With AP exam season in full swing, students taking world language tests may finally experience relief from longstanding audio and acoustic issues due to the new testing setup. This year, AP coordinators have moved world language exams out of Ayers Gym and into smaller portable classrooms in an effort to improve sound quality and reduce distractions. Previously, when students took AP exams in Ayers Gym, the space was loud and lacked a quality sound system, leading to frequent complaints about background noise and difficulty with the audio and speaking portions of the exams.
These changes come after years of complaints from both students and teachers. “If they were given a better environment, they would do a lot better than they’ve done in the past. It would also limit anxiety, disruptions with the audio, the movement, and improvisation in the middle of the exam. All of these things can be avoided,” Spanish teacher Angelica Rodriguez said.
Most AP world language exams include a conversation section where students listen to audio prompts and record their responses. During this portion of the test, missing a single question by not answering appropriately to the prompt or by not answering at all, eliminates the possibility of earning a score of 5 on the overall AP test. “The way they grade the AP is that there are five questions that you need to respond to. If you miss one, you can’t get a 5. You can’t get full credit for that section anymore,” Rodriguez added.
For most AP exams, students previously tested in the small gym, where sound echoes off the high ceiling and walls, leading to a high volume of complaints. “The acoustics are really bad, and they have a really hard time understanding the audio,” Rodriguez said. “The AP audios are also not very clear.”
During the AP Spanish test, many students reported issues with the audio portion. “It was difficult to hear yourself during the conversation because everyone was talking at the same time,” sophomore Sebastian Weiner said.
In addition to the challenges of speaking over one another, students also struggled to hear the audio prompts clearly. “All of us had to sit around the speaker to hear it, and even then, it was static-y and you couldn’t really hear anything,” senior Kendra Mancia said.
Other students shared similar experiences, expressing frustrations with the poor sound quality and limited audibility. “Everybody was around the little square where the audio was coming out because you just couldn’t hear it,” senior Giselle Martinez said. “Even if they put up [the volume], no one could hear.”
Most M-A AP world language exams follow the same testing format and face similar issues. “The recording part of the AP French test was the most difficult because everyone was talking in the same room, and there was just a lot of noise,” sophomore Paul Gady said. “It was hard to focus.”
Due to these complaints, AP coordinators have implemented new arrangements this year, by administering the exams in the portables, an environment experimented with last year that received little to no criticism. “There was a smaller group that took the exam in one of the portables, and they did not really report any complaints,” Rodriguez said. Students will be split up into smaller groups to ensure a better testing experience and reduce overall stress.
Rodriguez also shared past efforts to bring these concerns to department meetings and administration, but no permanent action was taken. “Some students were in tears because the bell rang during the exam, and they couldn’t hear some of the questions. They were really frustrated. I reported it because people were very distraught,” she said.
The poor audio quality and quietness of the recordings, combined with the few speakers, gave an advantage to students in the front of the gym. “The students in the back were complaining that they couldn’t hear, so during the audio, they moved to the front, but [the proctors] did not pause the audio,” Rodriguez said. In trying to fix the problem mid-exam, more distractions were created. “The few students who moved created noise, which also interrupted and interfered with the other students,” she added.
“They need to fix these testing conditions because they seriously interfere with some people’s test-taking abilities,” Gady said.
AP coordinators are monitoring the effectiveness of these new adjustments to determine whether the changes can serve as a long-term solution and be permanently enforced.
