Greetings from European PTA!
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On April 4th, The College Board​ released the 2020 AP Exam testing schedule in an email sent to all AP students. It announced that this year's exams will be taken online due to the COVID-19 pandemic on May 11-22, 2020. Each subject’s exam will be taken online on the same day at the same time, worldwide, at either 12pm, 2pm, or 4pm Eastern Time. 

Unfortunately, this scheduling policy is not reasonable for our Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) ​ students living overseas. Given the importance of these exams and the potential for college credit, it is not fair to expect our students to take them at such late or early hours when they won’t be at their academic best. Just look at these examples of where our DoDEA Europe and DoDEA Pacific students fall on the current AP Exam timeline: 


  • The United Kingdom: 5pm, 7pm, and 9pm

  • Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Benelux: 6pm, 8pm, and 10pm

  • Turkey: 7pm, 9pm, and 11pm

  • Bahrain: 8pm, 10pm, and 12am

  • Japan and South Korea: 1am, 3am, and 5am

  • Guam: 2am, 4am, and 6am


European PTA reached out to The College Board today with a letter of concern detailing the issues that U.S. students living overseas face under this inequitable testing arrangement. It is our sincere hope that The College Board will correct this issue before testing begins by providing alternate testing times so that our students overseas won't have to take these important exams in less than optimal conditions.

In the meantime, we are asking our members and stakeholders in our overseas military communities and around the world to add their voices to our call to action. You can do that in several ways:


  • Reach out to The College Board directly via email at apstudents@info.collegeboard.org or via phone at 212-632-1780 to share your concerns about online testing times for U.S. students living overseas. Tell them how this discrepancy in time zones will impact your students and others like them when they're already operating in unorthodox conditions due to COVID-19. You can also reach out directly to the head of the AP program, Trevor Packer, at tpacker@collegeboard.org.


  • Tweet about it using @CollegeBoard, @APforStudents, and @AP_Trevor and the hashtags #PTATakesAction and #EquityOverseas.

  • Add your name to this petition that asks The College Board to allow separate start times for students living overseas.

  • Share this action alert with your schools, your communities, and your friends and family members around the world so that they can add their voices as well! We have posts on Facebook and Twitter that are ready to share in just a click.

AP testing begins on Monday, May 11th, so we need you to take action today in the hope that we can find an equitable resolution for our overseas students. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me via email if you have any questions or if you receive a response that you'd like to share. Any assistance that you can give us in our advocacy efforts would be greatly appreciated!


Sincerely,


Kris Garst
European PTA Vice President for Legislation