PrepSTEP” and “For staff (not students)” paragraphs, and change the last line about questions and help.   

Thanks for your help! 

Jen

Update on 4/2/21

Hi,

A high school librarian reached out to me with this inquiry: 

How well will the LEL/PrepSTEP AP prep materials and practice tests match this year's remote versions of the actual AP tests? Is there actually any difference in this year's test approach that would cause a tester problems if they use the current LEL AP test preparation materials? If the only real change to the tests is the medium (on-line vs in-person) that will probably be okay, but I think people here are wondering if it may go beyond that. There's a lot of "abundance of caution" about this year's AP tests right now! 

I contacted our rep at EBSCO/LearningExpress, and this is his reply: 

According to our content manager the AP exams will not change if they are administered online compared to paper test. See the response:

Good question! According to CollegeBoard: “Digital AP Exams will be as long as paper and pencil exams and test the same knowledge and skills. Most exams have multiple-choice and free-response sections. You won’t need to study or prepare differently to be successful on a digital exam.” 

If anything, the fact that our practice tests are delivered online might be an advantage for students taking the digital APs, helping to familiarize them with taking the tests in a digital environment as opposed to the traditional paper and pencil.

The College Board’s AP webpage has information about this year’s tests and schedule. 

FYI, in case teachers ask. 

Thanks,

Jen

Jen Maurer
School Library Consultant
State Library of Oregon