According to the National Institute of Health, 25-40 percent  of students in the United States suffer from test-taking anxiety. Multiple students in Heather Eckels Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) course say taking tests online make tests less stressful. AP tests are being taken virtually for some classes this school year.

AP English Literature and Composition, AP European History, AP United States History, AP Computer Science Principles and AP English Language and Composition tests will be offered virtually this year. 

“All of those tests come into this office and when you have all those printed materials and tests coming in and tests going out, it becomes really confusing. So I decided, talking with Mr. Neely, that it would be a good idea to take advantage of those five tests that we could offer digitally in that mode,” assistant principal Keri Harrington said. 

Eckels is in support of having the test online because she believes the writing section will be easier.

“I hope that in the future, they all are pushed to the digital format for tests. The reason being typing is the new cursive handwriting. We don’t teach cursive anymore, but we do teach typing. I think it’s a lot faster to type something than to hand write it,” Eckels said. 

Eckels believes typing is much faster than handwriting, so the students will have more time to focus on what they are saying, rather than trying to write fast. 

“For a timed test, you want students to be able to maximize their time as best as they possibly can, and typing is a good way of doing that. Also, we have students who may not have the best handwriting. It makes it easier on the people who were actually grading the written portion as well. This makes it so the test graders can actually read it right instead of guessing because that cuts down on the time it takes to grade them as well,” Eckels said. 

Every major test Eckels has taken has been online, so she believes it would hurt students if they take these tests on paper. 

“We live in the twenty-first century and the world is digital. I think that it may put students at a disadvantage to have it to continue to have it on paper because it’s an archaic form. We need to be pushing you into the twenty-first century as much as possible,” Eckels said. 

Eckels also believes that taking tests online is good because you can get your scores back faster. Eckels’ student sophomore Caleb Gibson will be taking his first AP test online. 

“In my classes, we do most stuff online, so it’s just what I’ve gotten used to. I think I will do better on the test if it’s online because I’ve gotten accustomed to typing. When practicing for the writing portion of the AP test, I have written on paper and on my Chromebook, and typing on the chromebook was much easier, ” Gibson said. 

Harrington is unsure if the tests will continue to be virtual in the future. 

“I just think it’s a nice opportunity for kids to just submit their work knowing that it got there on the day of the exam.Streamlines the process for us a little bit,” Harrington said.