All of the 2025 AP exams are going to be administered digitally instead of the traditional paper tests. This is not just limited to AP testing either. The SAT and PSAT have become digital in recent years, as well. At surface value, there are many positives that can be taken away as this helps reduce the single use waste that is common with paper testing and can even be more cost effective for schools to administer. However, as you take a deeper look into the impacts that digital exams can have on a student, the division between the pros and cons becomes hazy.
Laptops, phones, tablets, and even some forms of lightbulbs produce blue light. Long exposure to blue light can cause a person to strain their eyes, making it harder for them to focus on what they are actually doing on their screen. Eye strain can cause your vision to blur or unfocus, can make you feel tired, and can even cause headaches. A study posted by the National Institute of Health claims, “because of blue light’s short wavelength, the focus is not located in the center of the retina but rather in the front of the retina, so that the long exposure time to blue light causes a worsening of visual fatigue and nearsightedness.” Digital testing requires students to intensely stare at their screen for hours on end. They must read passages upon passages for some subjects. With eye strain being a risk, it makes it harder for students to properly comprehend the material in the way that is necessary for them to succeed.
I am a student with astigmatism and have had it since birth. As the switch to screens has been made countless times in my classrooms I find it hard to focus on digital readings, especially in my English and History classes as we are meant to immerse ourselves into the larger and broader meanings of the documents provided to us.
My condition distorts my perception of light, many times appearing blurry or streaky, especially if my glasses are just slightly askew. When given digital assignments it feels as if I’m spending more time cleaning and adjusting my glasses to make sure I can read the documents than actually reading and processing what I am supposed to be reading. This can be detrimental to my grade even though I may be able to understand the material perfectly if it were given to me on paper.
I am scheduled to take the AP U.S. History Exam and the AP Language and Composition Exam in May, which are both going to be digital, and I am fearful that I may get a lower score than I necessarily deserve due to my inability to properly read and understand the documents I’ll be presented with.
Not only is the rise of digital technology in the classroom and testing impacting the physical health of students but it is stripping them of life skills that are necessary for their futures, namely handwriting. As typing has become the norm, handwriting and penmanship is not as focused on.
While it is true that handwriting is still taught to children, it’s not taken as seriously as the need for typing rises. This phenomenon will only continue to worsen as classrooms become more and more digital. The Lexicon Reading Center explains that, “one of the biggest reasons that handwriting is beneficial overall is that it helps develop student’s fine motor skills in the hands and arms.” As students are being moved to focus on typing, they are losing out on motor skills that apply to much more than just handwriting.
Classes becoming more digital leads to digital testing, even classes that have stuck by their traditional methods are being forced to go digital as well leaving behind writing by hand.
Digital testing also strips away some of the testing and reading techniques children are taught, a big one being annotating. Annotations can help greatly in all the subjects, whether it’s breaking down an excerpt or a complicated word problem. Digital exams can strip that away.
Growing up, my peers and I were taught to always annotate even if it didn’t seem entirely necessary for some passages. This was done to help guide us through a text we found difficult or a question that wasn’t clear enough for us to confidently answer. But the lack of a pen or pencil to a piece of paper takes away this skill we’ve learned and the students who are reliant on it are impacted the most as they are forced to disregard a skill they have kept close to them for years. Not only could this impact student performance but it could also impact their mental health as they watch themselves get lower scores than usual.
Moving towards digital testing can be a positive move as it can be more cost effective and be better for the environment because it produces less waste. However, it can inadvertently harm students who don’t do well digitally. Digital testing should not be thrown away entirely for it does actually help some students and the environment but it should not be mandatory. A student should be able to choose if they take a test in a digital or paper form to ensure that the best is brought out of them and their score truly reflects the student’s thought process during a test.
