A glitch with Bluebook logins prevented AP Psychology students nationwide from taking the exam earlier today. To address the situation and mitigate stress, College Board offered a makeup test on Friday afternoon, May 23. This date, however, conflicts with second-period finals and falls on the last day of school for seniors.

On Friday night, College Board announced that it had created a second re-testing option for AP Psychology students last night for Wednesday May 21.

For junior AP Psychology student Cadha Proctor, the delayed exam came as an unpleasant shock. Proctor works as a lifeguard, and the rescheduled exam forced her to cancel one of her shifts on Friday during her off period.

“Last weekend, I cancelled plans with my boyfriend and a 10-hour shift at work to study for the AP Psychology exam,” Proctor said. “I even studied in Mr. Winter’s room for the exam. I had AP U.S. History last Friday, and I just wanted to get this exam out of the way.”

According to Proctor, about 50-60 of her fellow students had their tests cancelled.

“We were supposed to start the exam at 12”, Proctor said. “Initially, it was supposed to be in the small gym, but then they moved us to the library. Then, we were told we had to be quiet because some students were still testing from the previous exam. It’s been so disorganized. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

After students had been waiting for 30 minutes and no indication when or if the College Board would come back online, campus officials decided not to administer the test.

“Ms. Gorzell came to me saying that the College Board Bluebook was down and had been down for a while,” Baxa said. “College Board was uncertain when they would restore service to their online platform. Ms. Gorzell and I made the decision to call it based on the uncertainty of the situation.”

Baxa said that the school decided not to test so that the kids did not have to wait indefinitely and to allow them to attend their afternoon classes.

The College Board announced that because of the glitch it was extending the start time for the test to 2 p.m., but that information was not known when the school decided not to administer the test.

Junior Iris LaRue, who was scheduled to take the test, said that many of her friends at LASA were able to take the exam without their scores being cancelled because they waited long enough for the technology to function. The situation was reminiscent of a statewide technology outage that delayed the STAAR test when it went digital in 2021. In that instance as in the one today, some schools and some districts opted to cancel the test and some opted to wait it out until the testing service went back online.

“I’m so disappointed because I studied all week leading up to the exam,” LaRue said. “I felt so confident on the morning of the exam. Then I opened Bluebook and tried to sign in, and a little error message popped up, saying I couldn’t log in. No one around me could, and the whole experience was so anxiety-inducing. I really don’t want to have to study for the exam all over again. I have an off period during second period on Friday, luckily enough, but what about the students who have to plan for a final and an AP exam at the same time? They can’t be in two places at once.”

Proctor and LaRue’s AP Psychology teacher, Clifford Stanchos, who also teaches AP U.S. History and did not administer the exam, said there were pros and cons to using the new digital format, and that the glitch was a natural consequence of exploring uncharted territory.

“Digital exams make sense budget-wise and logistics-wise,” Stanchos said. “Now, teachers can grade them from home and get paid for it, instead of having to carve out time in their summer to fly to a location to grade them. Still, there’s always a risk this will happen.”

Stanchos doesn’t entirely disagree with how College Board has handled the situation, but he does recognize how inconvenient it is for his students. He also expressed concern that being forced to retest may affect student performance on the exam.

“I’m not disappointed in College Board, but I do wish they would have more flexibility, especially since our final exams are already scheduled,” Stanchos said. “I’m disappointed in the situation. My students were really upset. They were thrown for a loop, and it’s just not ideal to retest. Several students said ‘I just spent so much time studying,’ so it diminishes their resolve to continue. For the students who weren’t prepared, I’m sure they’re happy to have extra time to prepare, but for the students who were, it’s a mental jolt.”

Baxa’s plan is to send out a weekend update to the faculty, students and parents, as well as a separate email to faculty detailing how to proceed. According to Baxa, there’s no way to avoid testing during Finals Week, since College Board exclusively schedules retakes and McCallum has no input.

“When technology breaks, the problem is that there’s no analog test to fall back on,” Baxa said. “They don’t even print test booklets anymore, so we can’t say, ‘Let’s do this old school’ and move forward. The biggest reassurance we need to give students is to offer sincere condolences and say we’re sorry for how the situation turned out. But I can’t give them the assurances they want. I can’t cancel one of their final exams. For College Board, they have to give us one time to issue a makeup exam, so there’s nothing we can do.”

UPDATE: For students opting the May 21 testing date, the test would start at 8 a.m. Students would report for the test at 7:30 a.m. Student opting for the original May 23 retest date would report to the testing room by 11:45 a.m. and the test would start at noon.

“I feel like all juniors should take advantage of the new makeup date on May 21,” Baxa said. “This would allow them to avoid three major exams in one day. Seniors have two options to consider and should pick the one that fits their schedule best.”