Seniors Mary Lepique, Nicole Maus, Maura Knopke and Bailey Mitchell took the AP United States history exam in May but never received their scores.

According to college counselor Debi Hudson, who has been in contact with AP, “their short answer booklets from their exam are lost,” wrote Hudson.

AP lost 20% of the exam or the short answer portion, according to Hudson.

History teacher Craig Whitney explained exactly what the short answer portion entails. “See this one’s 1765, the revolutionary period,” said Whitney, flipping through an exam study book. He goes through the short answer portion to emphasize the breadth of the section and specialized knowledge needed to do well. “It’s not easy,” said Whitney.

According to AP and the Educational Testing Service, the retest policy for US History is to retake the entire exam, not just the missing section(s). The students were given the option to either retake the entire test or get a refund. Hudson has petitioned the policy and is waiting to hear more.

“It’s just ridiculous,” said Knopke. “They expect students to take a test over material that we learned a year ago,” she said, “I’ve forgotten that information.”

Knopke explains that because of their all-or-nothing retest policy, she will not be re-taking the test.

Knopke goes on about how her parents reacted. “They were really mad,” said Knopke. “We deserve a fair situation. We did everything right.”

Whitney concurs in saying that the students affected must have been “devastated.”

“There’s an element of anger but really it’s just disappointment,” said Whitney.  

Knopke repeats how frustrating this is, especially because she was confident she had done well.

“It’s just really unfortunate that we have to pay for someone else’s mistake.”

Hudson is still in contact with AP and hopes to know more by the end of the week.

“At this time there is no resolution,” wrote Hudson.