Students may have to retake AP exams due to technical glitch

LAKE MARY, Fla. - Some students have experienced issues submitting Advanced Placement exam responses after the exams had to be administered virtually.

One of those students, Sophomore Sydney Zulywitz, said she tried submitting one of her responses several times before time allotted for her AP Art History exam question ran out. She recorded a video showing her full response, while she tried several times to click the submit button with no result.

"When it said the time was up, and it said we didn't get your response, I started crying too hard," she said. "It does hurt because that was my one that I thought I did the best on. It was the best-written response I had done all year."

Now, Zulywitz is waiting to see whether she will have to partially retake the exam or retake it fully, since the system did allow her to submit one of her responses.

According to The College Board, this has happened to several other students as well. So far, 3.5 million students have taken AP exams, and of those, less than 1% have had issues submitting exam responses. 

In a statement, The College Board said:

"We share the deep disappointment of students who were unable to submit responses. Beginning Monday, May 18, and continuing through the makeup window, there is a backup email submission process for browser-based exams.

"This option will only be available for students who were not able to submit in the standard process—and they must then email their responses immediately following their exam.

"These students will see instructions about how to email their response on the page that says, 'We Did Not Receive Your Response.' The email address that appears on this page will be unique to each student.

"Any student testing between May 18–22 who can't successfully upload their response through the exam platform or send it to us by email, will need to request a makeup exam."

Unfortunately, students like Zulywitz who took exams before the fix will have to retake exams in June.

"The format of [make-up] exams will be identical to the format being used this week. Students will not be shown questions which they may have seen during the current exam administration," the College Board said in a statement.