AP Psychology: The Psychological Toll of the Test Crash

The Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology exam was originally scheduled for May 16, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. Rows of hundreds of students sat at tiny, cramped desks in an air-conditioned gymnasium, with Chromebooks open on their desks instead of paper booklets and sticker label sheets. The pre-test anxiety was palpable throughout the room—a feeling of stress that culminated when the starting time passed and no one could log on to the test. It was soon discovered that this wasn’t just an isolated incident, but a nationwide server malfunction beyond the control of the school. What began as a brief moment of panic and stress stretched into a two-hour period of confused waiting, leaving students questioning what had happened and what this would mean for the future of online AP testing.

When students tried to log into Bluebook, the app used for all digital AP exams, it appeared to have crashed, leaving students confused and scared. Junior Sophia Huang shared, “At first, I was confused and thought I forgot my password. I looked around, and the people around me had the same issue.” This technical difficulty turned into a long wait, causing further stress to test takers as their time was wasted. “I was bored, for the most part. Toward the two-hour mark, I was anxious that we would have the exam delayed to the next week or possibly next year,” Huang recounted. “Most people around me started talking to do some more last-minute studying. Some people started writing down notes from their memory onto the piece of scrap paper we were given. Some people doodled, as did I, and one guy in my row started browsing the internet.”

Ultimately, the exam did end up being administered at Stuyvesant despite the two-hour delay. The exam delay negatively impacted many test takers. “The long break made me tired and hungry. I was more invested in doodling and going home than stressing about the exam,” Huang explained. Not only did the delay end up negatively affecting how test takers felt about the exam, but it also caused some students major inconveniences after the exam. 

As a result of these woes, some students felt that it was unfair for Stuyvesant to still administer the AP Psychology exam, as other schools in the nation postponed the test for May 23. “I heard from other schools that their exam was postponed, but the Stuy administration decided to make students stay overtime instead, which I think was not the best choice,” junior Sofia Kupstova shared. This decision granted students in other schools more time to study for the test. 

Other test takers had more similar reactions. “The test crash was a bit frustrating at first. I was very hungry and the gym was super cold and humid,” junior Luxi Zuo said. However, despite the unfavorable circumstances, students acknowledged that there was little they could do and accepted the situation. Zuo stayed optimistic, focusing on the positives of the situation. “They let everyone chat with each other and go outside for bathroom breaks and food, and it felt a lot better. The crash may have made me feel a bit more tired, but honestly, it was fine,” Zuo commented. Like other students, though, Zuo had doubts about the school’s decision to have the students wait. “It was unnerving to think about how we’d finish late,” Zuo said. “I questioned if I would have enough energy for the test.”

Students who self-studied the course and took the test outside of Stuyvesant reported having smoother experiences with the exam. Sophomore Shirley Liu, who took the exam at a different school, was informed that the test would be rescheduled to another day. Liu shared, “I was given clear instructions after the disruption. They simply told me to come in at the allotted time and date for the make-up exam. [The] school offered a make-up exam on an exception testing date, and they simply told me to come in on that day.” After the late exam was administered, the AP did not have any issues, and the test seemed mostly unchanged.  “The process for the make-up test was fair and smooth. The test was at the same difficulty that I expected, and there were no Bluebook errors when I took it,” Liu stated.

Some students who took the later make-up exam believe that the crash allowed them to better prepare for the test. Liu said, “The crash was a huge relief to me because I had been cramming last-minute, and the crash gave me an extra two weeks to study.” Additionally, she believed that the delay ultimately benefited her performance on the actual test. “I feel like my performance was boosted because I was given so much extra time to study, which allowed me to further solidify my knowledge before taking the make-up exam,” Liu said. 

However, some students who took the exam on May 12 preferred it to taking the make-up test, despite the more limited studying time. Although the test was administered very late in the day, Huang was glad that she was able to finish the test and get it over with. “If the exam got rescheduled, I would have forgotten everything. I had a lot of things I needed to do in May and early June, so I was glad to get it done that Friday so I could focus my efforts on my other plans,” Huang reflected. 

As a result of the crash, many questioned the College Board’s handling of the situation and how it could have been better. “I understand it being an unforeseen technical [issue] and therefore [College Board] can’t promise anyone whether or not testing will start at all,” Zuo said. However, Zuo also believed that the College Board’s monitoring and response to the emergency were lacking, especially considering that this was their first year utilizing online testing. “I think they need to be more transparent with things like this in the future,” Zuo said.

The exam crash also sparked a wider conversation about the reliability of new online AP exams. “This issue has made me realize that standardized testing can be prone to issues that might be an inconvenience to some people or give some people an unfair advantage. I hope the College Board can maintain its application better because it was an inconvenience to many students and schools. The College Board was unhelpful when [the] school’s administrators were trying to reach out to them for assistance,” Liu remarked. However, Liu also believes that one exam should not affect the entire credibility of online AP exams as a whole. Liu said, “I trust the digital exam format for future AP tests since this was one of the only issues that occurred, and it wasn’t a major issue.”

Ultimately, the AP Psychology examination did not go as smoothly as many had hoped. The situation was unprecedented and unpredictable, and ultimately called many things into question, from the ability of the school to make emergency decisions to the crisis preparedness of the College Board to the reliability of digital testing technology. Although some students were left exhausted from the experience and wished things had gone differently, the 2025 AP Psychology examination serves as a memorable experience for test-takers and a reminder of the limitations of new technology for all.